Rennieing my bars.

How did he add them? Mine feel perfect at 28" on the bullit.

What do you mean by adding length to the bar?

You can get 29-30" wide bars from a couple of the single speed specialty companies, including 30" wide flat bars that have some good sweep. These are light and strong, but not too cheap. Talk to your local shop about ordering these, or just call up a couple of the singlespeed companies.


Moto bars are about 32" I believe, so you could always rig up a pair of those. Moto bars will be cheaper and stronger than any MTB bar, but I'm not quite sure if they'll fit in the MTB stem. I have a BMX brake lever for my Yamaha IT175's front brake, and it fits just fine, along with old MTB grips. The stem will probably fit without any probs. I'd give the moto bars a shot, and if they're too wide, cut them down to 30".

p.s. Protapers are a different diam. than the rest of moto bars.

FUNN, Raceface, Truvativ, etc. all make 710mm (or 711mm depending on inches vs mm) vs the 685mm that you're using now. Not sure what Rennie's using now, but at one point he was very jealous of the custom 720mm FUNNs that Sam Hill had on his bike. ink:

I think it is possible. I've done it before with a pair of S&M steel cruiser bars and more recently I did something similiar w/ a fork steerer tube. It was short 0.75" and is steel (otherwise I wouldn't have done it). The ID of the steerer was 1" so I got short (3") piece of 1" steerer from the LBS. I used the 1" tube for a sleeve, prepped the 2 outer pieces of the 1 1/8" steerer and had a welding shop butt weld them. The welds look to have very good penetration and with one of the stem bolts on the original steerer I think it will hold up fine.

At any rate, I'd see if you could get some similiar pieces to the EA70 bar (with the same or very close ID). Then cut the pieces to 0.75" making sure were it meets the original bar is cut straight and smooth. Then get the ID of the EA70s and the extension pieces, get some aluminum stock w/ that OD (local hardware, Home Depot, Lowes might have some) and use it as a inner sleeve. I would not go any more than 0.75" wider per side and would feel safer at 0.50" each side for 2 reasons - the bars might not handle the extra leverage force and having to much extension could get ugly if it ever failed.

That was the shade-tree mechanic way. It might be better to go w/ the above options (MX or wider mtb bars) but those stink if you really like the bend of the EA70s. There might be a company that makes a end cap/bar extender - maybe check some of the BMX forums including www.vintagebmx.com (I recall reading about extenders on that site a while back).

Good luck!

Renthals on my commuter and DH bike (cut down to 30")
Protapers on my motorbike.

The Renthals are straight gauge (no buldge at stem) so they require a shim/spacer to work in a MTB stem. Interestingly enough, a BMX stem will work without the shim. Because all the bars (MTB, BMX, Moto) are the same diameter at the grips. I have one shim that came with my first set of Renthals from the White Bros Catalogue circa like 1998 The other is a generic shim your shop can order from any distributor and they cost like $2.

Most motobars are to wide and to tall. Mine are a Trials Riders bend (a japanese rider whos name has a lot of "K"s in it, but it escapes me right now) I love my bars. I did cut them down to 30"s.

I know a guy who has renthals on his bike, they are like 50 pounds. although weight doesn't matter on this guys bike it has to be 65+ pounds

here's the explanation from mathieu, rennie's mechanic...it's a video clip

http://www.littermag.com/rightcoast/msa/day2/renniebars.htm

Dan, pick up some long bar ends like these




Grind the end cap off so that all you have is a tube expander wedge part, so the whole thing will slide into your bars.

Then get 2 small sections , 1/2'' long peices of handlebar. Put the expander so that about half of it is sticking out of your current bar, and then stick the two extension peices onto that. Use a long allen key to tighten the expander down and those extensions will be secure as hell. Just run a lock-on grip to be safe.

rockymt21 said:

I run bar ends like that already. Althought the video helped, I don't really get the "gap" that he mentions....?

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its not a gap.. what it sounds like he said is a 20mm solid piece of alum rod stock. half (10mm) is the 7/8 like the OD of the rest of the bar, and the other half was turned down so it would fit inside the bar.. the extension is stepped. think of it as really long bar end that the grips fit over.

yeah, what fiddy_rider said. the gap is just the "extension" of the bar.

rockymt21 said:

I run bar ends like that already. Althought the video helped, I don't really get the "gap" that he mentions....?

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what adam is saying hypothetically should work.

mtnbrider said:

How did he add them? Mine feel perfect at 28" on the bullit.

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If you are talking about eastons, they are not 28". The easton bars are 685mm, or just under 27".

