Help selecting drop bars for touring
 

not sure why no one seemed to have an opinion on what I thought would be a contentious subject, so thought I'd risk be annoyingly persistent and repost my question.

Do modern ergonomic designs for handlebars really provide a lot more comfort? anyone swear by the nitto noodle?

So I'm getting an old Nishiki touring bike into shape to do some weekend door to door bike camping, This week I'm getting my handlebars sorted out.I have already acquired a nitto technomic stem to get my bars up higher, some inline break levers for the flats, nice comfy tektro aero levers, and some old suntour bar-end shifters.

I was planning on just keeping the stock bars that are on the bike now to save a little money, but i wanted to solicit opinions about whether it was worth it to go the distance and get like a modern ergo bar like the 3ttt forma bar or a nitto noodle bar? Am I really going to see a return in comfort for my money? Should I go all out or leave well enough alone? I've never done more than 50 miles at a time on the bike thus far, but I am planning on increasing my mileage greatly this year with some camping and maybe some rando. events.

I have the Nitto Noodle bars and they're far from being the modern ergo style. They're very traditional, so are their slightly flared Randonneur bars.
Something non-traditional and which I have on my touring bike are the wider Salsa Bell Laps with ergo bends and flares at the drops.

I would keep your stock bars. They look comfortable.

Noodles are very normal to my hands, tend to think the revolution is a lot of hype (though they are beutiful quality)... I do prefer the flare of the randonneur models over all else, but i dunno if i would pony up the cash for them. The last two pair I paid 10 and 20 for, respectively. My favorite bar all around.

one day ill try the one one midge or some other super flared design.

I tried the Midge bars on my Long Haul Trucker for one week and didn't care for them. So I took them off and replaced them with Salsa Bell Laps. I even had them set up correctly with a high rise stem and all. The bars were way too wide for my taste with the bar end shifters. The Salsas are working so much better for me.

Newer is not necessarily better. I have two touring bikes, a vintage 1980s model with the original handlebars, and a recent model custom touring bike with so-called "ergonomic" handlebars. Both are comfortable, but in some ways, there is something about the 25-year-old handlebars that I prefer. The geometry is just right for my hands in all positions, whereras I must adjust the position of my hands slightly in the drop position on the newer handlebars.

Do not be persuaded by terms like "ergonomic" when considering bicycle equipment. Ergonomics is a science and a discipline, not an adjective. When the word appears as an adjective, it usually denotes marketing schlock. No piece of equipment is automatically ergonomic -- equipment only becomes ergonomic if it fits, it is set up properly, and is used correctly.

Leave it alone, it's easy enough to change later if you decide your hands aren't comfortable. You're probably only going to feel a difference in the "in the drops" position anyway, and since you are getting brake levers for the tops, I imagine you barely use that position.

I would think the most bang you would get for the buck with your current setup would be some modern brake levers with hoods that you can rest your hands on.

What about Gel pads under the tape?
I've got some Cinelli cork tape but was considering sneaking some gel in under the tape on the flats and on the drops. I ride without gloves

My feeling is I don't need it, I tend to think squishy and soft is overrated, but then again I've never done consecutive 80 mile days on the bike

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply the nitto was a modern ergo bar, I was proposing them as maybe the best of the traditional drops vs the new kinds of bends.

I was already pretty sure that I was going to keep my existing bars, as thus far they have proved to be comfortable, but I wasn't sure if I was going to get a flood of rave reviews on the newer bars. I guess I need to keep with my general policy of don't buy it until you know you need it from personal experience.

That's the first thing I did, everyone on the forum seemed to like the cane creek levers, so I found a pair of new take-off Tektro levers(same thing only cheaper) on Ebay, I'm going into the shop this week to set everything up, although I was going to tune up the bike piece meal, but I'm starting to think I might do a total tear down and rebuild, I've only done this thus far on a fixed gear conversion so I thought it would be a good experience and help me when something breaks or malfunctions out on the road.

I put gel pads on my drops to try and improve the comfort and as I broke my wrist badly a few years ago I thought it was worth trying to reduce the vibration as much as possible. I don't find it has really made that much difference tbh. ymmv though and I can't see that it can do any harm. It maybe that if tested by riding a long day with and then without it may make a difference but isn't really noticeable while riding.

Kbp, I was looking for a new bike last year and ended up rebuilding an old bike instead. Since I hadn`t used dropbars in 25 years, and even then I didn`t pay much attention to anything, I didn`t know what to do about the bars. As it turns out, I remember having really liked the bars on one of the bikes I test drove, so I ordered the same bars for my new build. If you ever get a hankering for different bars, maybe you could find the bars you`re interested in on another bike and test ride the bars. It worked for me, anyway.

The good thing about bar tape is that you don`t have to disturb your shifters and brake levers to experiment- if you want to see how you like it, it`s plenty easy to find out and the most it would cost you would be the price of the new tape (or pads). You can always rewrap with the old tape if you don`t like what you try.

I find ergo bars to be more comfortable in the drops. But, I can't use them. I have short fingers and I need a traditional bend to get a good grip on the levers. If you are thinking you might like them, go to your LBS and test ride a bike with the bars you are thinking of getting.

I switched from ergonomic bars (Salsa Bell Lap iirc) to Nitto Noodles, and also use the Fizik Bar Gels.

I highly recommend the bar gels; I can definitely tell the difference, and find it more comfortable.

As to the Nitto Noodles, well.... I like having a longer ramp, but prefer the ergo bends. The Noodle also required that I get a much shorter stem. One of these days I may go for the Ritchey BioMax, whick afaik is basically the Noodle with ergo bends, but for right now I'm too lazy to switch.

