Davidc said:
I thought I was the only one who went round with 2 of those Smart lights burning out the motorists eyes
How do you get on with the butterfly bars?
BBB(Beautiful Butterfly Bars), I really like them for comfort, but they're not ideal:-
pros - I like the bit of flex in them, seems to absorb more road buzz than flat bars. The ride positions I use are flats, corners and sides, sides are best. I tried them in all 4 clamp positions, ie open side rear/forward and side to side slope up and down. I also trialled lots of tilt variations. Final position is side to side slope down, open to rear, and tilted towards rider a bit. Since getting them I've had no numbness in hands and, once position sorted, no neck, arm or back issues.
cons - as I like riding on the sides every braking motion, or gear change, means moving my hands. I have singularly failed to get a workable solution to give me controls on the sides. I even tried flat bars, straight bar ends and mounting brakes and shifters on the bars ends. It works but is very ugly, poor cabling and interferes with ride position comfort. On the hub gear bikes it's less of an issue. I know my commute so well that gear changes and braking are generally predictable. On the Giant 9 speed triple it's a pain. I use this for my social rides so new/less familiar routes and the pace varies more. This means that when I want to ride/climb hard, then I struggle to get smooth gear changes, or subtle braking, when I want them. The bars are also 60cm wide, good climbing but a bit wider than ideal the rest of the time, though BBB's can be had in different flavours.
Conclusion - My favoured ride positions mimic those of flats and hoods on drop bars. Will start with Giant and switch to shallow drops, tilted up, STI levers/brakes and cross top secondary inline levers. These are far superior to the suicide levers I remember from my youth. The cable actually runs through them, so it's not a crappy dual pivot type action. Ideal in traffic when wanting to be upright but also able to touch brakes. Once these are sorted I'll then copy the setup for the other bikes. As the SRAM I-9 has a twist shifter I'll mount this either on a secondary mini handlebar on steerer tube or on the bottom of the drops. The other two bikes are Sturmey hubs so there are trigger shifter options with open brackets so can get them anywhere on drop bars I like.
- lovely work chaps!
