My best bike part1 : the handlebars

Some people call the part of the bike where your hands go “the cockpit”.  This seems a bit OTT to me.
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The front end of the bike

My handlebars are 44cm wide ( I’m tall ) and have clip on tri bars attached, and a computer on the stem

The tri bars are the Profile Design ones with the folding arm rests.  But the folding arm rests got in the way and gave too high a position.  So I removed them with brute force and a hacksaw.  The arm rests are now a couple of short sections of pipe lagging in the centre of the bars.  This gives a good arm position and the pipe lagging is excellent for taking the sting out of bumpy roads.  I have had comments that the arm position is now too low on the bars. However, the bars themselves are high so it works out fine

On the tri bars I have a route sheet holder.  It’s homemade from two layers of corrugated plastic (correx).

The computer is a Sigma Sport 1600.  It is very ordinary but the best feature for audax rides is it’s “trip up” distance counter.  This is independent of all the other distance counters and can be reset easily.  It can also be “Set” to a specific distance with a bit more fiddling.  I try to keep the “trip up” showing what ever the route sheet thinks, regardless of if I’ve gone off route or if the sheet is a bit wrong

The bars themselves are padded with Fizik gel tape.  This sort of gel pad isn’t as thick as Specialized Phat tape but works well.  It doesn’t seem to slip out of position

The levers are 2007 Campag Centaur QS.  Nice shape, shame about the build quality. I had to have both repaired this year.