I used to own the RM-013 long ago but then changed to the 56cm Albatross on my 62cm/62cm seat/top tube custom Franklin road bike. The 013 was "okay", but not great enough that I kept it. I'm changing back to a drop bar and used the bikepacking list as a useful starting point. Mostly I wanted a shallow-er drop and short-er reach drop bar because I'm using some modern Tektro RL-341 levers, the small hand version(same body, shorter, closer-in levers). Compared to how road levers used to be, those Tektro small hand versions have about the same length and reach to the lever as vintage Campy, and when mounted they are on about the same plane as the bottom of the drops. Of course, the lever bodies are so much longer now, hence, I don't need so much reach in the bar.
I really wasn't keen on anything until I dove into the Zipp Service Course 70 XPLR. It's a rough texture silver, kinda odd, but yeah so what since it's getting taped and I'll take function over fashion every time. I bought the 46cm, which is 52cm at the ends. With it's modest flare and outsweep riding the hoods feel like a regular drop bar. The top has a slight backwseep also, which is really quite nice to feel as I never liked straight tops since the wrists don't conform to straight. The top is oval also, very nice in hand ! It's a 31.8 clamp, which seems to clamp more efficiently , and I only use open face zero or positive rise stems anyway. Yea to threadless quill adapters for the adaptability. I love most of the "vintage" design of many things except when it comes to stems with negative rise and enclosed clamps. I mean they look wonderful but they don't apply practically for my sensibilities. >From the bikepacking article of the SC 70 XPLR : *There are two metrics that set these bars apart from others in this list: outsweep and flare. Something that often bothers me about more dramatically flared bars is that the brake hoods sit at an awkward angle. It’s not always a problem as different bars are angled and tweaked differently, but sometimes the bend at the point of flare exaggerates the angle of the levers, making grabbing them from the drops a little awkward. At any rate, Zipp’s goal was to develop a bar with a hoods-dominant position at the forefront, in turn, solving some of these issues. I ride in the hoods much of the time, or with my hands resting on the bar curve just behind the hoods, so this piqued my interest. To accomplish this—and maintain control in the drops—Zipp landed on 5° flare and 11° outsweep.* *The bar’s drop shape features 70mm reach, but the drop is a shallower 115mm. The service Course also features an ergonomic top with 3° backsweep, 100mm clamping area on top of bar, Di2 bar end junction compatible.* On Friday, December 9, 2022 at 11:15:28 PM UTC-5 Philip Williamson wrote: > I only ride flared drops. The flare in flared drops are mostly for wrist > clearance out of the saddle or in technical body-English situations. I feel > the width changes from the hoods to the hooks to the ends are also > beneficial for different modes during a ride: aero cruising, control on > technical trails or descents, and leverage for honking up a loose hill. > > I’ve settled on Nitto RM-3s from Blue Lug or Somafab. It’s my favorite. > The 25.4 is often out of stock, but is my favorite bar. I have them on > three bikes; my Fitz Supermoto, Quickbeam fixed gear, and Bontrager road > bike. The angled hoods are very comfortable to me, and the drops give great > control. I set flared bars up high, so the hooks are the main position, but > I use the hoods and tops, too. > > The On-One Midge bar is similar to the RM-3; I like it almost as much. > The RM-013 someone else mentioned is also a good bar. Deeper, more reach, > and less flare. > On the other end of the spectrum is the Woodchipper, which is short, > shallow, and flared. The hooks aren’t angled much, but the tops are wide. > > You can see the RM-3s on my Quickbeam here on Instagram: > https://www.instagram.com/p/ClKbS02PGoN/?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE= > > Philip > Sonoma County, Calif > > On Friday, December 9, 2022 at 6:36:15 AM UTC-8 bjmi...@gmail.com wrote: > >> Hey everyone! >> I posted earlier about reach in converting to a wider bar and decided to >> start a different conversation to get opinions on wide-ish, flared drops. >> >> I like the Nitto Noodle quite well, but I think I do want a little flare >> and I don't want to bend them myself. So what's good out there? I'm tempted >> by the Crust Towel Rack, but I'd love to hear what you all like. >> >> If it helps/matters, the kind of riding I do with the bike it's going is >> casual rails-to-trails, some rolling gravel roads, but nothing too >> technical or serious. >> >> Thanks! >> Ben >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/d3c427f2-5d17-49d9-99ea-c9c6dfcdefe6n%40googlegroups.com.
