I recently came across this article https://dirtmountainbike.com/bike-re...ucts-ever.html which states that bar ends are one of the worst mountain bike products ever.

I've always been a Road Bike/BMXer so maybe I'm missing something, but I always thought bar ends made a MTB look incredibly cool!

Back in the 90's when I had my first MTB, I had bar ends installed. I found them handy as I'd rest my arms on them on long trips, and the couple times I fell off I found they protected my hands and break levers.

Fast forward 20 yrs and I get my slightly older Trek for cheap, and the first thing I'd like to do is install bar ends. Except my LBS doesn't even stock them! They tell me they have to special order them because basically no one wants them.
I even noticed that the handle bars on new bikes seem a tab bit shorter, and bar ends would have trouble fitting.

What's your guys opinions on bar ends?

The main downside is that they can catch branches and spin your handlebars in crazy fashion. Bad for tight tree/bush lined areas (like BC). If you mostly ride in open areas and do lots of climbing they may have an advantage.

That article is three years old, given the trendiness of the MTB world, bar ends could be back in style any day now!

FWIW, I still use them for all the reasons you listed, especially because they look cool.

Check out the small horn Ergons..

I was just reading that bar ends are banned from some group rides because of the fear they might hook onto another rider...

But when I was google image searching for some cool looking bar ends for my Trek I came across this!!



From a thread from 2015 suggesting that for safety everyone should have bar ends, or at least plugs.

They are not uncool. They work very well when your climbing and need leverage.
26 inch bikes are also uncool today.....I have one with barendd so I am 100℅ uncool.

This subject comes up every few months

Agree there not totally un-cool, but in the right circumstances.

If you have an older MTB, with 540/560mm handlebars, they are very useful for additional leverage, but on a newer bike, with a minimum of 680mm bars, there have limited to no use, as the extra leverage isn't needed, and there are the issues of catching trailside objects as already mentioned.

Would look at how many people you see riding with barend today, suspect very few, if any unless they are riding older bikes.

There are alternatives now available , like Togs, which are more for the endurance (not Enduro) or XC riders, both now relatively niche markets.

I couldn't care less about the cool/uncool rating.
I'm marginally impressed by the leverage theory.
I like them mainly b/c they allow a thumbs-forward grip option, which I find more comfortable for general riding purposes.

Handlebar plugs are essential really. Much harder to jamb a bar through your leg if the bar is plugged...
As for why bar ends aren't popular on MTBs now, they aren't that much use in the bush, you can't change gears when using them. The kind of people who rode MTBs with bar ends used them on road, there are much more suited bikes like hybrids, gravel grinders etc etc now that do the same thing.

I actually don't think it matters for full-on impalement injuries.
A bar end plug would protect against the bar punching a core out of what it hits, but that's generally not what happens during impalement type injuries. Usually, a tube/pipe about bar diameter will punch through muscle just as if it was a solid rod.
End plugs will lessen the damage if you hit somewhere where its basically skin-over-bone. Kneecaps, chest bone, skull, that kind of thing. May also protect some against a grazing type impact.

Anyhow, end plugs won't aggravate an injury, which makes using them better than not.

They catch trees. You'll be riding along fine for years, then one moment of inattention and you're on the ground.

Ergon GP2's make everything cool.

I don't think bar ends are uncool, but I prefer mounting them on the inside of the grip. Currently I run Ergon GP5 bar ends with the stops ground out so they slide onto the handlebar before the grip. This gets them out of the "catch-on-things" zone.



SQ Labs even makes an "inner" bar end specific product:

https://themtblab.com/2016/08/review-...-sy-grips.html

I find them very comfortable on long steady climbs and while rolling the flats for distance. Always nice to have additional hand positions to avoid fatigue too.

It's not that they are uncool, just unnecessary. Modern MTBs have wide bars that provide ample leverage. I don't like them as I feel it makes negotiating tight spaces harder. I'm indifferent to using bar ends on my shorter barred bikes. I imagine if I had some real climbs I might want them, but my local trails are easy enough to pop into a lower gear and spin to the top.

