shifter/brake combo for cowhorn handlebars



insertnamehere

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Jul 6, 2005
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Hello everyone. I've had a pretty decent mountain bike for the past few years, but it's been neglegted and needs quite a few replacement parts as I never had any cash while I was at university. I'm going to fit a whole new drivetrain in the next few weeks, but that's not a problem. These days I mostly use the bike for city riding and touring with the occasional trail ride thrown in for good measure.
I really like the riding position offered by cowhorn type handlebars and want to fit a set on my bike. The problem is shifters and brakes. I want a set of all in one brakes/shifters like the ones common on road bikes, but I can't find any suitable for use on cowhorn type handlebars. I read on another forum that these things do actually exist and are fitted on some high spec triathalon bikes but thats as much as I have managed to find out so far.
I use avid v-brakes and will be fitting a full new XT 27 speed drivetrain.
Can anyone help me find this elusive component???
 
I was in the same boat a few months ago, and I could not find a way to make this work until *after* I took everything apart and resorted to drop road bars.

Basically, what you can do is just stick a pair of STI levers on the cowhorns, but leave the brake cables exposed (i.e. run them straight to the brakes/braze-on without trying to conceal them). If you try wrapping them along the bar, your brakes will not work well at all.

I found a pic of a bike with this setup, I'll try to find it, but it was NOT pretty. But it worked.

Your only other choices are to use the brake levers that go in the end of the cowhorns, and try to rig up the shifting somehow, or use bar-ends and some other sort of brake lever. Good luck.
 
I have a pretty standard mountain bike setup at the moment, with cables running pretty much all over the place so I wouldn't worry about not being able to wrap the cables along the bar. I'm not mad into aerodynamics or anything. I just want to make my bike a bit nicer to ride.
I was thinking about getting a set of Syntace stratos aerobars http://www.syntace.com/index.cfm?pid=3&pk=360
they have provision for internal cable routing, so I assume I could run the gear cables internally and just leave the brake cables loose. This would still be tidier than my current setup.
It would be great if you could find a photo of that setup so I would have an idea of what to expect.
Someone must make all in one levers for cowhorn bars though???
Thanx for the info.

ps I found the pic here http://www.velonews.com/tour2004/tech/articles/6434.0.html
It really aint pretty is it?
I reckon I might be able to make it tidy enough for my purposes though.
Thanx again.
 

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