[RollingNoMad]

Bike Touring/BikePacking with MTB Handlebars

Feedback is needed and I am going to use the Thorn eXp Flat Handlebar - 12.5 Deg - 31.8mm Clamp - 680mm on my Soma Saga Disc Touring Bicycle and I can't use drop bars anymore with Barend shifters and my Question is what do you think? and my old Surly LHT had Raceface Ride XC handlebars and I will update more ASAP
I want from Hoods for Flat mountain bike Handlebars on my old Surly LHT touring bicycle with Salsa Bell Lap Cyclo Cross handlebars to Raceface ride xc flat mountain bike Handlebars 580mm and my new Soma Saga Disc Touring Bicycle Touring with PNW Coast gravel handlebars wide 480mm and I am having a hard time with my BarEnd Shifters and Drop Bar brake levers with my right bad hand with carpal tunnel and I use to MTB Handlebars and BMX bike Handlebars

 

[maelochs]

I don't know why you need feedback. If these are what work for you, your body will give you the only feedback needed, just as it gave you the feedback you needed to know to stop using the drop-bars you previously equipped.

I might experiment with a butterfly-bar .... having done some longer rides/short tours with a flat-bar bike, I can see where different hand positions might be good for the whole body, if you ride for hours at a stretch ... but the myth that you cannot tour on flat bars is disproven by the hundreds of people I have seen post photos online of their flat-bar touring rigs ... many of these folks have covered whole continents on flat-bar bikes, bike-packing, with panniers, or with trailers, or some combination.

If your bike is well-fitted to your body, flat bars are fine for distance. If you find you want bar-ends or something ... then you will do that.

Also, I see no reason why you couldn't attach aero clip-ons to flat bars. Some tourers use clip-ons not to get under the wind (or not entirely) but to be able to rest on their elbows, to relax the rest of their bodies a little.

One a tour I passed a guy coming through (I think) the Colorado/Kansas transition zone, where the winds were insane. We were going in opposite directions so I couldn't ask him about it, but he looked so comfortable, laying down on his armrests and spinning away up the endless rolling hills in the high winds ....

 

[maelochs]

The caption for this Facebook photo is "4 years. 25000km. 26 countries"

Flat-bar touring is obviously impossible.

 

[RollingNoMad]

View attachment 55868
The caption for this Facebook photo is "4 years. 25000km. 26 countries"

Flat-bar touring is obviously impossible.

My Old Surly LHT 26in Touring bike with flat handlebar from 2011 to 12-2020 Stealth bike camping in San Diego county

 

[maelochs]

Beautiful.

 

[newleaf150]

Those are some gorgeous loaded bike pics. Makes my heart just flutter.

On the OP front, Mr. Maelochs covered matters nicely. To pile on, there is also a whole segment of cycle tourists who ride on dirt and call themselves 'bikepackers'. Many bikepacking rigs run some sort of flat bar, the routes can get pretty epic in terms of distance. On something like the Great Divide Route, that can look like 2700mi of mostly dirt roads. People race and ride it on flat bars every year. I have also read a few accounts of cycle tourist/bikepackers who did the Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego (extreme tip of South America) ride with flat bars.

For myself, I love flat bars for playing in the dirt. Riding pavement, I still really like them but have run into problems with hand numbness and wrist pain on extended rides. That doesn't happen to everyone, but it is an issue for me. I resolved it back when by going to trekking bars. Eventually, I bought the touring bike I did (2011 Novara Safari) in part because it came with trekking bars where all its competitors featured drop bars. I'm fine with drops for other people, but they've never worked for me.

One potential alternative to flat bars might be something like the Jones H Bar or Surly Moloko. These are both reminiscent of flat bars, though with an ergonomic back sweep and added structure to provide multiple hand positions. As something of a bonus, both offer added real estate for the attachment of bags, lights, and so forth.

In the end, if flat bars work for you, that's awsome. I'm a bit jealous. I love the flat bars that came on my Surly Ice Cream Truck, but it appears my hands and wrists may not. The discomfort is different than I've experienced before, but I have begun considering alternatives. If your bike is comfortable, it will get ridden. Make it comfortable. Whatever that looks like.