North Road Bars (or similar)

[Danneaux]

Upside down North Road bars were de rigueur...

Good on ya, Mike. I'd likely have swooned at the sight. 

There may be some additional North Road variants for IanS to consider...

Does anyone remember the mid-/late-1970s 'bars fitted to Peugeot Mixtes? They were called "tourist" handlebars and were an abbreviated cross between a true straight handlebar and a North Road. I believe Phillipe made them, and there was at least one Japanese copy, either by Sakae Ringyo/SR or Nitto and perhaps both in two variations. I think I recall some Fuji mixtes sporting the latter.

One type was essentially straight except for a rise from the stem and could be easily inverted or rotated forward without changing the grip angle. See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaspark/4104049234/

The other type was more like a North Road but with very little rearward sweep to the grips. An example, here: http://static.lfgss.com/attachments/40569d1306939511-north-road-1.jpg

I've always regretted not buying a pair 'cos they were just so pretty in my eyes.

A few years ago, I acquired a Nitto Arc 'bar among my Bridgesrtone dealer stuff. An example appears here: http://www.mikesbike.com/images12/BridgestoneXO5001.jpg  I plan to install mine on my full-sus recumbent when I finish brazing it. Soma market a near duplicate here: http://store.somafab.com/noahsarcbar.html Very comfortable even for me, a person who prefers drops. I'm running a 7-speed SRAM GripShift on them, and an appreviated handgrip; together the lot provide a nice, full hand grip; a Rohloff should work, I'd think.

I believe at least some of the above would accommodate a Rohloff shifter and reasonable grips, but can't guarantee it.

Best,

Dan.

[il padrone]

Dan, those bars you link to are all variants of riser bars, not North Road bars. North Roads have a much more pronounced sweep to almost 90 degrees (some would argue that even mine are only risers with a deeper sweep).

This is the typical North Road




Nitto's Albatross bar is another example




A comparison between the North Road and the Albatross, both from Nitto.

Moustache bars are really a much closer match to the North Road pattern, just that they don't have any rise. And I really hate the idea of fitting moustache bars with drop-bar brake hoods - awkward, ugly and foolish - just a hipster approach to flat-bar cycling  



 

[Andre Jute]

Well found, Il Padrone. Lovely photographs, and a fine pictorial answer to something I've long wondered about.

Dan, as you've by now learned, those bars you show are not North Road bars. You may be interested to know that I too have a pair, but modern, sold by Humpert in Germany, and fitted as a default standard to long range tourers (which they assume my Kranich will be in the absence of an instruction from the intending rider) by Utopia; it requires a semi-sporting position on the bike unless you go for a much shorter stem at the same time. I replaced it with new North Road steel bars I already had standing by. Pics in http://coolmainpress.com/AndreJute'sUtopiaKranich.pdf. I imagine the Humpert version probably comes from the same manufacturer as yours. If memory serves, Humpert calls theirs the Tourist and Utopia called it the Sports Bar, presumably because of the cyclist's posture with these bars when fitted on the standard stem.

Andre Jute

[ians]

this is all very helpful - and now I know what 'true North' bars should look like.

Came across this thread (what would we do without the internet?) http://www.lfgss.com/thread16416.html

ians

[pelago]

Here - that is a bike I have - are North Road Bars I suppose  http://pelagobicycles.com/stvanger365.html. My ex is with Rohloff.

The bike is manufactured by a small Finnish company.

[Andre Jute]

this is all very helpful - and now I know what 'true North' bars should look like.

Came across this thread (what would we do without the internet?) http://www.lfgss.com/thread16416.html

1. Looks to me like the one you already knew about, the Raleigh, is the one to have if you want to fit a Rohloff or other rotary gear control with a decent grip length, plus convenient angles for your brakes (i.e. not on the curve and sticking out at a long reach):


2. Further down the thread are some Nitto and VO boutique-priced bars, the Montmartre and so on. The same bars, by the same or another name, most likely made by Nitto, are available for decent prices from the German firm Humpert http://www.humpert.com/en/bikeparts/marke/produktart/einsatzbereich/produkt/?marke=ergotec&produktart=1&einsatzbereich=1&produkt=22 and some also from SJS at http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/handlebars-other-dept862_pg1/#page=2&page=2, though SJS appears to prefer the higher markup on the Nitto versions on the previous page (or perhaps their clientele is more snobbish than the down-to-earth people on the forum!). The reason I know that they are the same bars is because a few years ago one of my bikes was offered with a wide choice of handlebars by the current Nitto and VO names, those bars were definitely from Humpert, and they were same bars now sold under another name.

3. There's also the Royal handlebar from Pedersen http://www.pedersen.info/en/Pedersen_en/Models.html :

That one has the stem brazed on and is nickel-plated and is tres pricey, but there's one that fits a normal stem, not plated, same shape, which is only €65. Beautiful if you have a very tall steering tube, or use it upside down, and say casually, "Oh, I bent it up out back in the shed."

Off to perve the Pedersen catalogue again.

Andre Jute
The wicked and the lustful shall be damned... to bicycling!