New Bars on the Road Bike

  As some of you surely remember, I replaced the handlebars on my CX bike with some Shimano PLT bars when I put new shifters on it. After riding that bike some, I started to like the way they felt better than my carbon BBB bars on my road bike. Fast forward a few months, and I decided to buy myself some new matching bars for my road bike. Here's the install!

The new bars

   Since the cable run internally through a guide in the old bars, I had to detach both shifter cables and both brakes to remove the old bars. I took the opportunity to inspect and replace my shifter cables and clean out and gunk around the brakes.

Unwrapping the old bars

   The curve of the new bars makes for a much more level place to hold onto:

How the hoods look and feel

   I much prefer a flatter gripping area, and these bars provide that really well. These bars also came with some markings on them that made it really easy to be sure they were lined up.

Markings on the handlebars

   Since there was no internal routing or cable guides on the new bars, I taped down the cables to the front of the bar. Once they were in place, I wrapped it all up in Handlebar tape (not shown)

Before taping

After taping

   I have taken it on a couple rides and the new bars feel great! In fact, the allow are a touch lighter than the older carbon bars, so everyone wins!