Ride Lugged

so on-one makes some drop bars somewhat reminicent of the WTB drop bar that sells for too much money on ebay. what was so nice about it? it was silver, made in japan, by nitto, and it was heat-treated. it also had a nice deep drop, and wasnt too wide. also: it had enough room to put the palm of your hand when you were all the way in the drops, say for climbing a shallow grade.

on-one came out with a black, anodized, taiwanese bar, with a good amount of flair, but a much shallower drop, a wider stance, and less room for the back of your hand. i dont really mind everything about it, although i would sand off the black if i could do it and make it look nice. anyway: the lack of a palm position bothered me. so i came up with this hack to make it about 1.5 inches longer, more than enough room for my hands to rest flat on the end of the drops.

here we go:

i started with an old raleigh bar, and i cut a bit more than i needed. i dont care that this bar is old and ratty, i think you could use almost any old aluminum road bar, of which there are plenty.

there’s what i cut off. now. clamp it somewhat gently in a vise, so you can drill those holes in it. they have a purpose, besides speed. my plan is that gorilla glue will ooze out, somehow creating a stronger resistance to twisting.

spread some gorilla glue in the inside of the mungo…er the bars. i used alot. alot seems to work well. then do the same to the inside of the aluminum pipe you have. while yer at it, go to yer local hardware store and get a length of 9/16ths oak dowel rod. cut that to about 4 inches. wet it and put some glue on it too.

now put the rod in the mungo hole, and be sure to spread the gooey goodness that is the glue of the gorilla around. this ensures maximum goodness.

now slide the old bar over the dowel, and squish it around. please note my awesome tioga tires and paul stoplites, which chaney chenney cheney taught me how to set up right. also please note that he would not approve of my using beeswax as a cable end. also please note that the disc brake and sus fork in the background is mine, but i never ride the bike, proof of which can be found by the frozen isis crap stick bb that lasted less than 3 laps at 7 springs.

now clamp that shit down with a rusted plastic cheap pink duct’ed clamp and wait for the ooze to ooze forth. (about 1 hour, then you can wipe some excess off, and reclamp for about 12 hours).

yer done! now to wrap the bars in cinelli and shellac the crap outta them. nothing says french cyclotouriste like black mtn drop bars, and ghetto handle bar hacks, right!?!