I am working on an old Triumph that someone decided to put ape-hanger bars on. I've got a Soma Sparrow bar on it's way and am thinking of mounting it upside down. I'd love to see pics of your city-style bike to see if that's the way I'll go, or if I'll just leave them traditional.

Many thanks!

Photos of my current winter bike, a bianchi hybrid with some modifications. The handlebars are Nitto albatross

here's a flipped wald bar:

These are SR bars, iirc, on my Velo Cheapo (since sold):



Neal

What's the point of flipped bars with extreme rise stems? Seems azzbackwards.

Probably just the look.

I'm putting an old road quill stem on my Triumph, and I have drop bars on my other bikes ('cept the mountain bike).

I don't think I can go wrong either way (flipped or upright) on my bar...

Here are a few shots of an old chrome plated steel bar I had mounted on... yep, an old chrome plated steel French track bike.

In this case, the frame size combined with the reach and drop of this stem and handlebar bar really happened to work out perfectly for me. Drop bars felt simply too deep and would have been impractical any sort of riding around town, the bar in an upright position felt very awkward on this bike.

I think the setup also looked pretty Kool on the bike... almost like something from the early 1900s.


The brake is a very cheap old Weinmann 500 sidepull and the reverse lever is a Dia-Compe 188 so I could sometimes use a wheel with a 14-18 freewheel and "manually" (in the literal sense) change gears for steep hills... or when I was just feeling lazy.

Flipped down


Flipped up

I'll ask that again and more. why put 'ape hangars' on upside down? can you steer that way? by ape hangars I assume he means the bars like were on old stingrays?

Here's my rebuilt Raleigh Sports with flipped bars:

Who are you referring to? Me?
The previous owner put the ape hangers on, but not upside down... I don't think I inferred that...
Yes, "ape hangers" are the old Stingray style of bars.

I'll probably donate my old bar to some guy that wants to make a "low rider" bike. There are plenty of those here in the Phoenix area.

This is what the Triumph will end up looking like. I've got a repro hairpin saddle, though.

That a GREAT comparison! I think I'll stay with my original plan to flip the bar.

Plus, I'm adding repro rat trap pedals with clips & straps!

If I understand the OP correctly, someone else put apehangers on the bike. The plan is to remove those and to replace them with flipped Sparrrow bars.

You can get one hell of an aero drop--you have to rest your chin on the stem.

bbattle that bike looks absolutely great! Great both ways... I can't decide which set-up I prefer they both look wonderful. Everything blends together perfectly either way. Amazing what can be done with just a simple old steel frameset... and solid inspired vision. Great use of black accents against the white frame color, too!

BRAVO!


BTW: Just curious... are those modern dual pivot Tektro long reach brake calipers?

Why? North road bars are beautiful right side up, why cant you just get a nitto moustache bar if you like the look. To me, flipping North roads is like flipping drops.

Except when I was a kid, we didn't call them "ape hangers." Problem is, now I can't remember what we called them. Does anybody a different name for these bars?

Nah, flipped drops just look stoopid. Flipped North roads look smart.

"armpit dryers" rings a bell.

IIRC, we just called them "high rise".

I remember calling them 'high rise' handlebars. But maybe they went by other names as well.

I've since had to replace the B66 as it had started to tear and was uncomfortable to ride. I put a Pre-Aged B17 on the bike. It rides lovely and is great around town with just enough drop that I am not sitting bolt upright into the headwinds.

A Raleigh Int'l I built up a few years back:

Flipped with tilt for comfort...