By Greg Conderacci
Recently, RBR launched this new series to enlighten our ultra-cool readers about the benefits of dorkiness. In Part I, we explored the benefits of covering your $250 helmet with plastic screening material you can buy from a hardware store for a few cents.
Today, we’re going to do dorky things with handlebars, namely, layer in some gel padding and then triple wrap the bars so that they look fat and disgusting. After that, we’re going to tip them up at about a 30-degree angle. There is absolutely no reason for anybody to do this, except that it’s pretty darn comfortable.
Try this experiment. Swing your arms forward, in a relaxed way, to about where they’d be on a handlebar. You’ll notice two things: (1) your wrists are not bent forward, like they’d be on the tops of level handlebars and (2) your hands are not clenched as they would be on thin bars. You’re trying to duplicate this relaxed form on your bike. Also, (3) the extra padding absorbs a lot of road shock that would go to arms, shoulders, and neck.
Here’s the nice thing. It doesn’t cost much to give this a try. If you don’t like it, put it back to the way it was before.
Do you have a dorky tip to share? Don’t be shy. We’ll withhold your name upon request. Remember a dorky tip has one or more of these characteristics:
- Pro riders do not do it (nor does just about anybody else)
- It’s cheap or maybe even free
- It usually adds weight
- It will NEVER be featured in fancy bike catalogs, because, well, there’s no money in it.
Greg Conderacci is a marketing consultant and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, non-profit entrepreneur, and investment bank chief marketing officer. In Getting UP!, he brings you the same skills he teaches at a top graduate school and Fortune 500 companies. Lots of people promise better performance … Greg proves it. Using his energy techniques, in 2015 he rode a bicycle across America in just 18 days — averaging 150 miles a day.
This geezer cyclist has been covering handlebars with foam pipe insulation for years.
Ooooh. What a good idea! You’re in the running for the RBR Geezer of the Week Award!
Ooh am I eligible for that vaunted wrinkled yellow jersey?
2 excellent suggestions!!! Plus bye bye wrist-related discomfort, just for the sake of lookin’ cool 😎
I put a layer of handlebar tape on top of my bars for added padding. I also use 2-3 colors of tape on my bars, it matches my bike better and offers some padding.
I also put my brake lever slightly askew by rotating them inward just a bit, so when my hands are placed on top of the hoods my hands are in alignment and are not cantered off to the side.
Good idea! Me, too!
I’ve been using Grabon since it could be had from Bikenashbar for $6 a set in black, red blue, and yellow. Now it’s all black but still very padded for your hands. It’s possible to install it with brake housing at the same time using liquid dish soap and some physical wrangling. It lasts for several years. And when it wears thin near the hoods it can be turned by injecting water through it and rotating it. The soap will dry upon initial installation so that it won’t move. I have large hands and like the increased bar diameter also. Google it and it’s available for $20 plus shipping. I have several bikes and buy several sets each time.
Hillbillies in Missouri have hillbilly Ways. If you put pipe insulation on your handlebars and secure it with gorilla tape you will have achieved same result. It works for me. Good luck cheers Daniel
If you think you need to triple wrap your bars, or need thick gel gloves, that’s an indication that you are almost certainly putting too much weight on your hands and should get a good bike fit.
I think there is some validity to your comments however they do not consider that not all riders weighed 150 pounds. If you weigh 200 pounds plus more weight is going to be on your hands necessitating extra padding.
Agreed! Also, there are those of us with osteoarthritis in our hands/thumbs – this can and does happen well before we hit the date of being “aged”. Extra cushioning helps hugely.
Not really. The wrap is only 2 plys at most as I show off all 3 colors. The extra cushion dampens the vibration to my hands that both gave Dupuytren’s
Pete — That’s a key point. Over the years, I’ve had many fits and they’ve made a positive difference. AND, once one gets beyond a century and starts riding 300K, 400K, 600K brevets, 12- and 24-hour races, coast-to-coast tours, and similar cycling insanity, ANY little scrap of extra comfort is welcome.
I tried thick cushioned bar tape and it made my hands ache.
I had a $300 computer fit and they made a slight height adjustment on the seat post. But riding rough roads pound my rather large palms. I found rough roads at RAGBRAI and Ride the Rockies as well as on the county roads in MN. So as you say 5+ hours on a bike, every bit of comfort helps!
Tras comprobar que la preciosa cinta de manillar de Bontrager se estropeaba y la tenía que cambiar, no quité una estropeada y puse la nueva encima, quito la estropeada, la cambio y dejo la vieja debajo, hago brevets y he notado una gran mejoría en la comodidad. Unos pequeños acoples de triatlón en mi manillar me ayudan a tener otra posición más descansada para mis brazos, manos y espalda, para el cuello es un fastidio, pero voy cambiando las posiciones y me resulta cómodo, la parte de abajo del manillar de carretera no la utilizo, estoy por cortarla.
Riding rough roads like West Texas chip seal is much easier with a gel layer under the bar tape. At the end of the day your hands, wrists and forearms don’t ache.
Recumbents! If you truly want to be comfortable and dorky, you can’t go wrong with all the pressure in the correct place — your butt! ; )
Angling the bars up is easy, but it renders the drops useless unless you have the flexibility of a contortionist because they are so low and further away from you. So before putting all those layers of padding on the handlebars, take it all off. Then set the handlebars so the drops are in the most comfortable position for you. My preference is just a hair below level. Next, loosen the brake hoods and remove any tape holding cables to the bars, and raise the levers up to a position so that when you are seated and you put your hands on the hoods, your wrist is straight as if you were shaking hands with the brake hood. Tape the cable housing back on. Go for a test ride around the block just to confirm it is comfortable. Readjust if needed. Then put whatever you wish on for padding and bar tape.