Bar Ends

I've noticed as time goes by that bar ends have dwindled away. For the most part, they were popular add-ons in the late 90's through the early 2000's and faded from the "popular" scene. Personally, I still use them on all my bikes and for good reasons.

For those weight weenies out there trying to justify the 100 grams or so for what bar ends weigh, please wander over to the next blog.

Bar ends provide three things for me as I ride; 1) alternate hand positions, 2) leverage on climbs, and 3) protection for the hands.

Alternate hand positions are nice when riding long distances or time. Depending on the type of bar end used, you gain from 1-3 primary grip locations. Even with a single straight stick type (no bends) you can get two additional grips; one grasping the full bar end and the other just grabbing the tip.

These added hand positions not only provide several hand positions when one gets tired of certain positions (something also done on road drop bars), those added positions also provide hand positions that increase the leverage the arms can provide either acceleration or attacking a climb. The principle is that the grip location is farther forward than the handlebar providing a longer lever arm to the pivot points (the bottom bracket and the rear wheel). This applies a better power multiplier to your output.

Lastly is the protection of the hands. A lot of times, people ask me about hooking trees with my bar ends. True, they can do that if you are not careful. But I generally have inward-facing or ski-bend style bar ends. If you look at the profile photo at the top of this blog, you can see how the ski bend can help to protect the hands. In very tight situations, they are great to bounce off of trees. They are also very good in crash situations. If I ever go down, I try to wrestle the bars down so I can land on the bar ends. They will hit first and plow themselves into the ground. They not only dig in to slow me down, but they protect my hands, taking much of the impact.