Hi Modemmisuser, Best of luck on your bar search and congrats to your spouse on her return to cycling! I certainly endorse bar/stem swapping... both on the bike and off the bike (via trades.) I have been in your scenario feeling 'meh' with certain set-ups and previously bought some new parts here or there to try when I actually had some disposable income as well as more free time for wrenching. Since then my available funds and free time have significantly reduced but I've still managed to opportunistically offload and obtain various bars and components through mutually beneficial trades in recent years with the added bonus of simply covering your own shipping, thus avoiding any other exchange of funds in many cases. They don't all necessarily balance out exactly and some were larger or more complex multi component trade arrangements growing out of a single WTT/WTB or FS post while some had occasional partial fund exchanges to offset value imbalances, etc. Some just end up lopsided on the shipping end but ultimately it's been a wash in my view even if on the losing end of a shipping disparity as it's helped reduce my own excess while gaining something desired and avoiding managing my own garage sale of spare parts. That may sound like I'm against selling parts. I'm NOT! I just know I don't personally have the capacity right now to manage my own listings and then add some seller remorse from a part here or there so I've kind of hoarded what remains while awaiting an opportune moment to either use, trade, or sell when ready. Sorry for the digression, that's not even relevant to your query.
With so many drop bars out there I'm sure there may be one that will meet all your needs and may take time to try and identify it. It may even require a compromise on stem preference or aesthetics if willing to consider other clamp diameters. I may have missed it but don't think you mentioned what exact size Noodle you have? I went through several different bars and ultimately found the Nitto RM013 (in 52cm) got me about 90% where I wanted to be with drops once I acquired the wider size. I was initially very confused on how so many drops are sized differently... even among Nitto made models like the Noodle vs. RM-013 Dirt Drop which are measured completely different for size designation! Once I got to try the next size up (finding my middle sized 48cm just a little too narrow for me) I found a near goldilocks bar offering most of what I wanted in a varied drop and liked the unique drop only flare with traditional ramps for mixed terrain riding. Now I'm back to lacking a drop bar build with the dirt drops in reserve again. I tried RM-016 Moustache as well as a butterfly trekking bar on various builds and these comparisons led me to believe I'd like an Albastache to kind of meet in the middle between the two styles/widths but then I ultimately found some unexpected results with both a Chocomoose as well as a Soma Urban Pursuit bar. These are now mounted on two different builds but actually have similar characteristics in their long uninterrupted 'ramp' type grip area once I switched to bar end brake levers and a full grip tape wrap from end to stem junction on the Chocomoose. On the Soma pursuit bar the bar end brake levers are out front kind of like hooded road levers and have nice and looong, flat ramp sections giving lots of room to move. These are admittedly on single speeds with no concern for shifter placement but with potential for thumb or stem shifters away from the grip areas. I briefly used the Urban Pursuit bar with a traditional Sturmey Archer three speed trigger shifter mounted on the bottom side of the right corner along the flats with tape over the clamp and that worked pretty well until I went a different direction with the bike. You obviously lose the drop area when moving to something like the moustache, pursuit, or Choco bar but once I realized I appreciated having a long uninterrupted grip to move around I didn't really miss the drop on those builds that much. At one point I really liked *most *things about the widest Salsa Cowbell EXCEPT the reach and short ramp. Maybe on a geared road bike with big brifters I wouldn't have minded but with the non-brifter Tektro levers I was using I just couldn't find a happy spot along the short ramps and didn't like being limited to the hood itself. Otherwise the width, flare, drops, flats all felt great (to me) after ruling out various other drops. Again, best of luck on your bar adventure! Brian Cole On Friday, November 17, 2023 at 3:34:59 PM UTC-5 Patrick Moore wrote: > Fwiw, just a few observations in case they help someone find an ideal bar > shape. > > For a medium+ size American man (ideal level tt size is 60 c-c), I've got > relatively short arms and small hands, and yet my favorite bar of all time > is a long reach traditional