Latest Research -Butterfly bars

[simoncc]

I disagree. If you're on a road bike with drops you're lower down, regardless of where your hands are. Flat bars give you more height so you get a much better view over and around cars. And you also have much better control of your brakes.

I've never hit a mirror using flat bars. It's easily avoidable.

Very true. It just takes longer to get through long lines of stationary cars. I can't be bothered with that so I use drops. It depends what type of cycle commuter you are. Some people want to get a move on and others are content to wait in a traffic queue and don't even attempt to get to the front of it by riding between lines of traffic or down the inside or outside. The flat bar riders are generally in the latter, more sedate group of riders and I suppose wide bars don't matter too much to them.

As for being lower down with drops, I disagree. How low down you are when you use drops depends on many factors such as where your hands are on the bars and how far forward your bars are, and the slope of the stem.

 

[domtyler]

Very true. It just takes longer to get through long lines of stationary cars. I can't be bothered with that so I use drops. It depends what type of cycle commuter you are. Some people want to get a move on and others are content to wait in a traffic queue and don't even attempt to get to the front of it by riding between lines of traffic or down the inside or outside. The flat bar riders are generally in the latter, more sedate group of riders and I suppose wide bars don't matter too much to them.

As for being lower down with drops, I disagree. How low down you are when you use drops depends on many factors such as where your hands are on the bars and how far forward your bars are, and the slope of the stem.

Simon, happy to confirm that this is total bollocks.

 

[4F]

And again, flat-barred bikes are much easier and safer to control in congestion than drop-barred bikes.

No they are not

 

[simoncc]

Well, all I'm saying is that wide bars are second best for city commuting if you want to get a move on. Obviously I have no reason to mind what type of bars people choose to have on their bikes. If someone wants cumbersome, wide bars that's hardly going to cause me any problems is it?

Plenty of cycle commuters seem quite happy to ride all sorts of odd bikes - slow, expensive, full suspension, unmudguarded, wide barred, big tyred MTBs being the choice of an affluent looking minority who you'd thought would have had the sense to buy something more suitable and probably a good deal cheaper too.

 

[bonj2]

i've put that they're an abomination but on second thoughts aren't they what that mark beaumont fella uses? if so they're probably reasonably good if a little heavier than necessary.

 

[bonj2]

I disagree. If you're on a road bike with drops you're lower down, regardless of where your hands are. Flat bars give you more height so you get a much better view over and around cars. And you also have much better control of your brakes.

I've never hit a mirror using flat bars. It's easily avoidable.

not if you're on the hoods.

oh and bar endz r crap idst.

 

[bonj2]

you don't ride on the drops in traffic do you

 

[Over The Hill]

I have drops but never use the drop part and so have moved the angle up a bit so that I have more grip positions (hoods and down from them and around the corner bit) so basically I am using drops as most of a butterfly bar.
I think butterfly bars are a bit of new thinking. Instead of with other bars "x is the best position to ride in" it is "here are five different riding positons switch between whatever suit you". I would like to give some a go but am a bit of a tight fisted git and cannot really afford them at the moment (well actually just spent lots of dosh on new bike gear for the winter).

 

[PrettyboyTim]

To be honest the width of the bars has nothing to do with whether they're flat or dropped. I've seen some ridiculously narrow flat bars (about a foot wide) and I've also seen some very wide drops as well.

My bars are swept back 'flat' bars, and the recent addition of a mirror on the right side has made them wider. They're not great for squeezing between small gaps in traffic, but to be honest I don't find I have to much. Mind you, I'm not very impatient when I'm riding so I don't find myself desperate to get to the front of a short queue waiting at the traffic lights.

 

[papercorn2000]

My wife and the missus use them but they are a bit fugly. Probably ok on a tourer.

As for flat bars, I have them on my commuter as drops won't take the hydraulic brakes that are fitted. Still, they are cut down to about the width of my road bars and have bar ends. I've even used this bike on the odd winter club run.

 

[papercorn2000]

I've always wanted a set of Scott AT4's for my commuter - narrow, about a million hand positions and you could even get down in an aero position if you wanted, unfortunately, I have never been able to find a pair anywhere.

 

[papercorn2000]

That should have been my mum and my missus! ooh, Freud would have a field day!

There was me hoping as well that you were going to offer me a brand new set of AT4s that had been languishing in your parts box for 15 years!

 

[Mr Phoebus]

My wife and the missus use them

I know he's a Mormon, Papercorn's a Mormon
Papercorn's a Mormon, Papercorn's a Mormon...

 

[papercorn2000]

I know he's a Mormon, Papercorn's a Mormon
Papercorn's a Mormon, Papercorn's a Mormon...

No, you're thinking of Gordon.

 

[papercorn2000]

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgu...=&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1

Hmmm, me likey!