# Brompton straight bars and pannier



## Yellow Fang (9 Jun 2008)

I saw some bloke with a Brompton that had straight bars and a pannier this morning. That surprised me because I thought the straight bars were incompatible with the pannier. When I asked him, he said they were incompatible with the larger pannier, but you could use a smaller pannier. Later on, I started to wonder why this was so. Surely it is the bracket that would interfere with the folding down of the handlebars, and why would the bracket be different? 

My other question is if it is possible to retro-fit the straight handlebars to a bike with standard bars. It would look better with the stubby bar ends.


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## Amanda P (9 Jun 2008)

I think whatever bars you have, you get the same stem. It's just that the regular bars are sort of -u- shaped, while the straight bars are just that, with no rise. 

This means that the straight bars sit rather lower than the regular bars, so if you filled the larger pannier, the bars would hit the pannier as you turned them (I've had this happen with an over-filled large pannier and ordinary bars - scary). The support frame at the back of a large pannier might be too tall even if the bag were empty.

I think that's the reason for the incompatibility. Presumably the smaller pannier is just less tall, with a correspondingly short rack/support bit.

I suspect the bracket is the same one, in the same place and doesn't affect the fold whatever handlebars you choose - the bracket is on the front of the head tube, while the bars fold to one side.


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## ufkacbln (9 Jun 2008)

Exactly.....

Simply a different shorter design of pannier - everything else is the same.

I have two Bromptons an S (straight) and a T (old style) if I use the big bag on the S the knuckles scrape the top of the bag affecting handling


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## mickle (9 Jun 2008)

It's possible to fit stubby bar ends. They need to be really quite stubby though lest they compromise the fold.


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## spandex (9 Jun 2008)

Yellow Fang said:


> I saw some bloke with a Brompton that had straight bars and a pannier this morning. That surprised me because I thought the straight bars were incompatible with the pannier. When I asked him, he said they were incompatible with the larger pannier, but you could use a smaller pannier. Later on, I started to wonder why this was so. Surely it is the bracket that would interfere with the folding down of the handlebars, and why would the bracket be different?
> 
> My other question is if it is possible to retro-fit the straight handlebars to a bike with standard bars. It would look better with the stubby bar ends.



The large bag gets in the way of the brake cables and knuckles I dont know why they dont on the M and P range M = u shaped


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## ufkacbln (9 Jun 2008)

The bar ends are actually quite forgiving as they fit on either side of the wheel

I used these:







and then updated to 







Retro fit is a problem with straight bars as there is (according to Brompton) a different stem.


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## Yellow Fang (11 Jun 2008)

Slightly disappointing about not being able to retrofit straight bars. I do have stubby bar ends on my Brommie already. They make a big difference but they look slightly strange.


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## ufkacbln (11 Jun 2008)

I think you can retrofit, but it isn't simple.

As the new stem is shorter and more curved, there is a need to replace the old one. As Brompton do "a la carte" bikes, there will be individual stems available. Is it worth seeing if you can buy a new stem and hinge fitting kit?


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## Yellow Fang (11 Jun 2008)

I went out on my Brompton tonight with my pannier. There was bags of room between the handlebars and the top of the pannier. I can't believe straight handlebars would be so low I'd have difficulty brushing my fingers against the top. Not unless I've bought a really small pannier, which I didn't think I had.


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