Touring bike - flat bars

[Dwn]

I have suddenly and unexpectedly found myself with £500 to spend on bike related stuff.

I'm thinking about buying a Triban RC500 flat bar bike, which seems well rated and fits my budget. It's the same frame as my current drop bar RC520 - bought with the intention of keeping it fairly basic, but since then slowly being converted into something more suitable for light touring.

I had thought about transferring the racks, mudguards, fatter tyres, and saddle to the flat bar bike and keeping the stripped back RC520 as a dry day/summer bike for day trips only.

The RC500 would become my day to day / touring bike. It's been a good few years since I was on a flat bar bike and I wondered how people find them for touring. I like drop bars but sometimes I suspect that what I actually like is the look of them!

Thanks

 

[mjr]

No experience of RC500 but one comment: you may find the different riding position requires a different saddle.

 

[Mo1959]

Even with bar ends I have always found I get numb hands with flat bars and usually have to shake them out every ten minutes or so to get some feeling back. Very rarely get it with drop bars. Just something to consider for doing longer distances.

 

[MichaelW2]

My commuter bike came with mtb flats. I switched them for On One Mary, with more sweep and a more neutral hand position. Fir touring you are probably better off with butterfly style trecking bars. You can still use flat bar controls but have a variety of hand positions.

 

[Flakey]

Got a Saracen Hack with flat bars and I love it. I added short rubber coated ski type bar ends that I find give me plenty options for changing grip so sore/numb hands or wrists have never materialised. I find that on drops I spend about 95% of the time on the hoods anyway. Only difference is I have my flat bars a little lower.

 

[Aushiker]

I have toured on my mountain bike without any issues and now days I bike-pack on my fat bike which has a Jones H-Bar fitted. I also haven't felt the need to change my saddle from road touring bike nor from my roadie.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I changed my winter bike over to flat bars so I can use bar-mitts, but I would echo @MichaelW2 , and tell you that for touring, a trekking bar may be more useful and adaptable. More hand positions, more space on the bar as well for accessories.

 

[contadino]

Two drop bar bikes and one flat bar in my stable. The flat bar is for around town as it's not as comfortable for anything more than 5 or 6 miles - numb hands and aching wrists. The flat bar is maybe a bit better in traffic but if I'm out 'for a ride' I'll always opt for one of the others. YMMV

 

[mickle]

Part of the issue with 'flat' bars us that most of them are designed to be ridden in the (mountain bike) 'attack' position, that is to say, with teeth gritted and elbows out. When you straighten your elbows on a bike equipped with such a bar your wrists end up in a very unnatural position. For the life of me I cannot understand why the majority of city bikes are fitted with flat bars. The remedy is a bar with a generous (greater than 5 degrees) sweep. What used to be called a North Road bar.

 

[12boy]

I've tried flat bars with and without bar ends and like Contadino suffer after 10 miles or so. Ergon grips also help but don't fix the problem. Like Mickle, I do well with North Road bars and also with moustache bars, both of which provide different grip choices and a more, for me at least, natural grip position. These bars , mated with horizontally mounted road bike levers also provide for powerful braking with little effort. The moustache bars with their forward sweep put your hands in roughly the same position fore and aft as flat bars. The North Roads may require a longer stem to achieve that.

 

[MichaelW2]

I have toured on my mountain bike without any issues and now days I bike-pack on my fat bike which has a Jones H-Bar fitted. I also haven't felt the need to change my saddle from road touring bike nor from my roadie.

View attachment 506824

Lovin the Ergon cork grips. Well worth the outrageous price.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I don't think I could tour on flat bars, I only have flats on my hybrid / town bikes that I go a couple of miles on to the pub / supermarket. It's the same reasons mentioned by others already, my wrists get sore and hands go numb on flats after a good few miles. Of course on drop bars you don't need to be on the drops... I probably alternate 40/40 between the hoods and the "shoulders" just back from the hoods, both are comfortable in different ways and it's dependent on whether I'll need to brake or change gear any time soon. The remaining 20 percent is between the top of the flat part and the actual drops. Even then I only use the drops for descending (it's better for braking and steering at higher speeds), so it's not a position I'm in for long.

While I respect that you like the current bike, I personally wouldn't want to spend a nice windfall on what is basically another of the same bike. Would you not fancy something a bit different?

 

[Dwn]

Thanks for the replies. I'm leaning away from the flat bars, and it's partly something that a few of you identified - the range of hand positions available. I know that I could supplement these with a different set-up, but it adds further cost - and I'm not sure my other half would be entirely sympathetic.

While I respect that you like the current bike, I personally wouldn't want to spend a nice windfall on what is basically another of the same bike. Would you not fancy something a bit different?

That's a good question. The two main reasons for this are comfort and money. £500 doesn't get much in terms of bikes, and decathlon are pretty good value at that price point. The rc500 is essentially the same frame as my rc520, which I find comfortable. Something racier would be attractive but (for me) that way lies back pain.

Decisions, decisions - my windfall just isn't enough!

 

[oldwheels]

While I still have a couple of old bikes with drop bars I have not used them now for at least 10 years. Non of my present fleet in use have an easy option to convert from flat to drop tho’ in theory it is possible and has been done on Bike Friday and Brompton. The 1980’s mountain bike had bullhorn bars when I got it but I cut them back and with bar ends have toured on this around the Hebrides. Much depends on the geometry being right for the person I think.

 

[mickle]

On a recent tour I whiled away the time by counting how many hand positions my fairly tradish touring drops (Nitto Noodle) gave me. I found 14. I'm one of those who need to move around a lot on the bars to relieve pressure on my elderly wrists. I'd be interested to test ride some of these new extra wide gravel drops, they look weird as fark, but I'm intrigued by their shallow flared drops. There's a lot of thought going into handlebars atm.