very tiny handlebars?

thrope

I was in London this weekend for the first time in a while... Generally a lot more cyclists than up here in Manchester and also seeing a lot more single speeds.

I also saw quite a few bikes with very tiny handlebars - I think they were mostly fixed as well. By tiny I mean very narrow - looked like it was just the grips either side of the stem and nothing else.

I've never seen this before - and I'm struggling to understand what it could be for. I thought at first it might be to help nipping in narrow gaps in city traffic - but then I realised that's pretty silly since for most people I think the widest point is the shoulders and having itty bitty bars isn't going to help...

So can anyone enlighten me? Is it just an absurd fashion or is there a reason for it?

nicklouse

itisi a fixie thing.

manick0de

Fashion over practicality.

STEFANOS4784

Also shoulders are much more manoeuvrable than bars so you can twist with the traffic, surely guna be a nightmare flexing your bars in that way :?:

roger_merriman

STEFANOS4784 wrote:

Also shoulders are much more manoeuvrable than bars so you can twist with the traffic, surely guna be a nightmare flexing your bars in that way :?:

sure thats why MTB's have them

they may have some use in very tight traffic, this said most of the time i can thread a big wide (two full paniers) hybrid though with out issue. but i'm not wild on tiny gaps when filtering, past ton plus lumps of metal where i'm passing though their blind spot...

Jon8a

Fashion over function.

Narrow bars upto a point help you weave in and out of traffic but if they're narrower than you then there's not much point. Also the riding position is more aero, dunno waht width road bars are 440mm?

I use a set of downhill bars on my commuter 650mm wide I think. Similar width bars on my mountain bike and never have issues with cars or trees.

Littigator

Started out as function to weave through tight traffic but as with anything has been taken as fashion and put to extreme. I'm just waiting to see the numpty with no bar at all just gripping the head tube!

It's all the messengers that do it and is a fixie thing

biondino

Littigator wrote:

It's all the messengers that do it and is a fixie thing

It's a w****r thing I think you meant to say!

Littigator

biondino wrote:

Littigator wrote:

It's all the messengers that do it and is a fixie thing

It's a w****r thing I think you meant to say!

Not at all, I aspire to riding cut down bars, putting cards in my spokes and having so many piercings my face clanks in the breeze as I ride!

BigJimmyB

Why slag these people off? Why are they w***kers? Because they don't ride the same bike as you?

At the end of the day they are cyclists like you and I. The messengers have their quirks, but 'live and let live' and all that eh?

Cant understand why someone would call them w***kers because they use cut-down bars and ride fixies.

Some peoples minds are narrower than those bars!

biondino

Messengers are the most reckless riders I've seen on the roads, and I work in Soho, I see them every day. So I'll live and let live when they* get their act together.


*the idiotic, selfish, dangerous ones, not the ones who have a bit of respect for others, I am aware they exist too

BigJimmyB

So don't tar them all with the same brush?

And having short bars doesn't make them w***ers, does it? You just don't like 'some' of them - the way some other people don't like some drivers - doesn't make all drivers w***ers either does it?

Littigator

A fair point made that all riders deserve time and consideration on the road, I have no issue with messngers who mile for mile are without doubt some of the most experienced riders around.

Although some do push the limits with RLJing and pavement hopping. As for the cut down bars, I still think this is an ill conceived fashion fad which affects safety of the rider and those around them so is best avoided.

As for clanky piercings, my apologies for the steroetype

biondino

Littigator wrote:

I still think this is an ill conceived fashion fad which affects safety of the rider and those around them so is best avoided.

What he said, combined with the fact that it's such a stupid, affected, unsafe way of making your bike less rideable and more uncomfortable. Extra points for w***ery if the bars are now too small to attach a brake lever.

lost_in_thought

Nah, everyone who rides a fixie is actually evil... :twisted:

As for the w***ker thing, it's a typo, the keys for fixie and w***ker are like right next to each other innit. Common problem.

It's a funny one, the teeny handlebars, if you ride in areas of very heavy traffis and slow speed, and you can actually have a brake on them then I can see why you would have them. I'm often found riding around on the horizontal bits of my curly bars, it does actually help with low-speed manoeuverability. But I stopped short of cuttung them. Mostly because I think it looks silly.

Fair to say though that bicycle messenger, just like motorbike messengers and royal mail vans do seem to display more undesirable habits than some other groups of road users.

BigJimmyB

biondino wrote:

What he said, combined with the fact that it's such a stupid, affected, unsafe way of making your bike less rideable and more uncomfortable. Extra points for w***ery if the bars are now too small to attach a brake lever.

Stupid to you, perhaps not so to others - you're generalising yet again.

It doesnt seem to make the bike less rideable or comfortable either, seeing as plenty of them seem to be doing just fine. These guys generally do short hops where comfort over long distance isn't a 100% necessity.

As for a brake lever, perhaps they use the fixed wheel to slow themselves down or have a coaster brake?

Whilst I accept it's a bit of a fad, I would say that some things aren't for everyone, but that doesn't make those who have those things 'w@n<ers'

Littigator

Hang on both of you...this thread has got waaaaaaaaay to serious for my liking!



aaahhhhh that's better

Parsnip49

I dont see how its anymore dangerous to have narrow bars than to use the tops of a road bar.

On the fixie, the bike will be fairly twitchy, but at least you will be on the brakes.

