Article on why bar ends disappeared from mountain bikes

[manc_lad]

Why Did Bar Ends Go Away From Mountain Bikes? (the nostalgia is real) – Brainy Biker

brainybiker.com

Interesting read. Apologies if it's a repost. I've not seen it posted here before.

 

[hookooekoo]

I never used bar ends back when they were popular. I always thought bar ends created an increased risk of snagging, on a small sapling for example. Reading the article, it seems I'm not the only one to consider the snagging risk on narrow trails.

 

[domo]

Instead they now have stupidly wide bars......

 

[hamster]

Summed it up: people don't ride uphill as much as they used to.

Or put another way: modern MTBs are single-function sleds?

 

[T'boo Ted]

I ran bar ends, apart from the extra posisitions AND to look all upto date...I found that they were great at protecting the hands/bars from branches and stuff.
These days on modern bikes I dont run as the bars are a bit too wide too actualy reach them comfotably.

 

[mk one]

The article starts by saying no one uses them anymore and finishes by saying a lot of people still do. That aside, a couple of the posts above sum it up nicely, wider bars these days provide the extra leverage for uphills and also make reaching the bar ends harder. The fact most people just want to go down hill makes them also redundant for those users.

I still run bar ends on a lot of my bikes due to the narrow bars to aid in climbing. It is nice to have extra hand positions too for longer rides, though that is purely for comfort and not performance. As for catching them on things, only ever done it a couple of times over the years, and that is on trails that are very narrow, ones that you could not ride down on modern bikes as the bars would be too wide.

 

[Double-E F]

I feel naked riding w/o bar ends..

 

[retrobikeguy]

I always tell students they're for keeping pedestrians off their knuckles when using the pavement on a one way street.

 

[Woz]

Yep, there is an Urban aspect to having them too. Personally I use segmented ones with a small frontal protection that
is angled in. Definitely saved me on a few occasions with cars, joggers, and what not just pulling out.

 

[al]

I loved bar ends, usually X-Lite stubbies and later Woodman carbon jobbies. My new project build is getting NOS Onza's.

al.