Before I flip my road bars and cut them down I thought I would survey the group and get some thoughts.

I really like the way bull horns look - WK's has the perfect look. But not having ridden with those I wonder about comfort, braking ability (sorry, I am going SS first) and brake lever placement.

With the regular road bar set up I know what I am getting, but don't know what I am missing out on.

Any thoughts?

The ones I got were cheap. I'll give you plus and minus, and let you make your own call:

Plus:
30 bucks at my door with brake handles. (www.chucksbikes.com)
Allows me to strech out (my preferd posistion).
Somewhat flexible, acts as a shock in many ways.


Minus.
Can be uncomfortable if you don't like to be streched out.
Flexible can be scary at speed, in turns.
Act as skewers if you impact pedestrian.


If I were to do it over again, I might spend more cash and get a better set.
The way to think about if you like it or not: how much time do you spend "in the drops" versus how long you spend "on the hoods". And judge from there.

I found riding on the horns (similar to hoods) is much easier, but lever placement is definately an issue. I went through a bar end lever, an aero lever and finally a cross-style top lever before I got something that worked and was comfortable. Aero levers are particularly difficult to set up, because the cable wants to 'up' from the lever, but with bullhorns it needs to go 'down'. Nokon cables or a noodle might solve this, or just running the cable out in front of the bars instead of under the tape.

I've got both and like both. I don't run brakes, so can't help you there.

How's that for a useless post?

i prefer bullhorns on my road bike. i mounted my STIs right on the end where you'd expect them to be and it feels great. like i'm in command of a starship or something.

i've tried them on my track bikes, and i can see how people would like them, but i prefer either track drops or risers. on my pursuit bike, they looked great and felt comfortable hand position-wise, but that bike is already super low to the ground, so having 'horns with a 2" drop on that was...kind of overkill for riding on the street, plus i always felt like i was gonna end up going over the bars when i'd skid. zero rake, 650c fork + putting all of your weight on a point PAST the front wheel = DERRRRRRR CRUNCH! on my other bikes though, they feel alright. i just have them on the roadie because i can't STAND road drops and i don't like braking from the hoods.

My original intent in building up my fixie was to run bullhorns, but the operating budget didn't allow it from the start. My old drop bars are good, and I'm starting to think that I'll just keep them on. I like being in the drops on windy days. That said, I'm still gonna try bullhorns someday, or a mustache bar.

I have the chucksbikes bullhorns too, with the tektro levers, the levers work well, the bullhorns though like WK says are flexy, and I prefer them stiff. Keep on feeling i'm gonna break em whenever I hit a hill. Bullhorns do look sweet though and who needs the drops for city riding?

I'm thinking of cutting my bullhorns down a bit though, They are long bars so you may need a shorter stem, personally I've never been as comfy on them as my road bars, but then I'd prefer zero drop bars. It might help if I swapped out for a shorter stem, but I need a front opening one, and finding cheap cinelli frog's is hard to do.

If I were yours I'd either just cut your road bars, or go to the LBS pick up a spare one from the spare parts bin and hack that one instead.

I have tried them all. Just looked at all my bikes (7) and there is one with bullhorns and (6) with Drops. I have tried various bullhorns and the only one that is comfortable to me is the Nitto with a 2-1/2" drop to it.I think ist is the 019 model but I am not sure of the number. I also have to use a shorter stem (80mm) with the bullhorns, rather than (100mm) for the drop bars. All things considered I think I prefer drop bars, if numbers tell the tale. It is a rather personal decision.


fixedgearhead

Since I liked this particular set up very much, I set up another fixie similarly. It's an old time trial bar with several inches of the ends cut off. The ends used to shoot straight out. Angling the ends up give me a much more comfortable grip without having to cock my wrists as I did with standard bullhorns. Definitely more hand positions than standard bullhorns. Using a shorter than normal stem definitely helps. Lever is a cyclocross lever.

oh yeah, i have a shorter stem with mine too..it's a salsa, 90 degree rise stem, and i think it's the shortest size they make. i have the old school mavic TT bars, that have a pretty deep drop to them.

I use the Profile AirWing bars - with the levers that go with it. https://www.absenter.org/dropbox/bike/01.jpg

I've never been comfortable with drops so bullhorns has always been my first choice. Depending on how wide your shoulderspan is I'd look into either buying a pair (wider) or hacking some drops (smaller widthspan).

Like William said, you can stretch out and if you have a short stem/quill like I do it, it's nice to have the various hand positions and you don't get that stretched out feeling so much.

As for flexibility, I think the Profiles might be not as flexible as the ones from Chucksbikes, or at least don't seem to have the same level of negavtives.

or you could try something a little different like the 3t moscow:



fssb
sparky

eo: blame - music takes you [blim remix]

I love bullhorns. I use basic Profile Designs Stoker and also found that I needed a shorter stem than when I used drops....like 3cm shorter. I rode the brake hoods all of the time and found the bullhorns more comfortable for me.

Jim

BTW my girlfriend loves them and my friend Al is now riding stokers too.

I enjoy how the bullhorns feel like higher placed drops but more comforting to your hands, at least on my set up. For what it's worth.

I dig bulls. That said I recently bought a parts bike and it came with a nice set of road drops that I didn't need so I decided to try them. I might like them better.
I think to some extent it depends on the bike. On my kogswell the bars are only about 2-3 inches below the saddle so I can use the tops and the hoods and the drops and it's all good. On my Pinarello, the bars are 6-7 inches below the saddle and drops on that bike aren't very useful at all, so bulls really seem to be the way to go. Try both, see how they feel.

I think I'll take a number of these suggestions and see what feels right once I have it back together. I know I like the look of bullhorns, but if I am going to feel too stretched out, even with a short stem, I'll stick with what I have.

Thanks for all the input.

Any idea who made it?

I believe these are ITM's.

George