The Chainlink

Picked up a very nice 531 Carlton Raleigh Super Course this weekend, I think it is a '76, did not check the serial # yet...Always loved this bike, had one years ago. My quandry is the drop bars, just not feeling the love with that position anymore. I love the upright set-up on my Raleigh Detour hybrid...Any stem, bar suggestions out there?....Would love to move the shifters to the bar as well.

Views: 2130

Attachments:

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

soma makes some goodies

http://www.somafab.com/parts/handlebar

i have the oxford i like it

salsa too

http://salsacycles.com/components/

i have the moto ace woodchipper

kalloy has a real nice city cruiser style bar i like but i can't find a link for it anywhere. got it from ben's cycles but they don't list it anymore. it was like $10!

but looking at that ride, man, i'd just stick with the look. drops are where it's at, downtube shifters are great once you get used to them. ride it up to the bike swap next weekend get some ideas

Cheaper than mustache is a Northroad inverted.  This brings the front of the bars closer and the "drops" even closer yet but with the traditional 7-stem not too close.  You can re-use your existing drop levers and put them out at the far front and still reach them quite easily from the top and with only a quick slide forward from the "drops."

You can get a steel Northroad for about $10+ shipping and the alloy one for about $26+ online.  Your local LBS might have them too.  Budget some money for bar tape too.

Bar-end shifters can get a bit pricey -but I think there are some less-pricey options for friction-only ones out there.  Cheaper would be to put mountain bike thumbies on the bars just inside the brake mount so the levers stick over the "hoods" or maybe in a little bit further if you want to still be able to actually ride the hoods with the levers sideways like that -which actually can be pretty comfy.

Another option is to put on a hybrid-type adjustable stem and raise the bars you have up quite a bit and not so far forward.  This allows you to ride the hoods in a lot more comfort, be able to dial in the bar position a lot better, and still have drops to settle into if you hit a bad headwind.   This is not only a good option but is probably the cheapest.  These stems are often under $20 and the only other expense would be new bar tape.  The disadvantage of this would be that the downtube shifters would be even FURTHER down there to reach but you could still get MTB thumbies to work but you'd probably need to shim/modify the clamps a bit to get them to fit the road bar.

I have Soma Oxford bars on one upright bike and Velo Orange Milan bars on another. I like both quite a bit. The Oxford bars can be mounted either rising or inverted, and work well with aero levers and tape (as with moustache bars) or with bar end brake levers (as with porteur bars.) Take a look also at the Velo Orange selection. They're generally less pricey than Soma:

http://store.velo-orange.com/index.php/components/handlebars.html

Looks like at least a 110 mm stem on the Super Course. That would work well with Oxford bars. Be sure to check the bar-end diameter of whatever bars interest you. Both of mine are 22.2, for example. If you want bar-end levers you'll need to match the size. 

Beautiful bike, by the way.

Albatross bars with bar end brakes and thumb shifters. You'll likely need a longer stem to avoid feeling cramped.

RSS

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service