Simple handlebar widening techinique

[ARider]

Hi everyone, had my A-bike for a month and I think its great. Yes you sacrifice ridability for portability but I knew that when I bought it. Even though I quite enjoy the 'twitchiness' of the bike I thought I would improve its ridability and first replaced the existing seat and seatpost with better lightweight replacements. Now have just finished widening the handlebars for better tracking and steering stability. This job took me about 1 hour and met my aim of a simple solution, minimal added weight and maintenance of the handlebar folding system.

Here are the steps I took:

1. Decided to widen the existing handlebars by 100mm (50mm extension on each end of the handlebars). Thought any wider would put too much stress on the existing plastic bars where they enter the headstem.

2. Cut 2 100mm lengths of 22.5 diameter aluminium tubing. ( I used an Easton superlight handlebar I had in storage).

3. Removed the existing handlebar grips and end caps. Each grip is held in place by two small adhesive dabs at each end of the handlebar. Break these adhesives with a small screwdriver gently to avoid damaging the grip rubber. The grips will then pull off.

4. Unsrew the small existing retaining screws holding both brake lever brackets in place on the handlebars. (The brake levers brackets slide along the handlebars in a grooved track). Slide the rear brake lever off the end of the bar and refit it with the brake cable over the top of the handlebar. (Originally, this cable runs under the handlebar and if left as is, will not allow the bars to be folded and twisted around with the wider handlebars when folding the bike up). Reposition each brake lever 50mm further towards the end of the handlebar and drill and refix the retaining screws.

5. Lubricated the inside of the exisitng handlebar ends and one end of each aluminum extension tube. Push/tap each tube 50mm into the handlebar ends.This leaves an extension of 50mm on each side. The extension tubes fit very tightly and should not move with normal use.

6. Slide the handlebar grips back on. Use flexible Urethane Bond Adhesive to stick back the grips like they were originally. Trim the indside of the endcaps and stick into the ends of the grips. (The original end caps will no loger fit straight into the end of the handlebars as the new extensions are a smaller diameter)

Can't put a picture up but my A-bike still looks completely original but with wider handlebars. I have roadtested and the 100mm width increase improves steering and tracking dramatically.

[Amuro Lee]

I found somebody in Korea has widened the handle bars of the A-bike like this on Binch Shin's website:
http://cafe.naver.com/ArticleRead.nhn?c ... cleid=1078

[ARider]

Interesting pics from Korea. It looks to me this modification has replaced the original plastic handlebars completely with a full steel tube bars, whereas I have simply extended the original plastic bars. Also it appears in the pics, that the original brake levers have been replaced with different levers whereas I have used the originals? Are my observations correct?

[newcross]

I like ARider's method. Thank you for the instruction.

I also found a very interesting A-bike handle bar custamisation on the web. It's from Japan.

He cuts the original stem from the dody, then replaced it with conventional stem (he also remade front upper tube in order to fit the stem) to take 25.4mm handle bar.

(please click the likes below, and follow the link appears on top of the page. I couldn't figure out how to make direct link to these images...somehow it didn't work...sorry )

--> Sorry links removed because they just seemed to be porn adverts! (although I'm sure that wasn't intentional. Garry) <--

This guy used "Tranz-X Easy Foldable Handlebar JD-MTB414 538g/600mm". This product seems not abailable in UK... ouch..

http://www.jdtranzx.com/products/handlebar/5.htm


Please note, it was posted by anonymous on Japanese BBS "2 channel" (http://sports10.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/bicycle/1172319353/),
so I have no idea who this guy is really, and the A-bike he cut it up was in fact an imitation of A-bike.

[Amuro Lee]

Interesting pics from Korea. It looks to me this modification has replaced the original plastic handlebars completely with a full steel tube bars, whereas I have simply extended the original plastic bars. Also it appears in the pics, that the original brake levers have been replaced with different levers whereas I have used the originals? Are my observations correct?

I think your observations are partly correct.
http://cafe.naver.com/ArticleRead.nhn?c ... icleid=739
After the modification, the korean put a rubber band connecting the two brake levers.

[newcross]

--> Sorry links removed because they just seemed to be porn adverts! (although I'm sure that wasn't intentional. Garry) <--

Ooops. I didn't realise the link was removed until now. I'm so sorry Garry, I'll be more careful.

I put a direct link below, which of course doesn't have any advert. Let's see whether it displays the images properly or not this time...
(If this works, I'll put the next image.)

http://chibichari.hp.infoseek.co.jp/cgi ... 011945.jpg

[newcross]

The images of mod. A-bike are deleted from the server, so I deleted my previous posts since it has no use.


But then again, the image works on my mac just fine for now.... does it use cookie or something? oh god, i don't get this stuff at all......

I'm sorry everyone for making such a mess....

[newcross]

Problem solved!! Now anybody can access to the image, check out this crazy mod!:D

To see the photo,
_1. Copy the URL(address) / Not click
_2. Paste the URL on the address panel of your web browser.
_3. Enter
(Special Thanks to Binch Shin)
http://chibichari.hp.infoseek.co.jp/cgi ... 011644.jpg
http://chibichari.hp.infoseek.co.jp/cgi ... 011735.jpg
http://chibichari.hp.infoseek.co.jp/cgi ... 011818.jpg
*Since the image is on free server, the images could be deleted anytime.