Has anyone tried out their Uncle Ron's Orthopedic Bars?

[John Phillips]

And did you need any friction paste or Loctite in the bar clamp?

John

[sam.per...@gmail.com]

I found that a single bolt dirt drip stem holds okay, I mounted it on a 4 bolt stem it felt more secure, yet to be field tested. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 8, 2022, at 12:32 PM, 'John Phillips' via RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



And did you need any friction paste or Loctite in the bar clamp?

John

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[Eric Marth]

John – I haven't tried the bars but have a set in the shed. I seem to recall somewhere Ron recommended adding some friction compound to the stem. Oh, I found it. 

[John Phillips]

"Orthopedic back Bars...for performance applications" 👍

That gave me a chuckle.

John

[Ryan Frahm]

Still in the shed? Oh man. Sure you don’t want to just pass them along? Because I’m in! Haha

[Bones]

Sadly mine are in the shed too, and have not yet seen any use. I attached them to my Clem H on a 12cm Tallux but I haven't finished putting it together. A 26.0 faceplater quill would probably be ideal but I don't know where to find one of those. I've got an extra dirt drop but I assumed that would bring them too close to me. One of those threadless stem adapters would probably work great but I'm not too keen on the aesthetics. I'm not a huge dude and I don't anticipate I'll have any issues with the Tallux. I'll be sure to report back once I get it rolling though.

Bones

[John Phillips]

I've been trying to find a 130mm Technomic deluxe with a 190mm quill, but it looks like I'll have to use a 120mm Nitto Pearl until I do. I don't need them too high, so fingers crossed.

John

[Eric Marth]

@frahm30: I'm working on three builds plus a repair plus a drivetrain upgrade! Five bikes in varying stages of... disaster. Sorry to tempt you with my Ortho Fresh Bars (Still In Box for maximum health benefits). 

John, Ben's Cycle has the 26.0 clamp diameter, 190mm quill Technomic deluxe in size up to 120mm. If you can abide that lost centimeter check 'em here. 

[Den John]

Does anyone know why they went for a 26mm clamp rather than 25.4mm? It seems like there's much more choice

in 25.4mm stems (either ahead or quill). 25.4mm would go nicely with a Nitto V-4 or V-5, then there's much less worry about slipping.

Cheers,

Johnny

[Dee Dee]

Someone asked the same thing on one of his instagram posts. His response:

Maybe he has some 26mm clamp stems in production to accompany the next batch of bars?

-Danny

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[John Phillips]

Eric,

   I tried out a 120mm Technomic Deluxe and a 120mm Pearl for initial fit, and I liked the little bit of extra reach the Pearl gives me. A Nitto Pearl stem sunk all the way down in my Hunqapillar's short head tube still puts these bars about 8 cm's above my saddle.

For some reason, Nitto measures the Pearl differently than the Technomic Deluxe and the Pearl is about 8-9mm longer. Why? I don't know.

So if I decide later I need to raise these bars a bit higher, I think I'm going to need that one extra centimeter of the 130mm Technomic Deluxe.

Hi Johnny, 

   Most handlebars Crust sells are 26mm or 31.8mm, maybe that's why? Could strength be a factor?  Fingers crossed Crust starts to stock some 120-130mm stems for these bars.

I think the demand for these bars caught Crust & Uncle Ron completely off guard.  Back in February 2021, when I emailed Uncle Ron with questions about a photo of what looked like giant, mutant Albatross bars on his Atlantis(?), he answered, "congrats on being the only person interested in my ortho back bars lol. it's a state of mind... "

But then Crust put up those Uncle Ron's Orthopedic Back Bars Sesion#1-#3 ride videos up on Youtube, and Uncle Ron posted Instagram photos, and they created a monster.

John

[Den John]

Thanks John, maybe Ronny Romance just has a huge stack of 26mm clamp stems from the 1990s in his parts stash :-)

I bought a used Clem H in April 2021 and built it with a set of steel Ergotec Beach cruiser bars because they were the only thing

I could find that looked even little a bit like the Ortho bars. I really love the range of positions, and the sweep is much more natural than flat mtb bars. Not so keen on the 880g weight though...

Cheers,

John

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[Eric Marth]

@John Phillips: Regarding availability it seems that a number of the manufacturing problems we're seeing everywhere have collided for Crust as well. 

They made a pretty small order before the bike boom, couldn't predict the demand, only half their order arrived (~90 bars), the order was very late, plenty of time for >90 people to get excited about the bars. Given issues with global shipping, sourcing raw materials and the fact that much bigger companies than Crust are having their bars made at the same factory in Taiwan and that there's now a lead time of 18 months to get more of them made we have derived grandma's secret recipe for Gosh Darn I Just Want When I Want It Why Can't I Have It Now double chocolate cake. 

There's a discussion including commentary from Dr. Ron, MD in the comments section of this Radavist post.

[Eric Marth]

@johnsqual: Here's some clamp size info

[Brian McDermott]

I put mine on my Nishiki Colorado which currently has studs. I've only gone on a couple of rides with them, but they feel awesome. I went up into the state forest, and rode some icy gravel and attempted some trails. I was particularly happy with them on the icy descent. Lot's of control, and I definitely think they have some suspension effect. 

As far as mounting, they actually were a vey snug fit in my Nitto Technomic/Deluxe stem and I ended up with some marking on the clamp area. 

