Anyone try it? Anyone like it? Anyone hate it?
I’m receiving a wonderful frame from a wonderful person very soon. It’s an old tri frame and I had the passing thought of putting some Stratos on it. Obviously this is all subjective, just looking for random thoughts on the idea.
I recall Supervillain was going to do something awfully similar with his Peugeot tri bike…pics, dude?
I like the look a lot. Be sure to use TT levers and not aero levers, though.
Absolutely^
if you’ve got downtube shifters it would be rad. there’s a rad bike here that occasionally runs bulls (he’s always changing his bars). i think he ran bar-end shifters and it wasn’t as nice, he had cables running all over the place.
all setups like this that i’ve seen have been really jackass.
like cheap road bikes with chop n flip bars that kept normal brake hoods, ugh. usually with unwrapped bars. then again, i also have seen several road bikes with the rear brake removed for no reason.
if you can do it respectably, i’d like to see.
Yes on the downtube shifters. The Stratos and the frame both have internal brake routing so I don’t think it would be too busy looking. As stated, TT levers are also on the list of must haves to pull this off nicely.
I think I’ve convinced myself…?
it think it would work. if not, it’s easy to switch.
I have been doing base training on a Mark V with Bull Horns. Not exactly a road bike, it is a fixed gear, but I have been clocking in some roadie type miles on it over the last three weeks. Basically I am doing 75 miles 2x a week on this setup. I have Nitto bullhorns with TT levers. It is not bad, but you are making comfort sacrifices to go with bullhorns, with no real gain except aesthetics.
For one if you get Bullhorns that drop from the stem before they curve, prepare to suffer! I had the Nashbar bars and they were murder on my wrist! and too much distance out to the ends puts both the brake levers and the “hood” simulator too far away!(another flaw of the nashbar horns!) My nittos solved both these problems reasonably well, even though the brakes are way out there!
The thing to remember is that these bars were not designed to be ridden the way “we” ride them. Bullhorns are meant to be a platform for aero bars. The drop before the curve does not affect them because you would never hold them on the tops. The long reach to the brakes isnt an issue because you are already riding in a forward position, on your forearms!
Correctly set up road bars, with hoods, are identical to bull horns, except you also have drops! The argument that bullhorns have so many positions is crap! There are two positions! and road bars have 3!
All that said, I like the look of my IRO with bullhorns, and for my “LSD” base miles I dont need the option of drops. So I will keep it set up as is for now, But I would never ride this way on a real ride, where I was trying to hold a fast tempo!
Hope this helps…
[quote=“Quinn8it”]
Hope this helps…[/quote]
Thank you.
I’m thinking I’m going to make this bike a dedicated roadie. SPS-SLs, nice wheels, two bottle cages, etc. I’m going to do a lot of long rides on it. Thing is, I’ve noticed on long rides I don’t use the drops a whole lot, aside from fast descents and the occasional sprint.
I have tried similar set ups before with my Rush Hour(RIP) and did have reach problems. Those Nitto RB-021s are bullshit, especially with TT levers. You have to superman that shit just reach the brake. I want a shorter stem, but I ditched that set up right quick. I also had a pair of Stratos on there for a time with a TT lever, it worked well. Again, I could’ve had a slightly shorter stem But I liked the feel of it. The Stratos also come in a 0* and 5* drop, I think I had the 5* and loved them. They give just enough drop so you can certainly get aero if you want but without having your back horizontal all the time.
Anyway, my main reason for probably putting bullhorns on is the want to try something a little different and the fact that I don’t always use drops to their fullest. Of course if it doesn’t work out, I’ll have some drops on hand.
pics when your done please.
You need to train yourself to be in the drops… especially for the track!
My other concern is that if you shorten your stem, you bring the top of the bar too close, just to get the brakes in, effectively making one of your two hand positions shittier…
And my problem with the bullhorns with drop is not the height of the bar out on the horn, it is that most of them dont have a flat top. so the place you grab the bars the most is at an angle. It really started to hurt my wrist! I know a bunch of guys at the track who quit using “track drops” because the tops slope and they put your hands to sleep while you are warming up…
I use the Stratos 200 on my road bike. Works fine. Upgraded dt shifters to brifters which works fine too. Just had to set the levers up all the way on the tips of the bars.
I love bullhorns on a road bike, if I hadn’t switched to STI shifters, I would still be riding that way. I put the bars on my SS and I use TT levers but I had no problems with the aero levers; in fact, if I hadn’t used the aero levers on a bike I sold, I would probably prefer them to the TTs. Here is a pic of the SS with both, I think the aero levers looked better and I think the stopping power was a little stronger with them too.
That shit is ghetto
The only problem I see with those bikes is the hellacious saddle angle.
[quote=“Quinn8it”]You need to train yourself to be in the drops… especially for the track!
My other concern is that if you shorten your stem, you bring the top of the bar too close, just to get the brakes in, effectively making one of your two hand positions shittier…
And my problem with the bullhorns with drop is not the height of the bar out on the horn, it is that most of them dont have a flat top. so the place you grab the bars the most is at an angle. It really started to hurt my wrist! I know a bunch of guys at the track who quit using “track drops” because the tops slope and they put your hands to sleep while you are warming up…[/quote]
True about training myself to be in the drops more often. I want to get an early start on getting back in shape so when track season comes I’m not out of breathe after only a few fast laps.
As far the reach goes, I’m gonna see exactly how this new frame feels, it might fit better than the Rush Hour, which was a hair too long on the TT. The Stratos are pretty comfortable all around, I had them angled just slightly up and that combined with the slightly bent back flats made for a nice set up. Maybe I’ll actually put some aero bars on it??? This is all hypothetical at this point.
Also, yeah, track drops are pretty lame. Even on the track. I might look into a complete TK2 for next season and will probably switch those bars out. Although I’d like to try those 125aas or those Nitto ergo track drops before completely dismissing them.
Whoops.
rb-018-ftw (with respect to horns).
Fine. Fine! Here’s my Peugeot. Magic hour light + mediocre point’n’click = crap focusing. I’ll have to take some better pics later, but these show the bullhorns well.
I wish the levers were silver but whatever. Most bullhorns may have two positions, but anyone who has used the Stratos’ knows they have three. Flats for going slow or giving your neck a rest, back of horns for climbing/sprinting, and forward in the horns for hammering/cruising/gettin aero.
I did have drops on this bike, but the frame is about 2cm too small for me and I was hunched over too far in the drops for comfort. Plus the old drop bars were making a sketchy creaking noise. So I switched to the Stratos’ and switched from a 90mm stem to a 110mm. Much better. Then I got SPD-SLs. And 600 calipers. And now I’m thinking about a new wheelset, etc.
It is all very touchy with respect to sizes… I am running the Deda track drops on my track bike. I hate that my hands go numb while riding on the tops, but I like the depth of the drop on the frame I am on now. My previous frame was quite a bit smaller and the same bars were too low in the drops… I could probably work it out with different bars and stem, but I am happy while I am in the drops, so 90% of the time…
