Still Obsessing Over Handlebars

This past week one of the original Gary Bars came up for auction on eBay, and I won it.  It is one of my favorite handlebars, and I was disappointed when it got redesigned into the Gary II.  I have tried to find a new bar which is comparable, but nothing out there has the shallow drop of the original Gary or the old On-One Midge bar (which seems to be discontinued).

 For comparison's sake, I set the bars on the table, and measured from the table top to the top of the clamp area, on each bar.  The original Gary measures about 4-3/4 inches.

The new Gary II, at 6-1/2 inches has 1-3/4 inches more drop.  It might not sound like a lot, but, looking at it from the side:

The difference is pretty noticeable, in use.  That much more drop means that you have to have 1-3/4 inches more of your stem quill showing (on my bikes) or a really severe upward angle on a threadless stem.  This is why I took the Gary II off of the RockCombo, and went with a mustache bar.  The quill was out so far with the Gary II that it would flex as I stood and climbed the hill on Dahlia, every morning.

The Woodchipper falls between the two Gary Bars, drop-wise.  At 5-3/4 inches, it has one inch more than the Gary, and 3/4 inches less than the Gary II.  On my old 29er frame, this bar was pretty usable. That bike has a pretty high head-tube, so I was able to use a reasonable number of spacers under the threadless-style stem.  But, it is pretty wide:

The Woodchipper is in the background, the Gary is in the foreground.  And, the original Gary is wider than the Gary II:

The Gary II seems more like a road bar, to me, than an off-road drop bar.

Speaking of which, I find it odd that none of the three bars, each advertised as being designed for off-road use, will accept mountain bike shifters or brake levers (without modification).  I've managed to shoehorn thumbshifters and v-brake levers on each of these, but it takes some doing.  And, forget it if you want to use GripShift gear changers.

I am happy to have another pair of the original Gary Bars, though.  I have liked them a lot on the XO-2, and I am glad to have a spare.  In fact, if I ever see more come up on eBay, I'll be bidding on them.

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