badger_biker 

I've always been a drop bar fan with bar end shifters and never really looked closely at trekking bars, but it seems lately I've seen a number of touring rigs fitted with them. The advantages over straight bars are obvious, but can anyone who's converted from drop to trekking style please shed some light on why you did it?
What are the best and worst things about them? I'm thinking the wrist angles may not be too great for some positions.
Can you get enough reach to stretch out?
What shifters and brake levers work out the best?
What is a good brand?

I like adding aero bars for a change of pace on long tours and was wondering with enough tape padding could you lay out on your arms across the end horns on trekking bars? This is of course assuming conditions allow this reduced control.
Thanks for enlightening me!

robow

I changed to trekking bars for the greater number of hand positions offered since on the last couple of tours, I found the two most distal fingers on each hand going numb and staying numb for many days after the ride. I rarely used my drops and do find that extending straight out on the trekking bars is much more comfortable although not quite as aerodynamic as the drops. I use standard thumb shifters and brake levers found on most modern mountain bikes. The Nashbar trekking bars are finally what I ended up using. And yes, I will sometimes lay my forearms on the front of the bar taking my hands completely off the front to give my hands a break, but this is only when the traffic and riding conditions are excellent. I hope that answers a few of your questions.

xilios

Hi, my wife had the trekking bars (pic below) on her bike for the first tour we did last spring and she got a shoulder pain while using them. We never found out why she had this problem, only that when she changed to flatbars with bar ends (2nd pic) on our fall tour the problem went away. I don't know if this has happend to anyone else, but I would check before buying.
cheers

Portis

As compared to flat bars, don't trekking bars move the relative position of the levers/shifters, drastically inwards? I have always wondered about putting these on but it seems like you lose a ton of reach.

robow

Simply adjust or obtain a different stem length if needed.

Lolly Pop

I like my trekking bars. I found that I was hyperextending my back, just to get in the flat part of drop bars, with the shortest stem I could get. No more back extension with the trekking bars, and lots of hand positions. I like the hands at 9 and 3 the best. I use bar-end shifters with a set of thumbies. I don't find they are too close. I have a stem which extends the bars at a 45 degree angle forward and up. That seems to be the perfect distance for me. And I mostly rode upright, so the drop bars didn't give me much advantage.

here and there

That was my major complaint about trekking bars. With the brakes so close to me the bike felt a bit twitchy during hard braking. I tried putting the brakes on the side of bars where I spent most of my time that definantly helped, but in the end my wrists were much happier with Nitto dove bars so I stuck with those.

badger_biker 

Does anyone know of a production bike that I could find and test ride at an LBS that comes stock with trekking bars?

vik 

REI Safari.