The longer I cycle the sorer my hands get. I've tried various grips and some have been better than others, but in all cases after, thirty minutes to a couple of hours, it starts to get a bit much. I'm a programmer by trade and use an ergo keyboard and trackball to alleviate wrist pain, but have been noticing my wrists a bit more of late. I've come to the conclusion that my preference for straight bars probably isn't helping much.
I'm unsure if a bar with a bit more compliance, like an On-One chewy Knuckleball or a Spank Vibrocore would help, or if I need to go the whole hog and get something with a bit of backsweep like a Jones H-Bar, or Surly Moloko. While I don't mind throwing £10 - 20 at grips every so often to try something new, I'm a bit reticent to chuck £100+ at a set of bars only to find they don't help.
So, what handlebars do folks recommend for alleviating sore wrists / palms / fingers...? I've muttered before about being bike packing curious, hence the mention of the H-Bar and Moloko. Are there any budget versions of these kicking around? I did find mention of Humpert Space Bugels, but can't find anywhere selling those.
TIA.
look for on-one mary those are the standard budget option. 24.99 and grand , i have a set on my fat bike coupled with some Ergon grips. , i also have jones on my TD-1 and ragley carnegie bars on our sit up and beg cargo bike - all are far comfier than a regular straight,non swept bar.
the space bugle is great if you want to look like you have almost jones at a distance of about 100ft but they are narrow as hell at 590mm if you really want to try them they humpert are now under the *ergo* banner so the equivalent bar is the ergo bugle.
I would go with the Jones and also put bar tape on it. Other than things like sweep, width the key for long distance comfort is multiple hand positons (like on a drop bar).
I've the Jones Loop bars on one bike and the Velo Orange Crazy bar on another. The Crazy Bar is quite hard to get hold of but they are a lot cheaper than either the Jones or the Moloko being just £50. The only place in the UK I found with stock was Velovitality in Brighton https://www.velovitality.co.uk/products/velo-orange-casey-s-crazy-bar That page mentions that the alu version isn't MTB rated but I know a few who've used them for a good while with no problems. You'll need either a shim or a stem with a 25.4mm clamp to fit them though.
Here's the Jones Loop bars (on a Salsa Spearfish)
On-One do a couple of swept bars: the Mary which I have on the fat bike and the OG which has a 25deg back sweep. Both currently £25
One "advantage" of the Jones bars is that they do hold their price quite well.
If you are getting sore hands/wrists so quickly on rides it might be worth having someone look at your bike fit.
I'm doing the French Divide starting on Sunday using the bike with the Crazy Bars. I'll let you know how I get on after that!
On one og bars are good but just a tad too angled.
I'd try the fleegle. They do a wide one for 9.99 but only in white and you'll need to shim it.
My sq lab bars are the same sweep as fleegles and are comfy.
9 degree bars really rotated back are the same angle as fleegles.
Maybe think about Totes Thumb things. My hands naturally gravitate to that position when I have them on normal bars.
Still not as comfy as og bars.
If you don't mind narrow bars I have a pair of fleegles you can have for postage.
I have a set of Salsa 11 deg bars in good nick if you are interested. They were too low rise for me and my shifters would hit the top tube.
Nairnster's comment about shifters hitting the top tube reminded me: alt bars like the Jones need to be set higher than the current fashion for slammed stems. The bars should be at or around saddle height. They do feel a bit more "sit up and beg". Stem length might need to be different as well.
It's also worth experimenting with the angle they are set at: Jeff Jones recommends about 10-15deg sloping down from front to rear.
Yep that's for sure they do. I had to change forks to run Jones bars to get front up.
That's an advantage of the Mary's if your just experimenting they come with about 2.5/3 inch of rise as well as the sweep so just bolting them on to most stock bikes sticks you in an alt bar friendly position where as the flatter bars need you to move the stem considerably to even get close. . Jones are flat for the most part unless you find a set of the riser ones- which are still fairly low rise- not seen a set of those in real life as yet .
Slight thread resurrection.
Stuart over at Bearbones has a couple of "reviews"/introductions to the Moloko and the Crazy Bar.
Moloko: http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.com/2017/07/surly-moloko-bars-first-look.html
Crazy Bar: http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.com/2016/02/vo-caseys-crazy-bar-embrace-weirdness.html
There's also a general roundup of alternative handlebars on bikepacking.com - http://www.bikepacking.com/gear/list-of-comfort-mtb-handlebars/
From that list I notice there's also the Stooge Moto bars. My wife has these on, appropriately enough, her Stooge.
Fitted my Stooge bars last night after cutting 3 foot off each end!
I think 17 degrees is the magic number for bars.
@whitestone thanks for the links! I'm pretty convinced that I'd like the Molokos, mainly for the different hand positions. Will stick with the On-One Mary for starters and see how I get on with the sweep. I was looking at the Origin8 Strongbow the other day, but couldn't find anywhere over here doing them, bit like the Space Bugles…
https://www.alpkit.com/products/love-mud-confucius
same generic horrible looking bar as the strongbow i believe. superfluous piece of tubing tacked on the front for no apparent reason.
@trail_rat at least the Strongbow has a bit more back-sweep, that Alpkit effort is just my existing bars with a loop tacked on front. Shame, as the price was good…
I'm now thoroughly confused.com and am worried that the Mary's have too much sweep and that I should get something in the middle ground as a starter. I think I'll switch the internet off for a bit and try and un-confuse myself…
Just had a look and they are. Same price as the Marys too (as Whitestone said).
I find Mary's and OG's set up "pointing" towards the rear axle very comfortable.
I see a lot of people running them quite flat which feels super awkward.
I have O-O Mary on one bike and Jones H-Bars on my fat bike, both with Ergon GC (swept bar) grips - I'm quite happy to ride either for 20 hours plus
@brant - having swept bars horizontal is a bit odd as the general idea is to reduce bending of the wrists. If you lift your hands from your side without trying to grab something then the neutral position as it were would be grabbing a highly swept bar angling down towards you.
@dovebiker - I think different bikes suit different bars - I didn't completely get on with Jones bars on my fat bike but they are great on the Spearfish. The jury is still out on the O-O Marys on the fat bike. It could be the relative height of the bars to the saddle, I bought the fat bike as a rolling chassis so the fork steerer was already cut for the previous owner and is possibly a bit low for me. With the Spearfish I built it up myself so could set things a bit higher.
So I picked up a set of On-One OG Bars, which most unlike Planet-X, turned up within two days, rather than the usual week and a half. Fitted them last Saturday and haven't managed to get out and ride, as I have a throat infection and have spent the last week on the sofa...
Just need to get me some of those Ergon GC1 grips now...
This is a good thing. Thanks to OO for making curvy bars at sensible prices instead of £200 for bloody Jones nichebars.
Yeah, I like my OG bars, just wish they'd make them a few cm wider. 720mm would be spot on I reckon. Maybe now Brant is back he will take requests...