I'm not sure what the hand positions on the bar are called, so lets call...
Front = hand position closest to the rider, most upright
Sides = obvious
Rear = hand position furthest from the rider, more forward leaning, aero

Most pics of setups show the brakes on the front position. So if your hands are in the rear position, how do you brake quickly? Do you try and lift up against gravity and rush your hands back to the front position? Or do you just avoid the rear position?
Seems to me that the only way i would like these bars would be to have dual brake levers, one set on the front and another on the rear. Good or bad idea?
Anyone with experience with these bars find it sometimes difficult to quickly grab the brake lever?

rmwun54, we need a close-up picture of your handlebars, to go along with you description. Sounds great though.

I'll look into posting a close up, hows that.

You posted two picture of your full bike, (which enlarge when you click on them) just post a picture taken of only your handlebars.

rmwun54,
you have an interesting setup and your enthusiasm for it makes me want to give it a try. But like gregw said, a 3rd pic of just the bars would be useful because it's hard to see the bars in the pics above. And how did you extend the brake levers? Is there a name for the lever's extender?
I smell a contest brewing between butterfly bars and my beloved drops.

Okay I'll do that.

Here is a pic. And a site for the part.

https://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=516

Would bar end shifters on the "inside" work, with something like Dia-Compe 287 brake levers attached on the bend from "side" to "front"?
It looks like it would, and might be a good solution.

Why would you do that? Because if you look closely I am using XT shifter system.

Because I wasn't referring to your bike, but to the original poster's bike. You've obviously found a solution that works nicely for you, but the original post was asking about the braking action and weight shifting involved with reaching the close brake levers quickly if the situation demanded it. So. That was just an idea, and if it worked, would not necessitate any add-ons/modification outside of the existing hardware. Dia Compe brake levers on the second bend, and bar-cons on the "ends" (inside). The bar-cons would also be considerably less bulky than shift pods.

The only concern would be if the bar-cons are small enough to fit in a 22.2 sized bar, as the Nashbar butterfly is that size. I don't know...from what I understand about bar-cons, is they are smaller than 23.8, and then have a screw that expands the inside "grip".

I also use butterfly bars and like them a lot. If your happy with drop bars though I wouldn't say that butterfly bars are a replacement for them though. There more of a superiour alternative to flat bars.

Here's my setup,



and



Now to start with I LIKE braking from the closer position so it works for me. If I'm in a situation where I think I might need to brake quickly I will be in position. The sides to me are like being on the hoods and the forward position is my equivelent to being in the drops. I don't have any issues in going to the brakes from the other hand positions but a little forethought is handy.

Regards, Anthony

The bike you see here is my road bike. I'm using this as the exaple because the levers on my Giant was changed to a lever that was no longer sold. But the one on the Bianchi; the lever extender is still available. So if you want the set up look up the site that I had posted earlier. Hope this help. As for the modification of the extender, well that is something I could show you how to do later if desired.

And my mtb.

Has anyone ever tried mounting aerobars on trekking bars? I see Wallingford bike sells a product now that is somewhat simular to aero-trekking bars but I find them lacking in that they do not come with arm rests or hand grips on the end.

https://www.wallbike.com/content/JPG/itmsynergo.jpg

If I did this I would prefer to get something from Profile Design, perhaps the Century. I wonder if there is enough room in the middle of trekking bars to mount.

Just a thought.

Well what you've linked to is an entire handlebar in itself, not an add on. It wouldn't be easy to mount controls to though and this is one of the good design features of butterfly bars. The controls go straight on as easy as pie.

Butterfly/trekking bars have a kind of aero position anyway without modification. You simply grab the front of the bar and rest your forearms on the rear part of the bar. It may not be as comfortable as a dedicated setup but its quite serviceable. This is all dependant on the angle you set the bar at and its reach of course.

Regards, Anthony

Apart from rmrun54's solution, does anyone feel they need a second brake lever in the front/aero position? isn't it hard to rush back to the upright position if you need to brake quickly?

Well look closely at my set up; I came up with a solution for that. Its my own invention and it works awesome.

I know the picture could be bigger but then I have to pay for the upgraded membership don't I. But let me just say this; I am using an extender on the brake lever that I have found on the internet and have modified it so that it is extended further out whereby I can now brake in all three positions that you are speaking of. I have been using this set up for about seven years now and have imporved it constantly to a point where I think it is perfect now. In fact some of my friends and family members liked it so much that I would say about 8 of them now have the same set up. I myself have three bikes set up this way: a road bike, a mountain bike and the Giant touring bike that you see here. And yeah you are right the three positions work exactly like you say it does; the first position allows you to sit up in a relax manner, the second position gives you the bar end grip, and the third position allows for an arero position if you set it up correctly; where the third position stis a little lower than the first position; where you can rest your arms on the first position while gripping the third position. To me this is the most versitle, comfortable, and just make sense set up you can have on a bike, where all three types of hand position is available while riding. Aero, bar ends, and upright sitting; what more is there.
And as you can see I like modifying my bikes to where it works the way I want too, like the Giant you see here, it is a touring road bike; but if you look closely you'll see that I have a suspension fork on it. It is a '29er fork where I am using 700c rims on it with 700x32c cross tires. Which means I can ride on fire roads very comfortably when decending. I also have a road triple on it; a 53-39-24 crank and a 12-34 cog. I can ride it like a road bike or like a mountain bike; very versitle I have to say. And one more thing on this bike I have disc brakes so when I grab the lever up front, it only needs a light touch to really slow my decending when needed. But this set up work's quite well on v-brakes also, and on road brakes too. So I don't see any problems with stopping with either v-brakes or road brakes which my other two bikes have and those whom I have set up with. It stops on a dime when I'm up front.

To everyone who owns these bars..... Got any pictures of your set up? I just got my Butterfly bars and I have a handlebar bag I want to add to it, I would love to see everyones setup and see what they came up with.

Cheers,

Coconut.