Being a 90s kids, bar ends used to be first purchase after getting the lustful new bike, if they didn't came with them. I've seen these derided by the new generations, and let me tell you, sonny, they were great.
You see, we didn't had these fancy weird handlebars with multiple hand positions, or the credit to use drop bars in the dirt despite the odd heretic. All we had were these pieces of metal we installed at the end of the already short handlebar, and preyed we didn't crushed the end of a too thin piece of expensive can sheet metal. These were all the relief we had on long ascents, and we cheated the lactic acid pain the in the knees by changing the hand to these uncouth pieces of metal and telling ourselves this was better. We felt the pain and ignore it by lying to ourselves, as all in life should be.
I feel that these days these pieces of cycling history are a bit of a joke, and case in point, to all those who install then in the middle of the bar, you disgust me (not really, but you are an odd duck, go do time trials). Only weirder than those, are the riser bar-bar ends, those are the feet lovers of cycling…
I like bar ends, and I'm not ashamed of it. Not that anyone was shaming me. Right?
by carlov_sky
18 Comments
Is there no case for saddles?
Absolutely crucial for flat bar touring.
East coast, US. The bent ones save hands and gloves when on tight singletrack with bushes or thorns, and prevent vines from grabbing the bars and wrecking you. This additional safety never goes out of style.
I love X-Lite stubbies. Got them on a few bikes.
Ok but do they make sense for commuting or hybrid/ downtown pub bikes? I want them to…cuz old school cool…but:
– They kinda get in the way of tight spaces between vehicles.
– You risk impaling pedestrians or other bikes on an overtake, even if just grabbing a loose backpack strap or similar.
– If need to turn bike upside down to change a tube, will often be a huge pain!
– Makes parking at public bike racks a bigger challenge.
Any redeeming factors we can think of for these 2 related use cases??
I like them in the middle, still pretty good on ascents and just for alternate position when hands start getting numb, and also good on descents (at least on road, I’m not brave or stupid enough to be that far from the brake on a mtbing descent)
Why would I reuse old bar ends on my $2k rockhopper build, when I can just buy a set of new VO crazy bars???
I do think bar ends are disgusting (positive) and part of me wants to get a set for my old Univega MTB, but I’m also a massive drop bar enjoyer and am realistically just gonna go that route ¯_(ツ)_/¯ either way though I do like seeing bar ends around.
Funny how they went from the first thing you put on your bike, to the first thing you take off from your bike.
I seen somebody put them on the weird ass curly Scott handlebars to make them wider once that was pretty rad, looked like the vo crazy bars kinda
I have them on my longtail I use to haul my partner around. They’re great for putting me a little further forward to engage different muscles on hills (it’s non electric and with the both of us we’re more than 400lbs of people and bike)
I absolutely love ’em.
And I use the ergo ones – they’re amazingly comfortable over long days in the saddle.
I have a set of the SJS rubberised ergo ends. They’re brilliant on shorter bars (sub 700mm) and I enjoy using them on longer rides.
An H bar is another level but ends are a cheap solution.
Bar ends are dope in right use case. They basically create an alt bar out of a straight one.
I have a fine collection of these. Had them on most of my bikes many years ago. I still use them inboard on flat and riser mtb bars where possible, but do have many of those weird multiposition bars. Have developed a very bad left shoulder and must keep hands at no more than 22 inches apart or 4 miles is my pain starts point. Makes bar ends a bit tough to fit on a bar inboard.
https://preview.redd.it/b3r78wrk18nf1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=929f7a1b21192208733173f4a6dcda83d5304c85
I have inner and outer bar ends! It’s a perfect touring setup for me.
Way back when I used bar ends, I came from road racing, and the bikes were setup with long stems and skinny bars to get through the trees easier. The bar ends were to mimic riding on the hoods of drop bars, and were perfect for out of the saddle climbing.
They fell out of favor when the race courses got more difficult to handle with rock gradens and scary descents and the climbs got shorter.
When the Pistadex ran high in the late 00s I became aware of these bizarre things…
*bullhorns*?
“Why didn’t we have these a decade ago on our MTBs?!”
*pursuit bars*?
“Wtf?! These sweep back a little for better comfort and have these great horns smoothly built in?! Why weren’t these standardized a year after those dumb assed clip-on bullhornifier things came out?! Nobody was riding straight bars without the horns. Dang.”
And here you are, a market full of every conceivable shape of handlebar, choosing a 3 piece bullhorn.