[Closed] What happened to bar ends?

Nothing wrong with them...

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Nice bike scotroutes!

Took mine off the geary bike earlier today to avoid catching on overgrown bushes, not sure I'll put them back on. SS, though, definitely staying

Use mine more than the grips.

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Put them on last year - great for changing body position on climbs.

Wide bars is what happened.

A few pairs on bikes here so must have missed the memo as well - some of (if not most) of our kit is becoming distinctly 'old school'!

We've even got a set of 'egg' rings!

I'd love a pair of welded Onza titanium L-bends
[img] http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=662 [/img]

I rely massively on them for long (esp hilly, and it always is) mtb treks. I'm sure it's a fashion crime to mount them on riser bars but they function very well on straight too :-p

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[quote=mcmoonter ]Use mine more than the grips.

Pretty much the same for me too. I have a set of Dual Control shifters in the garage and I was wondering if I'd be able to change gear from the bar ends with them 🙂

Bush grabbers I call them.

I only had some in the 90's because of fashion/peer pressure. Never really knew what they were for but I tried to used them just to fit in.

I had some on my last bike, which was 8 speed XC, and found them really handy. I've found the extra hand position nice on long commutes too.

Now I'm on a ten speed with much wider bars, they're really not necessary though. The bars give me any leverage I need.

Probably down to less racey positions on bikes. My Nomad is more sit up and beg than stretched and racey so maybe bar ends arent practical or fitting. As someone said above, wide bars also happened.

I still like them on long rides just for the extra hand positions, it's not that they're better, they're just different. But I think wider bars took away a lot of the point, I used to use them for honking up hills but that was mostly because we all had bars the length of a pencil.

I think it caused some people physical pain when I took my lovely Soda with its 710mm risers and stuck cane creek ergo bar ends on it 😆 Gopping.

I've got a stubby set of control tech ones on my hard tail, great for climbing as they always have been. Flatbars only though, they look gash on risers.

Both my MTBs have risers and bar ends. I also wear lycra.

Practicality and comfort over fashion.

nuthin'

they are ace on climbs.

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Eff fashion, do what's good for you.

Lovely! 8)

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What happened to bar ends?

MBUK decided they were too 'jey' [sic] perhaps?

I love my power studs, as above I use them more than my grips.

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General rule on retrobike is they are fine for flat bars but a no no on risers. Nearly everyone has risers now so that's what happened. 😉

Or, geometry has changed, as mentioned above, so there's less need for 'em.

Still can't beat mk1 X Light Stubbies in blue. 8)

Note, all (almost) the bikes pictured above have older-geometry and narrow bars - therefore the bar ends are needed to get the right 'hand-position'.

I use Ergon grips with stubby ends, the liftie in Whistler laughed at them as he took my bike off the chairlift...

I had some L bends in the 90s on my DB ascent, they never made it on to another bike after that though so I'd say they were drifting out of favour by about 95-96 perhaps...

To a certain extent MTB "fashion" happened and their associations with XC racing when DH and trail type riding was more en-vogue and we were all fitting shorter stems and riser bars...

TBH these days they probably wouldn't be much use to me, except if I was building a MTB up for touring or bikepacking, I can see the benefits of having a flat bar with bar ends for churning out miles on a laden MTB...

Note, all (almost) the bikes pictured above have older-geometry and narrow bars - therefore the bar ends are needed to get the right 'hand-position'.

not me!

780mm bars, 70mm stem, 140mm Revs.

what they do is enable you to open out your chest, change your stance and give you more leverage on the ends of the bars.

Good for muscling the bike up the hill with a 1x10.

I like what works.

I don't get this either - what they're great for is rotating the wrist to a much more comfortable position. Ergon grips and the like help, but for climbing there's nothing like having parallel grips to pull on.

bencooper - Member
...but for climbing there's nothing like having parallel grips to pull on.

Which is why dropbars are so good... 🙂

(But a lot of faff to fit on an mtb)

Which is why dropbars are so good...

(But a lot of faff to fit on an mtb)

True story: when I was young and foolish, John Tomac started racing with drop bars. I wanted to do that, so fitted drops to my British Eagle. Then I found that the STI brake levers were too far away, so I bent the brake levers to fit.

A year or so later, I took the drops off and put flat bars back on - and of course the brake levers were now touching the bars, so I bent them back.

First big downhill, pulled the brakes hard, and both brake levers snapped off. That's when I learned about metal fatigue 😉

Which is why dropbars are so good...

(But a lot of faff to fit on an mtb)

you've got a CX/gravel bike, surely?

Left in the 90's thankfully 😉

....what they're great for is rotating the wrist to a much more comfortable position. ....for climbing there's nothing like having parallel grips to pull on.

This.

I find that without the option of turning my palms inwards I get something akin to Tennis Elbow. So I have Fleegle bars fitted with bar ends, and a second set mounted on the bend inboard of the levers. Fashion Police be damned, it works for me!

