Handlebar Idea

laredoshane

What do you all think about this idea for handlebars. I am trying to design a handlebar for a commute or recreational use bike that allows the rider to ride either upright or leaning forward. http://www.osobike.com. See link below
Shane
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21159896@N08/2542514995/

marchant

Maybe some large, round objects on the ends to stop me getting impaled in the event of a crash?

prj45

If you're riding with hands in the lower position you could come a cropper if you perform a quick hand signal and catch your hand on the uprising part of the bars.

redddraggon

What's the point of the upper bits?

With a mixture of drops, bullhorns, tribars, and flats I think every position you'd want is covered already.

attica

Nice work
Not sure the handlebars are for me or that they've got much benefit over these.

I do like the extra long looking drop outs with the chain tensioners but would question the wisdom of the unconventional crankset.
If it had a standard 5 point fixing for the chainwheel I'd be more likely to buy it as changing ratios would be less of a worry (Excuse my ignorance if there's hundreds of manufacturers of four point chainrings, I have to admit I didn't research the last statement, it's just a gut feeling)

Hope this helps

AidanR

I'm unconvinced about the handlebars too - what kind of brake/gear levers are you going to use to cover the 2 different hand positions?

The Oso bike looks cool (though unique? It's a track bike with a coaster brake...) but wouldn't be legal as it only has one brake - no redundancy.

dennisn

AidanR wrote:

The Oso bike looks cool (though unique? It's a track bike with a coaster brake...) but wouldn't be legal as it only has one brake - no redundancy.

The "legal" thing has gotten my curiousity up. Are you saying(I'm assuming you're in England) that a bike with only a coaster brake is not permitted on the streets and roads?
Or am I missing something???

Dennis Noward

robmanic1

I had some just like those, just turned my racer bars upside down! Great for wheelies when I was 12.

AidanR

No, nothing to do with a coaster brake per se - you need to have 2 brakes in case one breaks... And true, no idea if that's the law in the US too.

SamWise72

A bike with only a coaster brake is indeed illegal on British roads. Those handlebars - similar things exist, but the best way to get all those hand positions, and a few more, is by using drops, up high on a long stem. Doesn't look cool, but it sure does work.

jedster

I'm confused, what position do those give you that drops wouldn't?

meanwhile

laredoshane wrote:

What do you all think about this idea for handlebars. I am trying to design a handlebar for a commute or recreational use bike that allows the rider to ride either upright or leaning forward. http://www.osobike.com. See link below
Shane
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21159896@N08/2542514995/

The bike shown wouldn't be legal in the UK - a front brake is required by law. Very sensibly, given there's five times as much braking power at the front than at the back. Coaster brakes are notoriously poor, so you've got a bike with perhaps 1/10 the full-on braking of an average cheap hybrid. Oh, your other problem with one brake designs is that if that single brake fails you could be looking at a lawsuit for not having provided two of the things. I know you have some stuff on your site about coaster brakes being used on bikes in Chinas and kid's cruisers in the US, but those are low speed bikes, kids ride away from busy roads, and the Chinese traditionally on car free roads, at about 8mph. You've say this is a fast road bike for US commuter, so it needs much more brake than it has - enough to handle a 250lb Americans riding at 18mph who suddenly has to do an emergency stop to avoid being SUVed.

If you want safe effective low maintenance brakes, look at Avid BB7 discs and put them on both wheels. Or a BB7 and a v at the back, for cheapness and ease of fitting panniers. I don't how much they'll cost ordered in the thousands.

As for the mutant handlebars - I suspect impalement risk and vast injury lawsuits await. The hand positions look poor compared to drops, especially as one poster above suggested *high* drops - the way Rivendells are usually set up, or MTB's with Midge bars. Take a look at Moustache bars too.

cjw

What am I missing here, bikes used to look like that in the olden days



And in the UK you must have independantly operated brakes on the front and rear wheels.

jimci

These bars look just like the ones used on radball bikes.

(Don't know radball? Do a search on youtube. )

Lif30057840

cjw wrote:

And in the UK you must have independantly operated brakes on the front and rear wheels.

unless its a fixie ofc

karl j

moustache bars give pretty much the same ride as you seem to be after, and even more so if you put them on a riser stem

always_tyred

On those pictures, the stem and forks are mistakenly still pointing forwards. In that position, the bike might still be rideable.

Are you not just better off getting a bike that fits?

always_tyred

Incindentally, the fixies on your site do, indeed, look pretty cool.

I'm curious - you seem to have developed an interest in some funky bar designs (the second of which I have seen on some touring bikes, although not pointed backwards quite so much) and there must be something that has precipitated this. Why? Back pain? Too much pressure on thw wrist? No where to put a brake lever?