Easter Sunday and it’s the first day of decent weather in some time so I took out the ALICE as I haven’t really ridden it much since I completed the last of the changes over the past few months. Today, I did about fifteen miles and there were a few things I noticed. The seat needs to go back a few centimeters, the handlebar controls could be moved slightly but the set-up of the bars and grips just doesn’t feel quite right.

I find my hands are unconsciously going in from the ends of the grips. The most comfortable position on the ergon grips is with my palms at the end of the flat platform but for some reason I’m gripping in towards the stem. I’m thinking I could chop about 2cm off each side of the bars and cut the grips by the same. This would bring my hands in and the short grips shoudn’t be a problem as they are wider than I use. It’s most likely that I’ve just been used to riding with narrow bars over the years. I’ve never fitted bars to a bike without cutting something off the width.

I will need to consider carefully how I go about it. Once I’ve cut things there’s no going back.

Wee update: I experimented with different positions and angles for the brakes and shifters. If I cut the bars/grips there won’t be space to have them in the positions which I find them most comfortable. So it looks like I’ll just need to get used to a slightly wider hand position when riding on the grips. It’s looking like the most comfortable for distance will be to have my hands resting on the junction between the bar and the bull-horn. The angle there provides a great grip as long as there’s nothing in the way (like my bell was – so I moved it out of the way). The bars do provide at least four alternative positions so it’s well worth taking a bit of time to get used to one of them.