Have a Specialized secteur sport which I mostly use for commuting. Recent back issues and commuting encouraging me to get a more upright and brake friendly bar. So do bullhorns work ok on a road bike, more comfortable riding position etc? And do the brakes/gear levers work and transfer across ok from dropped bars to bullhorns?
Ta

I run bullhorns on my ss winter road bike and they sit the same height as tops on drop bars .. Only you can get more stretched out .. You can bodge them with your current levers but the ones I’ve seen look rough ..

Pair of tt levers £20 upwards

STIs will work fine, had that set up on mine for a while. I like bullhorns, especially in town. Only downside compared to drops is the lack of different hand positions, but I’ve done rides of over 100 miles on bullhorns fine

not sure a bull horn bar will bring you any more upright.
the ones I have sling you further forward than my usual on the hoods drop bar position. this was on a fixed wheel so dunno how sti’s would work/feel.

As an easier and cheaper option I’d probably swap for a shorter stem with more rise. That’ll bring you back and up at the same time.

just found this, cable routing looks messy

That will be less upright than drops on account of longer distance to brakes than riding hoods

Stick some flats and bar ends on – it will give you an upright position with shorter effective top tube. Good in town for seeing around

I run bullhorns on my commuter, flat bars with bar ends on the touring bike and drops on the road bike. Can second the points made above – if you’re trying to go more upright than drops, bullhorns are the opposite of what you want. They’re like riding on hoods but with a really long stem fitted – they stretch you out more. Flat bars with bar ends sound like the solution for you.

I’ve got flipped and chopped drop bars with lo-pro brake levers which mean the reach isn’t too far and I’ve got a real short stem (old quill type). However if putting the more bulky sti brake/gear leavers on it may take up more room and I always found it a bit more awkward with those levers round that way.

I think the correct answer is you need a new bike

Cheers folks. Flat bars might be better.

Cheers folks. Will have a look at flat bars. Advantage of secteur is you can change angle of the stem to make more upright which might make bullhorns more of an option.

I’ve got bullhorns on my commuter (Charge Plug) and I’m going to change to standard drops. I like the hand position with palms over the curves and stretched out when stood and graunching uphill, but I can’t reach brakes from either of these. To reach brakes I have to be on the flat tops and the levers are too close together, coming from 700+ mm bars, these are about 300m apart and feel very nervous to me.

If anyone has a pair of old style road bars to fit a 1″ quill steerer, and wants a swap for these bullhorns, email in profile.