The writer of that article is delusional --- and it is purely personal opinion

YEs the sport has evolved, and bikes have evolved but a lot of the things he is singling out are par for the course for the time ---

HE has toe clips and straps on his list, as well as long stems

URT suspension was a good design for its time as well

BAr ends are great, they kept your hands from going to sleep by giving you multiple positions,

I like bar ends for bikepacking because it's usually not all single track and it's nice to move the hands around.

For regular mountain biking, I don't see much need for them. I need my hands where they can touch the brakes and thumb triggers.

Bar ends could snag things, but not nearly as much as the ultra wide bars now in fashion. When you can stand up and climb on a surface with good traction they allow you to "road bike" climb and use your upper body more effectively. They give you other hand positions on long rides. In the 1990s really wide bars were considered dorky by everyone "in with the in crowd". In the flat-bar-with-bar-ends era I would recommend 22" to 23" width to customers getting into the sport seeking advice for single track woods riding.

i've never snagged my bar ends on a tree. but i have had them hit a tree and protect my hand.

it seems like if you had no bar ends, but rode in such a fashion as you WOULD catch them on a tree, you're still gonna smack your bar and fingers on a tree and end up crashing.

You want the kind that curve inward. Those protect your hands. The nubby ones that just stick forward a few inches are the dangerous kind.

Hitting a tree with no bar end and it usually bounces off. I've never had a problem recovering. I even lost the end cap of my Easton lock on grips to a tree hit but I didn't fall.

Yeah do what you want. I personally like bar ends, but then I'm old and don't care what other people think, I tend towards..how do you say it... oh, that's right, things that work for me. Personally, going up hill I find them to give me another position and they're worth it for that alone, or when I'm cycling along a low technical trail they give me a break. FWIW I use Profile Stubbies as I quickly found out I didn't need them longer than that. I've never given any thought to leverage, just to comfort and hand position.

Concerning the "hooking trees" argument, I'm sure that happens. But I cycle in woods and I think in 25 years it may have happened once, maybe twice. Given what they give me, that's a fine trade off for me. As for riding in a group and hooking particularly on the average width trails I go on, well I call that complete BS. If you have people riding that close to you, well, I'd be thinking about things other than my bar ends.

Bottom line is do what you like -don't let a bunch of idiots tell you what's cool. Be your own person and figure out what works for you.

Edit: to be fair, that link of the OP does have some incredibly bad products in it -and I did have a shiver of horror of recalling some of the things: elastomer suspension, toe clips, suspension stems, etc

While there is an "uncool" aspect to them, the reason they are much less common now is because wide bars make them less needed and less useful.

I loved my bar ends in the late 90s when I was running 560mm wide bars. If I wanted to stand an hammer, they gave great leverage on climbs.

However, as I went wider with my bar, I noticed I was using them less. For one, the wider bars just made me need them less, and when I did try to use them, they were too far apart. Now I am at 750mm, and they would feel very awkward to use at this point.

Now, for a flat bar road bike, where I might run a narrower bar, I would likely put bar ends on them.

They do hook onto stuff but with wide bars now (750-780 is my preference...I have long arms and kinda broad shoulders) eliminate the need for bar ends, especially on 29ers. I have not used them in over ten years and never felt a need for them. They do look uncool and seriously old-fashioned so that is also why most will not use them, even if they did benefit the ride.

Hah! I used to use these for the longest time, and still have a couple of pairs hanging in my garage. Loved em!



A little to narrow for what I like these days though.

Are those AT3 bars?
My wife has a Scott rigid mtb with AT2 bars. They are great for what she uses the bike for at this point- family rides to the park, grocery runs, etc.
I think they are great. I had a GT with their version of that style bar. Forget what it was called...backwoods or something like that?

Yeah! Mine was an AT3 LF (the LF stood for "Lite Flite" or something like that, and it just meant it was butted or something, to make it lighter. And it was lighter than any bar/bar end combo of the time.

They also made an AT2 in which the bars didn't wrap around as far, but I thought those might be more aggressive tree hooks.

And I think the AT1 was just a straight bar without the ends.