bbphill

Hi all. New to the forums. Straight to my question.

Is it possible / advisable to put bullhorn bars on an FX 7.3? Further could you use the exisiting shifters and brake levers?

Here's the backstory. I haven't ridden a bike since I was a little kid but seeing as how my father-in-law is an avid road biker and is found at the LBS pretty often, I stopped by finally to have a look see. I was planning on getting an idea of what size of Wally-World-Special I should get but after a test ride on a commuter/hybrid or two, I was a convert. After a few more trips and a decent amount of research (a lot on this site!) I put the scratch down for my LBS to order a 7.3 in my size. I loved the FX series most of all for it's aggressive styling. I am not sold on the stem/bars and after reading about the barends and ergons I realize that I wasn't the first to want to tinker with an otherwise good thing. I wanted to have more hand options eventually but didn't feel the ergons were quite my style. I rode around on my father-in-laws old Trek roadbike and decided that my first(fun) bike was not going to have drops. Just not a fan yet, I guess. I was thinking how rare bullhorn bars are in my area and how I liked their somewhat 'mean' look. I was thinking I might make the swap after I get some miles on my FX. I just wanted to know what I was getting myself into.

Thanks in advance for the help/advice. You guys have a cool thing going on here!

qmsdc15

I like where you're going with this...

mikeybikes

Can definitely put bull horns on your bicycle.

Need to figure out what to do about brake levers and what to do about shifters. Would probably need a new stem.

Overall, not too bad a job.

bbphill

Update:

To give you an idea, I'll have the "Shimano EF60 trigger, 8 speed" shifters stock and EF60 levers. Flipping through the Spec PDFs from Shimano, it reads a max handlebar of 32mm. The question then is what is the minimum?

Reason being: Bullhorn "straight" bar?

Bugeater

If you're getting rid of your flat bar, I'd be more than happy to aquire it from you. I just got a used Sirrus, but the bar had been changed to a riser bar. I like the bullhorn look, but I'll probably go with the Ergon GC3 grips.

msr2009

I did this about two weeks ago, and have been quite happy with it.

I was pretty much in the same position as you. I wanted to get farther extended, as well as bring my hands in and get more positions (I'd already chopped about an inch off each side of the flat-bar a while ago).

Sorry for no pictures, but here's how it went.

Bought these handlebars (how old is your 7.3? Mine is a 2008, and it fits a 25.4mm (1 inch, exactly) handlebar.) Picked up some bar tape as well.

The next part is the tricky part. My brake/shifters did not fit onto the bars, so I bought a long cylindrical file and filed down the inside of the connections until they fit. Slid them onto the bars, and wrapped the bars. The only issue is that you end up with a lot of extra cable housing, which I suppose could affect brake and shifting performance, but I haven't had much trouble with it. I will probably end up getting it cut down a bit, though.

I'm thinking that if I like this outfit, I may end up putting some bar-end shifters on.

bbphill

Msr2009, Did you have to file down both the shifters and the brake levers? I'm getting a 2010 and the brake levers changed from ef50 to ef60 though that may not make any difference. With filing you were able to get them on the 25mm bar only after removing the set screw completely? Was there a problem getting them around the "bend" on the horns? I assume you went with the 25mm horns to avoid changing stems. I was thinking of swapping to the 26mm and getting an adjustable stem to find the right angle for riding the fx "by the horns" :-D. Any reason to avoid the adjustable stems?

mikeybikes

Some people have great luck with them.

Me on the other hand, terrible luck. No matter how tight I'd get that bolt, the stem would always move down when I hit bumps.

msr2009

My set-up has the shifting mechanism attached to the brake levers - so only one set of filing was needed. I was worried about getting them around the bend, but realized I can just rotate them to under the bar to get them around - easy as cake.

bbphill

Msr2009, mind putting up a pic or two so I can see how it ended up? ::begs and pleads::

Terrierman

RE: Adjustable stems:

My Coda has a Ritchey adjustable stem. It is splined and there is no way for it to move unintentionally. You have to completely disassemble it to change the angle. The only disadvantage to the Ritchey stem is that it does weigh a few more grams than a fixed angle stem, and the aesthetics, there is no way to make an adjustable stem that looks the same as a fixed angle stem.