we are talking about handlebars here. Not someones Big deck like on blue collar tv.

I say go all the way. Just make the stem come straight up, with a grip, kinda like a helicopter. One hand only. Then you could play bike polo AND bike jousting.

is that a drop?

Yep. Sawed off, and turned on its side!

I wonder if/how they shimmed it... a standard bar diameter is 24mm, so it'd have to be shimmed up to at least 25.4mm. Though, I suppose with the tight curve you'd have three points of contact inside the stem clamp: two on the outside edges and one right in middle at the apex of the curve. Maybe the curve's enough to just hamfist that bolt until the whole rig holds... but three points of contact and the possibility of the clamp edge digging into the bar seems like a recipe for disaster.

That setup loks ultra-badass, but I thought about that shady clamping too.

Just thought of this...

Yojimbo's has some funky-lookin' bars that could be modified for some super-narrow drop-style bars... like, 30cm wide or so. They're hard to describe... imagine a pair of drop bars, but at the ends they take a 90 degree turn and flare outwards another 6 inches. If you cut the flares off, they'd be pretty sweet.

Marcus - what kind of bars are these? They're on that little table underneath the wheels (right under your bronze CXP-21 wheel, if I remember), they're steel, and they cost $14.50. I thought they were Nitto's, but maybe not...

If you look at the photo there's some pretty obvious gapping between the back of the "bar" and the clamp. Then again it's also short a front wheel, probably for safety's sake. ;)

If you're going to go that far you might as well not even put handlebars in. You can just grab on to the stem and steer it that way.

Or maybe you could just thread some rope through and use it like reigns and get some real horse ridin' polo action.

Oh damn, that actually sounds like a fantastic idea! I really wish I had a pop top stem so I could easily swap bars.

Pull the bars, rotate the stem 180 degrees (trail will keep your steering sort of stable), get some rope. Yeah!

Front wheel is locked with the frame, because everyone knows that bike theives LOVE bikes with only a drop for a handlebar...

i love that theres a back brake... safety first!

Might be an SS