Of course anyone who doesnt conform should be derided and called a w*nker...

Its like people who run silly wide bars on their DH bikes - you will bash them off everything, and your steering will be slower than a slow thing. Doesnt mean i feel the need to call them w*nkers

I routinely ride on the "invisible aerobars" on my roadie (arms resting on top of bar) as do a large number of pros - very little control, nowhere near the brakes. Guess me and the whole pro peloton are w*nkers then?

Littigator

Parsnip49 wrote:

I dont see how its anymore dangerous to have narrow bars than to use the tops of a road bar.

On the fixie, the bike will be fairly twitchy, but at least you will be on the brakes.

Of course anyone who doesnt conform should be derided and called a w*nker...

Its like people who run silly wide bars on their DH bikes - you will bash them off everything, and your steering will be slower than a slow thing. Doesnt mean i feel the need to call them w*nkers

I routinely ride on the "invisible aerobars" on my roadie (arms resting on top of bar) as do a large number of pros - very little control, nowhere near the brakes. Guess me and the whole pro peloton are w*nkers then?

Surely you must admit that using chopped down bars of a handwidth wide or less reduces control and stability. As you move both hands closer to the head tube you have less leverage and so need more force to move the steering column, it's a matter of physics.

Most riders with drop handlebars ride on their tops as well but that doesn't necessarily mean they place their hands as close as possible to the head tube.

As for riding on your 'invisible aerobars' yes I've seen this and tried to copy it and almost come a cropper obviously :oops: but then I don't have the ride control and experience than you do given that you probably train for a number of hours every day and are very experienced riding in a peloton as are the other riders.

As I mentioned in a previous post, messengers also ride for a lot of time each day and so are more skilled than most riders, but they are not riding in a peloton, they are riding on roads (and pavements) surrounded by cars buses cabs and pedestrians so surely they use such bars at the price of safety not only to themselves but also to others.

phew, no idea where that rant came from, I blame the client who's already emailed me acting like a w*nker

Clever Pun

I thought that was a controlled statement littigator, not a rant as you had no CAPITAL LETTERS to make your point or whatever the kids are doing these days...

it's a fashion thing (as has been said pretty much only in london at present) but if people are happy with the lack of control and don't endanger other cyclists then they can do what they like.

dafruk

Parsnip49 wrote:

I routinely ride on the "invisible aerobars" on my roadie (arms resting on top of bar) as do a large number of pros - very little control, nowhere near the brakes. Guess me and the whole pro peloton are w*nkers then?

If I said yes would it make you happy? Or was that one of those rhetorical question thingys.

If you rode round the centre of a city like that I'd say you were a total idiot as you're bound to get cut up by some dolt at some stage and go flying. That's the advantage of being a pro, very few busy city centres to navigate mid race.

Littigator

Or when you do have to you'll have the whole circuit closed off and a police escort a la Tour of Britain...which I'm very much looking forward to watching the start of I might add.

Damn, I wish I had police outriders for my commute in each morning, that'd be absolutely hilarious. Imagine the looks on those cabbies faces as they got waved down to let me through on a bike...Brilliant!

biondino

Littigator

As for a brake lever, perhaps they use the fixed wheel to slow themselves down or have a coaster brake?

I think you may have lost your own argument there! But having said that, you're the bigger man for not resorting to name-calling and whatever my prejudices I was a bit harsh. Sorry about that.

lost_in_thought

This returns to my previous question:

I miss my coaster brake.

Can you get them for road wheels?

I suspect not...

woodford2barbican

I think they are w*nkers, using small handlebars is sufficient evidence to arrive at that conclusion.

As is having flyers in your spokes, dreadlocks on soap averse white middle class trustafarians, fairy wings on anyone over the age of 9, mean wearing women's jeans are w*nkers.

I could go on, but I would probably classify myself as a w*nker before too long....

Parsnip49

If im on my own on busy roads doing something stupid (i.e arms rested on tops) im putting myself at risk, if some eejit knocks me off or i crash, its me who gets hurt. I know the risks and i accept them - foolhardy maybe, but a w*anker? Maybe you are working from a different dictionary to me...

OT Its much easier to do on old style (pre 2009) shimano, you can grab the brake cables if things get hairy /OT

Parsnip49

woodford2barbican wrote:

I think they are w*nkers, using small handlebars is sufficient evidence to arrive at that conclusion.

As is having flyers in your spokes, dreadlocks on soap averse white middle class trustafarians, fairy wings on anyone over the age of 9, mean wearing women's jeans are w*nkers.

I could go on, but I would probably classify myself as a w*nker before too long....

I wouldn't call you a w*anker. An ill informed, narrow minded, stereotyping idiot maybe, but not a w*nker

Bodhbh

Pictures or it never happened !

lost_in_thought

Parsnip wrote:

I wouldn't call you a w*anker. An ill informed, narrow minded, stereotyping idiot maybe, but not a w*nker

Ooof :shock:

Calm yourself...

Here's a bunny with a pancake on its head.

Parsnip49

Jesus, who set their time machine to 1998?

Greg T

OK then.

Wanker has been deemed to be too judgemental by the diversity commitee.

Can we agree that the itsy bitsy little handlebars are not the preserve of onanistic, too heavily pierced, rich kids called James who are complete Wankers and agree on the perjorative definition of tarty?

Itsy Bitsy handlebars are tarty - if you use one you are a tart?



Can we agree?