After several years of “going to”, I’ve finally fitted my old drop bars onto bluebell:
It pretty much fulfills what I wanted, but whether they stay long term is uncertain.
Here’s what I do know:
- Cables needed replacing because they weren’t long enough, but fitting new cables wasn’t a bad thing, it’s been a while
- Rohloff shifter on minotaur bar extended works ok
- It’s about 1 minute faster, bringing the quickest commute down to 45 minutes, that’s a record!
- It feels nicer when climbing
- Flat bar brake levers are better
- Flat bars with Ergon GP1s are more comfortable on the hands, arms and shoulders
- Gear changing is more difficult compared with flat bars
- I still can’t fit bar tape very well
- Finally my “It’ll come in useful one day” actually paid off.
- A shorter stem would put me in a better position, but I can live with it for a while (read forever)
Happy sweaty summer weather.
Tim's cycling blog 