If you want a wider grip, you would be best to start with a wider bar. Some brands were mentioned before in this thread. I went through trying to find a low rise (less that 1.5") bar that was atleast a full 28", and the best that i came up with is the Funn full on. They come in a 30mm (1.2") rise and mine weighed 280 grams, much lighter than adding a set of bar plugs to your eastons.

it's not going to make you as fast as Rennie. just get some 710mm bars from FUNN or RaceFace

you gonna hit every tree in the woods.

rennie runs world cup course that are cut wide. if you take your sunday to your local switchback non-dh trails, you'll find anything wider than a 28" too wide.

i'll make you some.

how much do you want added?

do you have any digi calipers to mesure you bar I.D.

funny, those trails in them pre-season killer videos you posted looked local as F.

if you only ride your race bike on race trails, i would bet your race runs aren't too hot. i dont say that. old man Johnny Tomac does. before your time young.

go ahead. by all means, extend your bars.

when you tag that next tree and fall on your face from not spending enough time in the gym, and too much time positioning stickers on your headtube, you can say to yourself. 'dang ol' renegade999 was right. my bars are way too wide'

renegade999 said:

go ahead. by all means, extend your bars.

when you tag that next tree and fall on your face from not spending enough time in the gym, and too much time positioning stickers on your headtube, you can say to yourself. 'dang ol' renegade999 was right. my bars are way too wide'

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end yourself.

rockymt21 said:

your the one in my thread.

how does wide bars have anything to do with strength, and where did i mention anything in regard to that? so your saying rennie is weak, because he likes wide bars?

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haha

i am serious i'll make you some $10.

but i need a I.D. number of yours.

glue them you will have no trouble with them.

my large freind used to do it all the time, his were 32''

he was big, he ran 205mm cranks!

rockymt21 said:

Guys im not gonna run moto bars. That screams Joey. I'll figure something out.

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I have no idean what joey means....not that anyone should be suprised I don't

But they are nice bars.



How could you not like these bars?

renegade999 said:

go ahead. by all means, extend your bars.

when you tag that next tree and fall on your face from not spending enough time in the gym, and too much time positioning stickers on your headtube, you can say to yourself. 'dang ol' renegade999 was right. my bars are way too wide'

Click to expand...

According to you I should not be able to ride in tight woods....


Old school Rotec (98-00ish the long ones) and 30 Renthals.

I guess I know how to ride a big bike....because I can't remember the last time I tag a tree on my MTB. Now my motorcycle is a different story, and I have Cycra bark busters on so I don't smash my fingers. My motorbike handle bars are even wider than my MT bars....go figure.

We must not have tight tree in Western WA.

i´ve done that, its ok not so difficult as it seems

doesn't sic make a wider bar????

renegade999 said:

go ahead. by all means, extend your bars.

when you tag that next tree and fall on your face from not spending enough time in the gym, and too much time positioning stickers on your headtube, you can say to yourself. 'dang ol' renegade999 was right. my bars are way too wide'

Click to expand...

wait whats bar length have to do with time in the gym? So if I'm interested in getting wider bars I should work out more...and if I work out more I also minimize the risks of snagging a tree? So what size bars do you suggest for people that spend more time riding than chasing @$$ at the gym?

Dan-Two of my friends run 30" bars and just krazy/super glue two 1" sections of bar to each side, neither of them have had a problem with it.

renegade999 said:

'dang ol' renegade999 was right. my bars are way too wide'

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I literally loled at the retardness right here....

Dan, what you probably have to do, would be just go to a machine shop, and have them make some extensions for you. Have em make them however long you want. Have them mill down the inner end of the extension so it will sit snuggly inside the end of your bars. Have someone tac weld them in and just grind the welds down a bit so your lockons will slide over them.
I cant see this effecting strength too much as long as you dont make the extensions to big.

What about just running lock-ons hanging off the end? The oury ones I have are hard plastic on the inside. I imagine it wouldn't feel great and could slip and cause an awful crash, but it'd sure be easy to try...

Superdeft said:

What about just running lock-ons hanging off the end? The oury ones I have are hard plastic on the inside. I imagine it wouldn't feel great and could slip and cause an awful crash, but it'd sure be easy to try...

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not a chance. i am 100% certain they would snap on the first hard landing or bail.

i think it'd be massive grip throttle even before it became a breaking off issue, but that'd probably happen too. Why is it so hard to find a good handlebar!

why the need for all the stupid comments in this thread.... If you are big and wide bars put you in a more natural position than take bcd up on his offer. I bet you could tap two small holes on the end of the bar and have an inner sleave on the bar expander go in 1.5 inches or so with corresponding holes and have it work well... I made myself some new caps the other day.

i saw some end plugs that threaded in to a bar that was tapped.

that would make it easy removal/fit