Salsa Cowbell flex?
 

I'm considering a Salsa Cowbell to replace a 42cm Spesh drop bar. Looking for more comfort.

I have an old mountain bike with XLC butterfly bars. An unforeseen benefit of the bars is that they soak up road bumps. Lots of flex in the bars.

Does anyone with the Cowbell notice any road bump reducing flex? If yes, how wide are your bars?

have a pair of cowbells, but honestly, I can't comment on what you are wondering--for a few reasons, one-they are on a steel framed bike that has more "give" than my alu framed dropbar bike with specialized alu bars on it, and two-the cowbell bike has minimum 40mm tires on it, up to 50mm, so all in all, its such a different beast that I havent a clue how the cowbells compare in this regard.

my gut feeling is that I dont think they are that diff from my Tricross bars, I say this from the feeling of when I sprint for a light or whatever and haul on the drops--mind you, Im a skinny little not strong guy, so your mileage may vary.

I do however really, really like the slight flareout of the cowbells, as well as the shallow drop. If I were to build up another dropbar bike, I'd get another set in a minute.
I also spent about two months riding the cowbell bike this winter on a long trip, and have continued riding this bike a fair amount, I've ridden close to 6000km on this bike this year and still really like how the bars feel and ride.

pretty certain mine are 42s.

cheers

I have the Cowbell 2 and don't really notice any flex. I run 3mm bar tape on them and they're 42mm wide. The Cowbell 3 are a different aluminum, and lighter I guess, but don't really know about them.

the "3's" are the cheaper, heavier ones.

but frankly, at 50% more cost and only 20g diff in weight (281 vs 301) I just went with the cheaper ones and figured on my fully loaded touring bike if I thoroughly blew my nose, I'd lighten the bike by 20g.....

I put a Cowbell handlebar on my stiff Cannondale aluminum touring bike before a 900 mile tour this summer which included the GAP and C&O trails. I got the lowest priced model, in a 44 cm width (on top, the drops are wider). I didn't notice any flex at all - they felt just like any other handlebars I've used.

You're right. I'm backwards. I have the 3's.

I think up here in Canada they cost me 60 or 65, but again, really nice slight flareout that I found to compliment a front heavy touring bike for nice quick downhill steering changes so around potholes etc. Highly recommend them over a regular drop bar shape.

I am currently running a Jones Bar on my Salsa Fargo and it was a poor decision, even with the foam grips there is a lot of vibration. I did test ride a Fargo with the cowbell bars and it seemed to be more comfortable. Which version of the cowbell should I go with?

I dunno, sounds like more of a tire pressure thing. Ive only played around on my wifes xs troll with jones bars, and 2.5 extraterrestrials on it at lowish pressures to medium max, so not a lot of experience, but I cant see how your jones are more vibrationy than other bars to be honest.

like I said, if you want to try cowbells, Id suggest trying to visit a store where they have them and the wider ones, the cowchippers and whateve r the other ones are, to be able to hold them in your hand and get a better real life idea of riding position of the varying flareouts.

and in any case, on rough surfaces, I wonder how drops wouild be on long , rough and tough days. , on slow climbs etc, I just havent done enough of this riding to know or compare.

to repeat, to me the 20g lighter cowbells dont really make sense to me.

to go back to what you said about the jones, id really look into pressures that other folks are running on the same tires you have, for a given rider weight and stuff weight, all I can say is that sometimes just a bit less pressure makes a huge diff in rider ride quality re vibrations etc.

in the end, its up to you.

My mistake, I tried the Fargo with the cowchipper handlebars.

I run my 2.35 MTB tires at 40lbs and for most surfaces that is just fine. However when riding on some of the logging roads which have been filled with 2-3" rock or riding single track, there is a lot of vibration and the angle of the Jones bar just seems a little strange.

Im sure its fairly easy to check out some forums with tour divide riders who can give good pressure info for given tires, widths and weights. I dont have the experience offroad, All I know is running 2in slicks on my troll with two full front panniers and a handlebar bag I was usually using about 40-42 on paved roads , some rough, and that worked pretty good for me, at 135lbs rider weight.

40psi seems high to me for those tires, but hey, make sure your gauge is accurate and do a bunch of tests, no internet blah blah compares to you doing stuff yourself and getting a feel for what x feels like and what x-5psi etc etc ....