They're a bit hard to find in silver now, but the Zipp XPLR 70s come to mind. They have 70 reach and 12 degrees of flare. My son and I both have liked them a lot. My wife, however, didn't prefer the flare. I just put Zipp Ergo 70s (in silver) with more like 4 degrees of flare and still 7-mm of reach on her bike and it's going well. Velo Orange Nouveau Randonneur bars report 85mm of reach, but it seems short. But again 4ish degrees of flare. When held up to the Ergo 70, the reach felt similar. Finally, Soma just announced the Gritterium made ny Nitto with 78mm of reach and 15 degrees of flare. Currently 15% off. The first three have a somewhat oval/flat top that I find quite agreeable. The Nitto's have classic Nitto round tubing that I visually like, but my hands don't always prefer. I will say that I'm quite sensitive to bar position and reach, so I tend to prefer custom bikes with shorter top tubes in order to get that measurement right. I'm 6'1.5" and need a 50-60mm stem on most old school steel ride bikes to get my fit right otherwise. In order to dial her fit, I'd measure the distance from the tip of her saddle to bars and maybe the back of the hoods on her most comfortable road bike and try to duplicate that position. I'd also measure drop a weighted string from the tip of her saddle and measure where that is relative to the bottom bracket and duplicate that first as a starting point. That way you're position the saddle for the optional body position relative to the cranks and not using that to adjust reach. Once you sort that out, you can aim for that on the platypus and sort out if it's really possible. Good luck! Zach in ABQ On Saturday, September 13, 2025 at 8:39:09 PM UTC-6 Ryan Fleming wrote:
> Not sure what to suggest....but I like the look of the drop bars...just > gotta find her the right ones with shorter ramp meaning less of a reach , I > guess! > > Meaning it's not an abomination...just needs to be tweaked for > her....assuming she likes other aspects of the ride, not just the looks IMO > > Good luck! > > On Saturday, September 13, 2025 at 8:00:09 PM UTC-5 Ben Miller wrote: > >> So a while back I wrote about how my wife wanted to get her first >> Rivendell >> <https://groups.google.com/g/rbw-owners-bunch/c/oLMyXpVtbzo/m/UceLNbIiAwAJ>. >> She liked the look of the Platypus but had reservations about it being a >> "road bike." I assured her it could be a great road bike, as it is a great >> platform that can take on a bunch of different functions. So she was able >> to snag a complete Platy during the pre-sale. We discussed the alt-bar >> setup and I suggested she give a fair shake, but wasn't sure how she'd like >> the Albatross bars and friction shifting. She has really only rode drops >> and indexed brifters. >> >> Well, she's been riding the Platy for a few weeks now, and.... It's not >> been going well. She hates the friction barends and feels uncomfortable on >> the Alba's. It got to the point where she said something like "I think I >> hate this bike and though it's so pretty." Well now, I knew then and there >> the complete as-is build experiment was over. I began scheming and research >> bike parts to do a Platypus drop bar conversion. Paul minimotos, Nitto UI-2 >> SSB stem, Sim Works Wold Honey 31.8 rando bar, and Microshift R9 levers are >> what I settled on. >> >> Now, I know many will be like "Drop bar Platypus?? Sacrilege! An >> abomination!" But I honestly think any bike can be converted to drops. And >> well, I prefer drops. And if it gets Stephanie to like the Platy, I've done >> my job. >> >> I finished the conversion today. I really like the way it turned out. >> Unfortunately, although I think I nailed the stem, I think the Wild Honey >> bars aren't the right choice. Stephanie doesn't like the long ramps of >> them. She's only done a short test ride, we will go on a longer one >> tomorrow, but I'm guessing she'll still not like them. All her other bars >> are in the modern modern style of shorter ramps. I'm think the PNW Coast >> Bars might be a good alternative for her, but if you've got suggestions on >> 31.8 drop bars in silver with ~480 mm wide and decent flare, please pipe >> up. Bonus points for upward flare, like the rando bar style. (That's why I >> wanted the Wild Honey bars to work.) >> >> Anways, what are y'alls craziest drop bar conversions? The ones that >> everyone advised against and said it couldn't be done??? >> >> [image: 0093ac3f-b173-4bd3-a359-24762b86279b~1.jpg] >> > -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/01cb47d0-f445-4a4e-a388-92577f4668edn%40googlegroups.com.
