Alt/h-bar sanity check

[Hyppy]

I'm having a bit of a rethink of my handlebar setup in an attempt to alleviate some ulnar nerve issues I've experienced after multi-day rides. I'm thinking of switching the wide and flared Ritchey Beacon XL drops on my Cotic Cascade for some Jones H-bar (or knock-off equivalents) swept back ones. Traditionally, going from drops to flats would necessitate using a longer stem to retain reach, but my back of a envelope calculations and attached overlaid comparisons of each bar at the same scale have me think I could get away with just switching out the bars*, thanks to the shallow reach of the Beacons meaning that the flats, hood, and drop positions are all kinda replicated with H-bar equivalents.

h-bar.png (92.14 KiB) Viewed 2233 times

Any thoughts or experiences? TBH, I should probably just pay Planet X the 30 quid for a pair of Geoffs and try it out, but where's the fun in not overthinking it first?

* And levers/shifters etc obv.

[godivatrailrider]

100% the Geoffs.

I have 2x Jones bikes both came with loop bars. I have swapped the set on the bikepacking bike for the Geoffs as they are longer/wider in the rearward section and the gap in the loop is about 1 cm wider which works better with my Rockgeist bag.

[jameso]

I'd say you're right, keep the stem and see how it feels. ime the Jones bar shape needs some stem length to put the main grip and brake lever area in the right place in front of the steerer.

[whitestone]

Maybe consider the Velo Orange Crazy bars - the latest version doesn't have quite the backsweep of the original 45deg, I think they are 30deg maybe a bit less.

[Tomwoodbury]

Most people love Jones bars, but I didn’t get on with the angle they make your wrists go in. I’ve just bought some tumbleweed persuader bars with 30 deg sweep (I think) and have SQ Lab inner bar ends for an alternative hand position.

[fatbikephil]

Height is quite important with the 45 degree sweep - I found a lot of aching in my shoulders when I first tried the loop bars running them at the same height as normal bars. I jacked them up a couple of inches and all was well. When I got the Jones frameset this kind of happens automatically as the forks add an inch or so to the stack height.

My rule of thumb, so to speak, is to have your hands roughly in line with the fork steerer. This means an 80mm stem on the Jones and a 30mm stem on the fatty and krampus, both of which have 20 degree sweep bars.

[Hyppy]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I think that neither the Velo Orange nor Tumbleweed bars have any reach, which the h-bar styles kinda do by nature of the swept forward brace.

I wish WhatBars was more of a going concern and had side profiles too.

Height is quite important with the 45 degree sweep - I found a lot of aching in my shoulders when I first tried the loop bars running them at the same height as normal bars. I jacked them up a couple of inches and all was well. When I got the Jones frameset this kind of happens automatically as the forks add an inch or so to the stack height.

My rule of thumb, so to speak, is to have your hands roughly in line with the fork steerer. This means an 80mm stem on the Jones and a 30mm stem on the fatty and krampus, both of which have 20 degree sweep bars.

Hmmn … so the drops on the Beacon's are meant to be the 'normal' riding position, and are a shallow 80mm below the flats of those. I've a 45mm stem on at the mo, and looking at that mock up I can see my hands lining up at a similar distance and give me that height if I were 2-finger braking on the h-bars, so as you point out, it might be a case of learning if the sweep plays nicely with that higher position and different rotation of the wrist. I'll go hang my thumbs over the bend of the Beacons and see how that feels.

I forgot that I've some Salsa Bend on the fat bike, which have a bit of reach so could be worth playing with too. Don't have that with me at the mo, though.

[Boab]

Don't forget the Koga Satori Denham Handlebar as well, if you're considering the Crazy Bars.