As for the common 'they snag on vegetation' argument, I really don't get this. They don't make the bar any wider, and I'd rather smack a bar end into a tree than my knuckles any day of the week. 😉

As for the common 'they snag on vegetation' argument, I really don't get this. They don't make the bar any wider

I've had a couple of falls as a result of them getting snagged on brambles and the like. I don't know whether or not a non-bar ended bike would have fared better in the same circumstances but I haven't had the same style of crash on the bike without them.

I still use them for all the reasons given above and, as a few have mentioned, spend more time on them than the grips. Well, sort of palm on bar plug/fingers on bar end kinda style, if you get my drift.

I have bar ends mounting inboard of my grips. Reasons are snagging, risk of damaging the end of the bar if the bike goes down hard on the bar end and so I can use the brakes and shifters when using them. They feel great and put me in a nice position for slogging up climbs. My wrists are screwed from breaking them so i spend most of a ride on them, just switching to the normal grips when I am in twisty or downhill stuff.

bars were originally racey narrow and bar ends gave leverage and also different positions for long grinding climbs. They were essential, extra leverage on short climbs and extra positions for long climbs, where open chest position was often more comfy.

Now bars have grown wider and wider and they largely cover these other positions. We are all unique, our bikes are also unique, so its no shock people still add them.

I rebuilt a retro bike with original Answer Hyperlites recently and was quite shocked at the narrow low position... it brought back a lot of painful memories! I'm looking ofr matching Answer barends if anybody has any.

Cane Creek Ergo bar ends are the way forward (and have been since the end of the 90's). Wouldn't be without mine.

Nearly every pic with them in this thread the bike seems to look more like a tourer/hybrid owned by the over 50's than a MTB . Maybe that's why MTB'ers who just rag their bikes round the woods/trail centres don't see the need them?
The MTB equivalent of the Zimmer frame.

what they do is enable you to open out your chest, change your stance and give you more leverage on the ends of the bars.

This (along with the comments re wrist-forearm rotation x100 - it almost eliminates arm-pump).

I really enjoy climbing (handy, considering most of my longer rides are Exmoor, North Cornwall, North Devon etc) and climbing without bar-ends makes me walk sooner. That open-chested and slightly elated feeling when finally cresting (say) Dunkery Beacon out of Porlock Vale...difficult to describe, but is so much better than without them (I use Procraft Evo for trekking, bikepacking, climbing etc, not so much for local rides just leave em off. )

Once the bars started to get wide, I couldn't get on with them. I was trying to run Cane Creek ergos on a 710mm swept flat bar, and they just weren't right any more. The big bars have made control in the steep stuff FAR better, so I use those rather than a narrower bar and bar-ends. If I was doing longer days and less bias towards the downs they'd come back out again.

(or, in MBUK speak "[i]they are too jey[/i]"

🙂

I used to like them when I was using my mtb 50/50 on and off road with a lot of long climbs, really good for varying hand position and preventing numbness, but now I ride more off road, with wider bars (740mm, as opposed to 640mm ish) I don't feel the need for them, and do worry about catching the vegetation with them.

The MTB equivalent of the Zimmer frame.

Ah, I get it - long distance multi-day gruelling treks and mad climbs (as opposed to a couple of miles around a wood ) are for the elderly and physically impaired? No wait...

Bar ends are for drunken grandads who lost their driving license so bought a stolen fullsuss 90s BSO with ends-of-shame inexplicably fitted to rusty risers - just to get to the dole office/Wetherspoons/off-license - also good for shopping bags not sliding off the bars and scattering precious tinnies all over the footpath.

Other opinions may also (not) count...

PS I'm not yet fifty but do have a hybrid tourer in the fleet, and custom tartan slipper SPuDs 😉

Ergon grips with bar ends on 3 bikes here.

Just got a new (to me) bike with flat bars so I dugout some old bar ends, I use them while stood up on steep climbs but what I've noticed is how much I use them sat down on not so steep stuff, just resting my hands on them, I seem to like the alternate hand position. Dunno, maybe I could manage just fine without them (haven't used bar ends for circa 10years) will run them for a while then try a few rides without, see how much I miss them*.

*they do, after all, add weight and I reckon they increase chance of snagging on overhanging vegetation to some degree.

Yes on the everyday bike, no on the mtb.

Fitted carbon bars and scared of breaking them so not put them back on.
Must buy a torque wrench.

I do miss them on long flat routes.
Still find myself resting my palms on the end of the bars just for a change.
Not safe really.

In the old days, when we sat on our bikes like a sack of spuds, bar ends worked.

Nowadays, when we like to move around our bikes in all 3 planes, bar ends don't work, and so have just been replaced by wider normal bars on a shorter stem.

I race enduro races with mine. very handy for the pinch climbs.

honestly, they work a treat on wide bars.

they are 2 finger stubbies I've had for 18 years though.

[url= http://www.bikeparts.com/search_results.asp?ID=BPC111063 ]they still make them.[/url]

I reckon mine got another ten in them before the metal wears through.

