BarEnds

Ok kids, here I am at home because I don't have anyone

to go with to Mt. Faber. StairRider Deck is missing in action

and NoLights Louie is climbing a molehill errrr... ahem.. a hill (???)

in Bedok Reservoir (??)

So, with nothing to do, I go and write about barends...

hehehe now that should give you an idea of how bored I am.

Anyway, I started mountain biking on August 2008.

Like any newbie, my greatest weakness is climbing.

I read through MTBR.com and went through the expensive

routine of upgrading/lightening my bike. After all the upgrades

were done, I realised I only needed three things to climb

decently : 2. SPD pedals and cleats, 3 light wheelset and

4. barends. That's it! Ok, no. 1 is missing. No. 1 should

be fitness and practice climbing but that's beside the point

because we are talking about equipment.

From left to right : Ergon, Cane Creek attached to an ODI grip,
and KCNC barends

My first barend is from Ergon that I bought from Hup Leong.

My second is a Cane Creek that I bought for 5$.

My third is a pair of KCNC anorexic barends.

I didn't bother publishing the actual weights because with barends,

weights don't matter. What matters is it's effectiveness in 

giving you comfort and additional leverage when climbing.

If you also notice, I grouped the 3 pairs of barends together.

This is because although they look like very different from 

each other, they provide almost the same hand placement

(for me). That hand placement is always near the end (side?)

of your straight handlebar.

Although I get addtional hand positions for climbing,

I always ask myself  'what if i could place my hand on top

of the handle bar'? Roadie Rio told me one night @Mt. Faber

that I need to get a Colnago roadbike for that because

the handposition that I am looking for corresponds to the

top of the hoods of a roadbike (!!!).

Long, curved barends. There's a screw at the base of
the 'horn' part of the barend which enables it to be angled up.

Now enter these cheap, old school barends which I bought

at this bikeshop at the basement of SM Megamall for 300PHP

(less than 10SGD).

I have been using this barends for my Sunday Trail rides since

last November. I put my hands at the top end of the barends

and I climb Rifle Range Road... and it's bliss :-)

I climb Mount Faber... sigh ... nice feeling :-)

I will not tell you that these barends gave me more comfort

or more hand positions or more leverage or that it opened

my chest area so that I could breathe more. No, you won't get

those from me. I could not feel those. The only thing I could

feel is that the handpositions that there barends provide

are the 'correct' ones.

Of course, these observations are purely from my point

of view alone. If you interview StairRider Deck about his

CaneCreek barends or CrestPursuit Owen about his Ergon

barends, I'm quite sure they'd think I'm smoking pot :-)

Left figure shows how I feel when I use Ergon, Cane Creek and KCNC.
Right figure shows me using the cheap, old school barends