I just installed a Midge bar on my Fargo. I tried any number of flared, off-road drop bars including the Woodchipper and the Moustache bar, and never liked any of them (the M-bar has no "upright" flat position; the Woodchipper has a hook angle that is too sharp, meaning that, with the huge width, the hoods are too wide). I've also ridden 42 cm and 46 cm Noodles off road.
While the 42 cm Noodles were by far the most comfortable on pavement, they were far too narrow for safe control on winding, technical singletrack. The 46's simply had too much reach and drop for their width. WTB flares had far too shallow a flat and weird hoods; ditto for many of the clones. The M-bars -- which I tried half a dozen different times on different bikes, and on which I commuted for a year or two -- locked me in to basically a few, low and forward positions -- the M-bars felt best when low and forward like drops; when positioned high and close, they made me feel as if I was going to fall over sideways. Midge: this is 58 cm wide at end of hooks but this means that it has a 38 cm flat which is quite wide enough for a useful situp position. The flare to the hooks is great enough that the hoods are close enough together to approximate road hoods -- the Woodchipper's steeper hook angle meant that the hoods were almost as wide as the ends -- to damn'd wide. I've got my Midge about 1 cm above saddle and rotated as flat (ends of hooks) as I can get away with without compromising hand fit in the very, very, VERY small hooks. I use Tektro levers with long hoods that supply ramps that the short hooks don't have. In fact, the hoods position on the Midge, so set up, is as comfortable as or even more comfortable than that of any road drop bar I've used. I find 58 cm hooks too wide; the ideal would be, say, 54 at the ends -- if I could get this without compromising the hoods position. But, while I much prefer narrow road bars for pavement riding, the Midge seems to be the best compromise for road + dirt. On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 5:42 PM, jinxed <hbcl...@yahoo.com> wrote: > Over the last 5-6 months I have spent the majority of miles on the cross > bike. Did some racing, but mainly a bunch of mixed path/singletrack riding. > I have enjoyed it so much, and surprisingly become very comfortable with > drop bars off road. That said, I am thinking of switching up the All > Rounder for the upcoming spring-summer season. > > I've been riding it with my go to mustache bar setup, and some 40mm > marathonesque Bontrager tires. Essentially X01 in nature. I'm thinking > about throwing back on the fatty knobs and switching to something like a > woodchipper drop bar with some new style canecreek levers. Sort of a > monstercross I guess? > > I keep wanting to add some (additional) color to the bike with the bar > wrap, but the yellow of the frame is an extremely STRONG hue to get along > with. I've tried black, white, and natural cork, but meh. I was considering > trying to find one of those green brooks and matching the bars. Maybe a > dk.green / celery green harlequin would be cool?? > > Hit me up on your woodchipper thoughts and aesthetic preponderances! > > Here's the bike with the fattys on > it.<http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7267/6860650144_3fd1cbb6d8_c.jpg> > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- ------------------------- Patrick Moore, Albuquerque, NM, USA For professional resumes, contact Patrick Moore, ACRW http://resumespecialties.com/index.html ------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