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Nowadays, when we like to move around our bikes in all 3 planes, bar ends don't work

Have to disagree, have been moving around bikes for three decades, seen them come and go etc... but barends are a 4th plane! ie more options to move around, do more climbs further, and arguably protect yr fingers from thorny whips n stuff (unless straight/stubbies which can hook stuff if you're not looking/lose yr line)

They still freak me out on jumps, never worked this out, it's probably a pysch-out thing* even above the old rule that jump bikes+bar ends = über-fashion crime...

*Had Procraft Evo L-bends fitted on my Maxlight, pure joy climbing Exmoor, yet at the top have whipped them off and stowed in the hydro pack before the descent. Still not sure why...

there ya go, although i have a much shorter stem on it these days

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MrSmith - Member
Nearly every pic with them in this thread the bike seems to look more like a tourer/hybrid owned by the over 50's than a MTB...

Ah, the fashion statement.

Surely it's about getting your hands where it works best for you rather than the shape of the bar or how's it's achieved, not the "look".

My ex-wife used to claim my hands are on backwards and there is an element of truth in this! The effect is that my wrists get painful on long rides unless I can change positions regularly so bar ends are v. useful for my particular anatomy.

I love mine. It's good to have options. Can be a bit sketchy on rocky descents when you suddenly realise your hands are on them and need to be back on the grips for braking 😀

On my old GT:
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And my Scott:
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what they do is enable you to open out your chest, change your stance and give you more leverage on the ends of the bars.

You can't open out your chest with 780mm bars? Just how big are you?!

You can't open out your chest with 780mm bars? Just how big are you?!

Bar ends on mad climbs also flatten (un-hunches) yr back when standing out of the saddle (at least my hooge ones do) by moving you forward a good few inches forward which I find not only increases lung capacity but useful leverage, aided further by having your hands rotated outwards. This could be partly achieved with wider bars, along with longer toptub/stem but then that compromises other riding requirements on mixed trails.

it's deffo horses for courses and a big old mix of fashion and practical concerns. if everyones bike was the same we'd all ride the same stuff and that would be boring, a far greater crime than different kit.

*Edit 'toptube'. 'top tub' is arguably the one accessory that causes me the greatest biking impediment 😳

Nino knows best

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Malvern Rider - Member
"The MTB equivalent of the Zimmer frame."
Ah, I get it - long distance multi-day gruelling treks and mad climbs (as opposed to a couple of miles around a wood ) are for the elderly and physically impaired? No wait...

I think I've been sprung 🙂

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Nino knows best

In 2011, when that picture was taken, maybe he was running bar ends.

But now, he's on the wide bars with no 'ends.

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And I used to run bar ends on the SS (where they are most useful IMO, when you have to grunt up hills), but ditched them when:

1. I moved from 600mm to 700mm bars, and found I could get the leverage from the added width without using the bar ends.

2. I managed to go over the bars after getting both bar ends caught simultaneously on foliage.

On the main race bike, I've never run them, and never felt like I'd want to, especially now with the 710mm stick I've got on there at the moment. I reckon I'd probably forget to use them in an XC race anyway.

I think it comes down somewhat to your drivetrain and local terrain too. I definitely used to feel the benefit of having a position where my wrists were rotated 90 degrees, it made it much easier to sprint up stuff, but I was on fairly crappy 3x8 and living somewhere with no hills over a few hundred feet. Now I'm near long, steep climbs with a recent 2x10 setup, I don't often get a chance to sprint up anything and it's easy to put myself in a spot where I have too much torque and not enough traction.

I don't really understand the tribalism over bar ends/no bar ends. It seems like preaching the gospel of 26" to people in Wisconsin or something.

barends are a 4th plane!

Non-Euclidean mountain biking? That's some next-level gnar, that 🙂

Went about the same time as V-brakes didn't they?

Yeah, some people still stick with em, but most people realised they were rubbish.

Lovely!
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Holy brake lever angle Batman!

 

Yeah, some people still stick with em, but most people realised they were rubbish.

Spot on. Same goes for

lycra
yellow helmets
short shorts
long shorts
hybrids
inbreds
straight bars
drop bars
Ti
hi-viz
gas cartridges
pumps
7spd
8spd
9spd
hub gears
derailleurs
any gears
inner tubes
26er
27er
29er
purple
pink
green
white
pastels
Seabrooks crisps

...and Blur.

In 2011, when that picture was taken, maybe he was running bar ends.

But now, he's on the wide bars with no 'ends.

look at the poor bastard, struggling away, wishing he had bar ends.

Remember when they first came out not all riders had them and they were considered such an unfair advantage on climbs that they weren't allowed at the world champs that year.

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I guess I fitted bar ends to the Niner for many of the reasons already menioned: different bar position,felt good on climbs, definitely better out of the saddle.
But they are coming off soon for the same arguments above: they are bracken catchers,they aren't needed so much now with wide bars etc

[i]they are bracken catchers,they aren't needed so much now with wide bars etc[/i]

etc = they totally ruin the look of your bike? 🙂

they are bracken catchers,they aren't needed so much now with wide bars etc

etc = they totally ruin the look of your bike?

don't agree with that at all

On a riser bar? Yea thats a wrong 'un
On a nice flat bar? they look great.