really bad handlebar/lever setups itt

hahahhahaha
what

[quote=JLN]Those levers are a little low… right?

http://theradavist.com/2017/07/grants-matter-cycles-wolfbeard-is-a-capable-beast/[/quote]

  1. That bike is called a “wolfbeard”. It’s like MadLibs: Word overused in 2000’s band names ______ affected hairstyle popular with dudes in bands with “wolf” in the band name _____.

  2. It looks as if they privileged the super-flat transition from bar top to lever body, like the setup popular for road bikes these days (bc short HT and long hoods = de facto bullhorn positioning). It doesn’t look good, but maybe it’s doing something ergonomically satisfying for the rider?

  3. But then, the long flat bar/lever top spaces thing works on modern road bikes because there’s a lot of drop from the saddle to the bars, and this thing has no drop, I don’t see how that bar / lever setup wouldn’t create a lot of uncomfortable wrist angles. It’s like when people set up actual bullhorns with a positive rise stem and the bars parallel with the ground*, you wind up with an arm position like carrying a loaded tray at shoulder level.

  4. So basically it looks as if they took a fit concept from road bikes, but then tried to make it work with a short stem and flared, ultra compact handlebars, with a massive spacer stack, to boot. I don’t know a lot about setting up a bike to ride dirt, but it seems as if it would be hard to get any weight on the front wheel.

  • it’s the default setting for inexpensive mailorder fixed gears, maybe?

What the fuck is even actuating that brake? I’ve been staring at it for 5 minutes and I don’t understand.

Also, way to be bad at bikes, dude.

i have never hated anything more.

[quote=Wintage Townie]What the fuck is even actuating that brake? I’ve been staring at it for 5 minutes and I don’t understand.

Also, way to be bad at bikes, dude.[/quote]

But where?!

There’s the end of a lever visible behind the back end of the pump p

Oh, I see it now. I thought that was some steampunk accoutrement on the pump.

Quick, I need my pump!

This apparently belongs to one of the mechanics at a shop on my street.

And this one I had to take a photo of on the train this afternoon. That was the stock stem on a Look KG 196…

That’s an $85 pump mounting bracket.

Wasn’t the clown from Velo Orange pushing those nubs a few years back, when the company was still obsessed with recreating forgotten French cycling bullshit?

Old owner of VO, new owner(s) definitely more gravel bruh less quill stem.

Yeah, I would hope so, but didn’t they demo a new low-trail disc brake prototype that still inexplicably featured a goddamn quill stem? Between that and their staked out anti-tubeless position, it really seems like the new owners aren’t much different than the old one.

I still love the KG196 frame but the rest of that bike is abominable.

I’m curious to see if VO’s bread and butter is still the polished French reenactment parts or if they’re pulling in more money now from the gravelbro/bikepacking stuff like the Piolet

When I take those ergo bars off a bike, I don’t even save them for Recycled Cycles. I just put them into scrap, so that there are fewer of them in the world. Literally melting those turds into beer cans is a better use than letting some fool try to make them work with their bike.

Got a few like that at work, just not quite so curated.