Why shun steel drop bars?

Brian Huntley said:

I'm considering converting from upright to drop bars on my hybrid, and noticed I have a pair of
steel drops in my collection of parts. They'd fit the current stem as far as I can tell, and would
allow me to temporarily use my existing brakes and shifters while evaluating the suitability.

However, I've seen several recommendations against using steel bars.

Can someone tell me why steel bars are shunned? Is it just because of their incompatible (with
aluminum bars) diameter? Are they dangerous?

They're not dangerous, but they're needlessly heavy. You can no longer get drop-bar lever clamps to
fit the smaller diameter (7/8" / 22.2 mm)

The controls from your hybrid will physically fit on the bars, but the ergonomics will be all wrong,
especially the brake levers, which curve in the wrong direction. This will make it impossible to
grip the brake lever except very close to the pivot point, where leverage is poor.

Sheldon "Steel Frames, Yes; Steel Handlebars, No" Brown
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Brian Huntley said:

However, I've seen several recommendations against using steel bars.

Can someone tell me why steel bars are shunned? Is it just because of their incompatible (with
aluminum bars) diameter? Are they dangerous?

No, of course not. No more than others. They are declasse because they are heavier than aluminum
or carbon. But some groups, especially trackies, still use them since they do not flex as much as
the others.

On the other hand, your steel bars will likely be very narrow, since that was the fashion.
Wider bars are, IMO, nicer, so your evaluation of their usefulness for you needs to take that
into account.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | "What am I on? I'm on my bike, six hours a day, busting my ass. _`\(,_ | What are you on?"
--Lance Armstrong (_)/ (_) |

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

On the other hand, your steel bars will likely be very narrow, since that was the fashion. Wider
bars are, IMO, nicer, so your evaluation of their usefulness for you needs to take that into
account.

Unless you manage to find a shop that carries current-production steel drop bars in modern widths.
They do exist, but are quite hard to find, at least in the U.S. market.

--
[email hidden] is Joshua Putnam <http://www.phred.org/~josh/> Updated Infrared Photography Books
List: <phred.orgirbooks.htmlOpen ↗

Sheldon Brown said:

Brian Huntley said:

Can someone tell me why steel bars are shunned? Is it just because of their incompatible (with
aluminum bars) diameter? Are they dangerous?

They're not dangerous, but they're needlessly heavy.

In this day of 220g, 46cm double-grooved bars, the stiffness that comes along with steel drop
bars is difficult to characterize as needless. The wag in many alloy bars gives new meaning to
"fly by wire"!

Quoted message said:

You can no longer get drop-bar lever clamps to fit the smaller diameter (7/8" / 22.2 mm)

The controls from your hybrid will physically fit on the bars, but the ergonomics will be all
wrong, especially the brake levers, which curve in the wrong direction. This will make it
impossible to grip the brake lever except very close to the pivot point, where leverage is poor.

Flat bar levers work fine positioned either on the tops or on the drops. Either of these places
allows a firmer grip on the levers than that afforded by placement on the hooks. That placement,
reachable from either side but awkward from both, accounts for the higher leverage built into drop
bar levers IMO.

It appears to me that drop bar levers were designed more to provide a decent hand position on the
hoods, than to provide decent application of the brakes.

Chalo Colina

"Joshua Putnam" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:MPG.1922207d81923c239896af@localhost...

Quoted message said:

Unless you manage to find a shop that carries current-production steel drop bars in modern widths.
They do exist, but are quite hard to find, at least in the U.S. market.

--
[email hidden] is Joshua Putnam <http://www.phred.org/~josh/> Updated Infrared Photography Books
List: <http://www.phred.org/~josh/photo/irbooks.html>

I've found that steel bars seem to bend more easily than aluminum bars. I'm not sure if this is just
because they were cheap bars (typically steel bars are cheap..) or if they were poorly designed. But
they did seem to bend more often. Sometimes we would fool around on cheaper bikes in the shop and it
seemed like a lot of steel bars were messed up after out little fun sessions. Aluminum generally
held up better.

Cheers,

Scott...

Sheldon Brown said:

Brian Huntley wrote:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Can someone tell me why steel bars are shunned? Is it just because of their incompatible (with
aluminum bars) diameter? Are they dangerous?

They're not dangerous, but they're needlessly heavy. You can no longer get drop-bar lever clamps
to fit the smaller diameter (7/8" / 22.2 mm)

The controls from your hybrid will physically fit on the bars, but the ergonomics will be all
wrong, especially the brake levers, which curve in the wrong direction. This will make it
impossible to grip the brake lever except very close to the pivot point, where leverage is poor.

Thanks. I was thinking I'd mount the brake levers on the flat of the bar, and mount some old 22.2 mm
clamp levers in the normal place, just to get the feelof things (and so avoid recabling.)

The twist grips on the drops seem to make as much sense as bar-ends. Again, this is just to test
things out, and hopefully avoid buying unsuitable parts.

David L. Johnson said:

On the other hand, your steel bars will likely be very narrow, since that was the fashion. Wider
bars are, IMO, nicer, so your evaluation of their usefulness for you needs to take that into
account.

Good point, though I have two pair. I'll use the wider set. Thanks!