Made a bit of drunken purchase of some midge bars, as I just fancied seeing what they were like on my commuter. I have a standard drop bar with road sti/ brake units at the moment, and as half of my journey is through busy traffic I tend to ride on the hoods so my heads up, and I’m on the brakes when needed. From a quick look at the midge’s, it’s hard to see how I’d get the STI’s in a posistion suited to do this given the sweep. Is it just me, or do I need to fit them and play around? Or are they just not suited for that?

I know it’s a boring Q, but not as boring as fitting them to realise my initial suspisions are correct…..

They might end up looking a funny angle but they are comfy and operational. They become a little like H-bars.

hahaha 🙂 is/has there been a thread…
“Drunken purchases you wished you had never made?”
could be a winner, i`ve made a few of, “shit, i cant remember buying that!”

I use Midges with Sti, and ride on the hoods, never even realised there could be a problem

never even realised there could be a problem

Fair due, in the couple of minutes I had ealier I just couldn’t see it. Seemed they would either be too splayed or too low to use on the tops and the drops. As from tinribz post, I thought I would have a play around with them. I was really checking other folk where using this set up, before I started untaping etc..as it’s my first foray into anything other than more traditional type drop bars. Being a bike forum and all that, this seemed a reasonable place to ask.

Don’t some STI setups have some err, awkward ergonomics anyway?
I think I might have read somewhere about issues with … Sora (maybe) – being a bit lumpen to start with, the effect was found to be emphasised by the sweep of the Midge.

Err, that aside, as bars go, I find they are great, I’ve swapped out all my drops for these now (but run bar-end shifters, so can’t help with the STI question, other than to probably only half-remember something that I might have read on the internet, that might well be complete rubbish anyway).

I’ll get my coat … 😉

works fine. done it.
Set bars first.find good position for using drops. Not too much tilt as they are short and your handsmight feel insecure. slide shifters on to comfy position. they willbe very tilted in but although it might feel strange at firts its great.

the splayed outwards angle of the sti’s actually makes them easier to operate. looks a bit odd but works well.

Thanks for the comments all, now fitted and have been out for very damp test run. Seem great and nice and comfy, and I would agree with you on that on keavo. It seems it’s just vision I lack 😳