So I’m posting recent pics. Don’t get excited. Click the pic for larger image.
 | Shifters on a set of bullhorns. This is a commercially produced bullhorn/stoker handlebar. The brake levers are standard time trial brake levers. The shifters are standard Shimano bar-end shifters, mounted to a Pauls Thumbies bracket. Google Pauls Thumbies if you don’t know what they are. The bracket is the only non standard piece of equipment in this whole setup.Buy Pauls Thumbies.You must use the 26mm road thumbies, and you must shim them. Electrical or cloth tape works fine. It’s a small detail and always forget until someone asks me. |
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 | It is a very natural fit. I was worried about the tightening screw on the bracket there in the web of my hand as being a problem during riding. It absolutely is not a problem – not even uncomfortable. It only looks like it’s going to be in the middle of my hand because of the angle I had to hold my arm and take the picture at the same time.In fact that little nubbin provides a nice little upward lip in which to rest your hand when riding, sort of an upward stop. I ride with gloves so that may have something to do with it, but if it were that much of an issue it’s easily padded/covered. It’s not, so I don’t. |
 | There is excellent control of both the brakes and the shifting. You get better mechanical advantage with the levers then you do with STI or standard “drop” brake levers. As you can see this is more of a direct pull. Shifting is simple and solid, using thumb or index finger while you’re riding – all you hear is “snick” “snick” “snick” as you switch between gears. (yeah okay well not THIS side, the other side. Just shaddap already.)The brake levers have a return spring – it’s absolutely mandatory to have that but most of them come that way these days anyhow. The shifter mechanism is not in any way spring operated, but is not difficult to shift back and forth in the least. |
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 | You can see the shifter cable and adjustment barrel leaving the shifter. If you pay attention you’ll see the brake cable taped along the bottom of the bars. The two do not interfere with one another, and mount cleanly.Incidentally, I didn’t realize until I put these pictures up that theres a smidgen of rust inside my brake lever bolts. You can see it in the pictures. Going to have to do something about that I guess. Heh. |
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 | You can see the shifter cable spiral one rotation down to the downtube mounting brackets… Kinda cool. |
I get a lot of incidental traffic on this blog from search engines on this topic. People hit me up all the time about it. Bullhorns on a geared bike. Tonight I got a question about a blog entry I made last year on this topic. So anyhow – here you go.
I’m doing this very thing on the Raleigh – and am considering doing it on my Long Haul Trucker. We shall see.
Onward.
Thanks for the awesome right up! Been contemplating a setup like this myself as I love bullhorns but also like using physics to my advantage (aka gears are useful).
word.
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hallo from tokyo japan
I’ve been lookin for a nice combination of bullhorn+shifter!
your thumbies are really good!!!
I really appreciate this. I just did it to my own bike about an hour ago. I’m running 25.4 Soma Urban Pursuit bars and Cane Creek 200TT brake levers. In a frenzy of road stuff, I ordered the 26.0 Thumbies by mistake, but shimmed them almost perfectly by cutting in half and double-layering the shims that came with the brake levers, so all is good. I recommend this setup.
A few questions (my bike isn’t done yet):
- Does the derailleur housing bug your hands when you’re gripping the bars?
- Does the reach seem long when you’re riding?
A few questions (my bike isn’t done yet):
- Does the derailleur housing bug your hands when you’re gripping the bars?
Not even a little. Very comfortable.
- Does the reach seem long when you’re riding?
Yeah, if you’re going to do this, you’ll want to get a shorter stem. And by short I mean 70-80mm. At least thats what I had to do.
For shims – now I just use a couple turns of cloth tape and that seems to work great. Clean and easy.
Best of luck
Anybody get any views on these: http://www.teamcyclist.com/store/Delta-Handlebars-MTB-Ergobars-Black_P13291C22.cfm?DC=1 …. obvioulsy keep the controls on the flat bar ? I really want use Bulls but would like to utilize my XT Shifters Brakes (without cost) – Any thoughts/pics ? I’m building an 09 Surly CC just now and would rather wrap those in leather tape and spend the money on wheels Hubs? Many Thanks Rob – Brighton
Gross
Thanks for the great idea. I put this setup on my new Salsa La Cruz. I ended up cutting the ends off some road bars and flipping them upside down since the 38 cm pursuit bars’ reach was too long. It worked out great, the position is very similar to my regular road position.
Did I see you at Recycled Cycle? I just saw someone else with an orange Salsa who did this same thing too.
Yes, that was me. Did you see my pretty new La Cruz? I am 5’4″ and this is one of the few bikes I HAVE NO OVERLAP with. I think I’m going to marry this bike.
HA. Awesome. I actually talked to you for a quick second – said something along the lines of you know I did this very thing to my bike.
Yeah, she was a sexy beast, no doubt. Salsa is pretty dope. Glad it works out for you!
here is another setup:
http://www.loro.co.jp/custom/f1-3.jpg
yeah, they’re interrupter brake levers clamped to the ends.
Man, this is brilliant! Thanks a bunch for the idea!
Thumbies are so great for weird custom bike setups. I am contemplating the possibility of riding bullhorns, but I am a bit afraid of the reach. My actual setup is a 9 cm stem coupled to a compact 8 cm reach road bar. This means 17 cm total. With the usual 15 cm reach of most bullhorns, this would mean a 2 cm stem. I am not sure it even exists. And if it does, it would look pretty weird…
im in the process of building a 1×9 road bike with bullhorns and found this really really helpful, thank you. out of curiosity though.. why would one have to use 26mm thumbies, the bars im running are 22mm. why not just run the 22mm mountain thumbie? thanks, much obliged