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Coincidentally a guy at Bike Radar (Jack Luke) mentioned he'd done a 277KM flat bar fixie ride from Bristol to Portland Bill and back.
His straight bar/aero bars combo looks interesting for getting the miles in.
Flats and tri bars work fine. I've used that set up for some bikepacking trips that had a decent amount of road work. Getting onto the tri bars is worth a couple of gears in terms of effort/speed.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49999204396_3b174d6282_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49999204396_3b174d6282_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2jbfZwd ]P1020242[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
Have Go Outdoors stopped selling those Calibre Stitches?
One of my pals has really got into cycling over lockdown. Is churning out 50+ mile rides on a 2 sizes too small 90s Raleigh MTB with cantis and dodgy slicks.
We're planning on cycling to Orkney next month and he's int he market for a new bike - that Calibre looks spot on.
It's good to know there are people who have experience of flats and tris and found them useful.
There are some of us whose general shorter rides dont really fit in with drops but to have the extended option that the tris give is a blessing in certain circumstances.
I ordered those China aero shaped flats to try with the integrated stem which gave a sort of platform for the forearms but that leaves you seriously lacking in control.
For small hands and body the levers on drops are too far a reach,
Good point. I'm only 167cm so that might be a factor.
matt_outandabout
For small hands and body the levers on drops are too far a reach, and I was hunting to find bars which have proportionally smaller drop and reach.
It's a problem with the longer toptube on bikes originally designed for a flatbar.
I've fiddled around with various combinations, and the best so far is an On-One Brian bar (shorter reach) and a very short stem.
I tried it out the other day on my old Voodoo 26" Bokor which I've repurposed as a rough stuff/gravel bike. It was the first lengthy ride I've done when that I haven't felt it to be a stretch after an hour or so.
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The short stem was bought on Amazon for about a tenner.
So I have to think Gary Neville rather than Ashley Cole
Good one!
The above discussion of the Sirrus, the flat barred Specialized Diverge that recently been released and other recent all-road/gravel threads are bringing me round to the idea that the bike that is best suited to the sort of riding I do, i.e rolling bridleway/byways/fireroads is remarkably similar to the skinny tubed flat barred bike I was riding nearly 30 years ago. If I went back to those, Id only really miss disc brakes / A-headset system
I feel like Ive completed a full loop.
I certainly wouldn't fancy taking the early 90s bike for a weekend in Morzine though.
I’d like a flat bar kaffenbak again
Thread resurrection!
Finally got round to tinkering today. Flat bars, inboard bar ends (some trusty x-lites I've had kicking round for ages), and just the one brake (boring story...). Cheapo mech and shifter from Decathlon as I didn't fancy trying to fettle any of the flat bar shifters I have in the spares box to try and work with the Tiagra mech that was on the bike.
Only done the ride up and down the street test so far but it feels good. Riding position pretty much the same (just a little wider) as on the tops, and the inboard position actually feels better than being on the hoods.
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