I've had a recent itch to swap out bars on my Clem from the Albatross which I've been using since I built up my first generation Clem - I preordered a Clem frameset from the first batch so I've been riding with Albatross bars since whenever that was. The Albatross bars were great for city riding, which at the time was what I was doing, with about a 10 mile round trip commute. I moved so that my commute became about 12 miles each way, so I commuted by bike (Clem) a couple times a week then used a regional train in combination with a lockup train station bike and bikeshare in the city. I got used to that commute and enjoyed not needing to worry about locking up my Clem on a large university campus. Fast forward to now, my Clem became a kid-hauler and Albatross bars worked fine for that. I've sort of 'reclaimed' my Clem as a recreational bike now, which means mostly dirt and gravel (and sometimes muddy) trails around where I'm at. I found I wanted something a bit different than the Albatross.
My original plan was to setup two handlebar setups, drops and an upright/flat bar, using a rinko-style setup to easily swap bars using cantilever brakes without needing to undo any cables. A headset mounted shifter made this a lot easier as I just needed to deal with brake cables. First, I tried out some drop bars to see what that would be like: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-koMDRFxak/ I used a 5cm Nitto stem with 50cm Velo Orange rando bars. I liked the width, and the overall handling was spot on, but I felt I could go wider. Note that my 1st gen Clem has a 64cm ett, shorter than the following runs. It was a successful experiment, but I want to go wider. Then I set up a Wavie bar, using the same 12cm stem I was using with the Albatross bar. It took a few rides to get used to, but I think this completely nailed what I was going for. I was unsure at first about the 'flatness' of the bar - I had wanted (and what others have wanted) a wider Albatross bar. However, after riding the Wavie bar, I think this is exactly what I wanted. I think a wider Albatross bar wouldn't ride with the same feel as a regular Albatross. In other words, the Wavie bar fills my desire for a wider Albatross. The Wavie bar shaped seemed familiar in photos, and now I can see why. It is essentially a wider Jitensha bar (B2522). The way they made the Jitensha bar wider is pretty clever, with it seems minimal changes to existing manufacturing process. First, the clamp sleeve itself is wider, allowing the 'bends' of the bar to be wider. It's actually the same distance from the edge of the clamp sleeve to the bend on the Wavie bar and the Jitensha bar. Since the Wavie clamp sleeve itself is wider, this makes the bends wider. Otherwise exact shape from end of clamp sleeve to ben. Then the bends are the same, with the only difference being a longer grip area, which brings the end of the bars back further than the Jitensha and allows room for a full grip, brake lever, and shifter. The Jitensha do not have room for shifters butted up on the brake levers. Since I don't run bar mounted shifters, this leaves a comfortable secondary grip area, much like grabbing the curves on an Albatross. I still plan on trying out a wider drop bar setup and have the option of easily swapping handlebar setups. I'm leaning towards the Crust Shaka bar as my next experiment. So... The Wavie bar is great. If you've wanted a wider Albatross bar, this might actually be what you want. If you've wanted a wider Jitensha bar, this is exactly what you want. Current Clem setup: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFUwMd3lb-1/ David -- 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/525546c3-b024-42e3-b96b-70e5dff3b9can%40googlegroups.com.