First, to make things crystal clear:
Ergo bars: drops with multiple sharp bends connected with straight sections
Traditional bars: drops that are round all the way throughout the curve.
Don't be confused by the etymology. Nitto Noodles may be ergonomic, but they are not ergo.


Bell laps have been mentioned several times already. I have 2 pairs, 1 in use on my touring bike. 46cm, and I looooooves them.

Best reason to upgrade bars for touring would be to get wider bars. What you've got are probably 38-40cm wide. Buy a touring bike nowadays and the bars will be 44-46cm, giving you better leverage. Noodles go as wide as 48cm, but those need heat treatment and are $$$. The extra leverage really helps when you're loaded with panniers.

In addition, the bell lap drops flare out 12 degrees, which gives even more leverage, and also gives more positive dynamic stability when standing on the pedals from the drops. With narrow conventional drops, standing on the pedals from the drops can be twitchy and unstable; not so with Bell Laps. Noodles and Ritchey Biomaxes are similarly flared out, but only about 4 degrees, so I would guess a similar but reduced effect compared to the Salsas.

Compared to the long reach (ramp length) of the noodles, the Salsas have a very short reach. This means less hand hold area behind the brake hoods, but it works perfectly for my MTB conversion, which has a very long top tube as far as road bikes are concerned. I also like that this puts the bar tops farther out, which lets me spread out more comfortably from up there than I would be able to with noodles.

And then there are the dirt drops, which are flared out much much more, 30-45 degrees, an amount of flare that makes them a different beast entirely. Those style bars have a cult following, but can be both difficult to setup properly, and unforgiving of bad positioning. I have an original set of the WTB Dirt Drops on an old Univega; I haven't made up my mind on them yet, but with how I feel about them now, I wouldn't take them touring.

Just ride the ones you have for a while. If you don't like them try something else. You can get ergos to try uot for less than 20 bucks on the internets. They'll be heavy but who cares.

Everyone is different, but I would keep the bars and add some cork tape. The cheap stuff from Nashbar is about the same comfort wise as the Cinelli as far as I can tell.

It is personal preference, but I am not a fan of wide bars or flared bars. Some of the ergonomic bars are nice, but the old classic bars you have are fine for me. Keep them unless they just really don't work for you.

I think a modern ergo bar looks out of place on a vintage bike. I've got wide shoulders, so on my 1985 Trek 460 I have a 48 cm Nitto Noodle bar. I also have 45 cm Nitto Rando bar on my 1984 Schwinn Voyageur. I greatly prefer the Nitto Randoneur bar over the noodle. I plan to migrate my other vintage bikes to the Nitto Rando bar. If you do go with rando bars, I recommend a wide one. The smaller ones don't give enough room on the tops for me to comfortably fit my hands and have room for computer or other accessories. I do have very big hands, so YMMV.

I think it would be hard to improve on what you already have. No matter how much they have tried, I don't think anything has ever improved on the classic bend drop bar for comfort and functionality.

Warning, I had the Salsa Poco, which is basically the same shape as Ritchey Biomax and absolutely hated that bump in the bend. Made my hands go to sleep. The Easton EA70 ergo bend is flat and much more comfortable. Just FYI.

I've had problems in the past, both with position and bearing weight on my hands. Changing bars for a different hand position and stems to get some weight off my hands helped some, but heavy padding was needed before I was finally comfortable. Heavy for me was grips, high-density foam, and good padded tape.

randonneurs
 

I have a set of Randonneur bars on my bike as well, as my first set of drops. According to my shoulder measurements, I should take 42cm, so that's what I bought. I agree about buying one size up. I have very little space on the tops, although being in the drops is quite comfortable.

I don't know if it's a characteristic of the Randonneur bars, or if it's that the "recommended handlebar size" (from wrenchscience) is for competitive cycling as opposed to recreational cycling and touring.

Handlebars
 

When I received my custom built frame and wheels in 2006 I just purchased a used Nitto handlebar on e-bay. I had barcons and installed them along with the h-bars. Then after installing them - and putting the rest of the bike together I went off to OZ - without a LOT of training/preparation.

The handlebars were fine. I had some component failures - along with a busted chain. BUT, I did the trip through the region that is now flooded (I went in July-August) and can tell you that slow but steady wins the race. It took about 2 weeks to get really fit, but no matter - I had the time and patience to bicycle over 2000 km in the outback in about 6 weeks.

Forget getting "the best handlebars". Get a set - any set - and start bicycling - END of discussion IMHO :-)

I think it's more about competition. Narrow bars give better aerodynamics, but wide bars give more open lungs for climbing power. Racers must balance between these antagonistic forces. I think the whole bars as wide as your shoulders, if not an outright myth, pertains more to those issues than to issues of ergonomics and comfort. As a tourist, I have little concern for aerodynamics, and am behooved to optimize bar choice instead for climbing power, leverage, and overall comfort. I find those things in the widest drops available.

The standard way of measuring bars doesn't apply to randonneur-type bars. These have drops that flare outwards, and where the drops are is a lot wider then where the tops are. If you used the standard shoulder width method for randonneurs, you will get tops that are probably way too narrow for riding on the corners (which it seems to me used to be the single most popular hand position for regular cruising). I'll take a standard maes type dropbar any day, for almost any kind of riding.

What didn't you like about the Midge bar? I have one from a failed experiment on my MTB and was thinking about giving it a try on my road bike. I currently have a Noodle on the road bike now and a Rando on my fixie. I wonder if the Rando would be a happy medium between the Noodle and Midge?

One thing I really disliked about the Midge Bars were that every time I leaned the bike against a wall the bar end shifter would be in the way. Also bringing the bike inside stores, the bars were way too wide and just 'got in the way'.

Now I remember why my original WTB Dirt Drops are still sitting in my junk box after all these years...:p