bend Maes Parallel, precisely because of the > long ramps. I install my bars with ends parallel to the ground, and that > does effectively shorten the ramps somewhat, since I like my brake levers > positioned rather higher than the old-fasiohned "ends of lever even with > bottom of hooks" standard, but nonetheless it is the long ramps of the MP > -- 115 mm, 20 mm longer than the Noodle. The difference is the relatively > shallow drop: 125 mm versus 140 mm. I make up for the longer reach with a > relatively short stem: 8 cm (typical effective length and not Nitto > length). > > I switched from short reach (95 mm) large drop (140 mm) Nitto drop bar > with agressive hooks* to the Maes Parallels. I compensated by raising the > stem from 7.5 cm below saddle to the current 3-3.5 cm below saddle to > accommodate an aging neck, but the longer ramps still allow a comfortable > aero position on the hoods and in the hooks because of the longer reach, > while the middle of the long ramps allow a more upright cruising position > and the flats are closer, thanks to the higher stem, than with the earlier > one. Altogether the best of all worlds, imo. > > * Nitto 165? IIRC the Nitto Dream Bar, #176, was a Rivendell modification > of the one I have in mind. > > > > On Fri, Nov 17, 2023 at 12:46 PM Elisabeth Sherwood < > elisabeth...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hi Modemmisuser, >> >> Just my $0.02, but as someone who could never figure out the attraction >> of Nitto Noodles (I have relatively short arms and small hands, so any >> remotely long-reach handlebar will just never work...), I find Soma's >> Highway One (Hwy 1) handlebar to be just perfect -- short reach, >> shallow-ish drop, comfortable bends. (Absence of pressure on hands in our >> cases is probably the result of other aspects of the set-up, though.) >> >> I've had it on my Saluki, and it's currently on a Bianchi Volpe that's >> done up with silver bits. My boyfriend uses it on his Sam Hillborne (2008 >> or so vintage) and his Long Haul Trucker. I use STI levers with it; >> boyfriend has bar ends, for the moment, on both of his set-ups. Super >> comfortable. >> >> As they say, though, your mileage may vary! Good luck! >> >> -- Liz >> Washington, DC >> >> >> >> >> On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 9:54:02 AM UTC-5 modemm...@gmail.com >> wrote: >> >>> I have a 2016 Sam, from the batch of completes that year. I love the >>> bike, and now that I'm riding a lot more (my wife was gifted with being >>> able to ride again after not being able to for years; she has a '16 Sam >>> too), I swapped bars from the stock (Nitto Noodle) to an Albastache. >>> >>> The Noodle was only giving me ONE hand position, on the hoods. The >>> drops didn't feel usable to me and the flats are just too narrow for my >>> comfort. The hoods position was putting a lot of pressure on the meaty >>> part of my hands behind the thumbs. >>> >>> The 'Stache fixes that and gives me a lot of hand positions - on the >>> "hoods" (but it's a big flat on the 'Stache of course), behind them, and >>> pretty much all along the rest of the bar. I like it, but... >>> >>> I do miss the hand position that only comes from having a drop bar on >>> being on those hoods in that orientation; I just need one that will put >>> them in a spot that doesn't put all the weight on the meaty-hand-part >>> behind the thumbs. >>> >>> I have to admit I also miss how the bike looks with a drop bar. O_o I >>> dunno, I guess the bike just "wants" that look, to me. >>> >>> I'd also like to not run the shifters as barend shifters... So I'd go >>> thumbie or some type of (SHHHH DON'T TELL GRANT) brifter. >>> >>> The other issue I don't have access to the funds that some others around >>> here seem to. :) These bikes were EXPENSIVE to us ($2,600 a pop and we've >>> added front and rear racks, fenders, etc.) >>> >>> Ideas, comments, questions, help, etc, etc? I'm sure lots around here >>> have Sams and have done this handlebar/cockpit rodeo lots of times! >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "RBW Owners Bunch" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/b3f393ce-028d-4ccf-b1eb-de9bd0cb47c6n%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/b3f393ce-028d-4ccf-b1eb-de9bd0cb47c6n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > > > -- > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Patrick Moore > Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing > services. > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > *When thou didst not, savage,* > > *Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like* > > *A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes* > > *With words that made them known.* > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/e425f4be-c806-4e64-8e66-77240b118bf2n%40googlegroups.com.