On Tuesday, February 8, 2022 at 8:18:25 PM UTC-5 fra...@gmail.com wrote:

[James M]

I'm going to throw up a WTT thread at some point, but the Ron's Ortho bars have just a couple of inch or inch and a half too much backwards reach for my 62cm Hunqapillar (pictured here with a 120mm Technomic).  I think I'd be better off with a Billie bar.  I'm in northern NJ, work in Manhattan, if anyone would be interested in a trade...

On Thursday, February 10, 2022 at 3:37:30 PM UTC-5 john...@gmail.com wrote:

[John Phillips]

   I received my Ortho bars only to discover the bars are not symmetrical. Both the structural 25.4mm bar clamp section and the roughened grip section for the bar clamp are closer to the right hand side of the bars, and neither is lined up with each other.  I could live with the roughened section being a bit off, but the 25.4mm bar clamp section is way too far over to the right. I wrote Crust an email asking about a return. These bars are so wide you don't immediately notice something is off, but when I pulled out my 56mm Albatross bars to compare, I noticed the bar clamp sections wouldn't line up. I was trying to measure just how much stem extension I was going to need to move over from my Alba's to the Ortho bars, and saw something was really off.

   These bars are not actually a ton wider than my Alba's so I'll just stick with my albatross cockpit for now.

John

[Eric Marth]

That is a sick Nishiki, love the saddle, pedals and thumb shifters and those massive 80s brake levers!

[Eric Marth]

@James: Have you considered trimming the bars a little shorter? Not the craziest thing in the world, people modify bars like this all the time. 

You might be able to find a pipe cutter for under $20 at your local hardware store. Would be good to practice on a scrap piece of pipe first! Or use a hacksaw. File the ends either way. 

[MoVelo]

I'm curious, and I know I have seen this in numerous bike photos before, but why is the chain so severely cross chained. That being the big cassette cog in the back and big ring in the front? Is there a convention for photographing bikes that I am unaware of, or do most folks cross-chain like this and I am missing out on the pleasure by lack of education?

Now I could be totally misunderstanding the photo, but with my eyes and the resolution of the digital photo is looks as tho the outside (ie largest ring) is in fact a guard and not a toothed chainring. Am I wrong and the chain is in fact on the middle chainring? 

I am not trying to be critical, just trying to understand why I seem to see this setup in so many seemingly staged photos. Do most folks ride their bikes in this fashion?

Just curious. 

JP

[James M]

Hi, JP.  Yep - my Hunq has a triple crankset with the outer ring replaced by a guard, so chain is on the "middle" ring in front.  I'm not great at bike photos, although tried a little harder than usual for my first Riv photos - but I had also just finished the exhausting climb up to the top of the Reservation, so might not have been firing on all cylinders and just took the shots in the gear I was in ;)

James

[Brian McDermott]

That’s odd. I didn’t notice anything off with mine, but now I’m curious and will have to check. I think I disagree on them being not much wider than Albas though.

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[sam.per...@gmail.com]

My bars are also off center .

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 15, 2022, at 11:29 PM, Brian McDermott <brianmark...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[John Phillips]

I should have said I have the extinct 56cm Albatross bars which are also a different shape, wider up near bend.

John

[Eric Marth]

@John & Sam: I'm sure you could easily unload those bars, even with the asymmetry! 

Now, regarding the asymmetry. I spent a bit of time looking closely at my bars last night. When I align the Ortho Bars with a loose set of Albatross bars with both sets facing the same way, nestled together, they very clearly don't line up. I assume that the Nitto bars are perfectly symmetrical given Nitto's reputation for precision. In the photo I placed the rule centered beneath the Albatross bars. 

However, when I flip the bars around into an interlocking orientation the clamps do appear centered. There must be some inconsistency with the rise or bends of the Ortho bars that prevents them from nestling on center with the Albatross bars when they're both oriented the same direction. When measuring I could not determine where the inconsistency is. 

I measured my Ortho bars from outside to outside, found the center line and measured to the left and right from there. There is a slight inconsistency in the textured clamp area but it's about 1.2mm. Same for the taper of the bar, which I measured with calipers. There's some inconsistency but for handlebars it's trivial.

 

[Patch T]

Hey JP - I think photographing with a *severe cross-chain* looks cool, in a silly, laughing-in-the-face-of-danger-but-not-really sort of way. And I know you're not *supposed* to, but I sometimes (read: frequently) ride with the chain crossed like that anyway, so long as the chain clears the front derailleur and the rear can take it and feels/sounds like it's not dying a slow torturous death. Also, I think SRAM has gone on record saying they're less concerned about cross-chaining than say, Shimano and Campagnolo. 

Patch,

who's living on the (jockey wheels') edge in BK, NYC

On Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 9:38:51 PM UTC-5 MoVelo wrote:

I'm curious, and I know I have seen this in numerous bike photos before, but why is the chain so severely cross chained. That being the big cassette cog in the back and big ring in the front? Is there a convention for photographing bikes that I am unaware of, or do most folks cross-chain like this and I am missing out on the pleasure by lack of education?

Now I could be totally misunderstanding the photo, but with my eyes and the resolution of the digital photo is looks as tho the outside (ie largest ring) is in fact a guard and not a toothed chainring. Am I wrong and the chain is in fact on the middle chainring? 

I am not trying to be critical, just trying to understand why I seem to see this setup in so many seemingly staged photos. Do most folks ride their bikes in this fashion?

Just curious. 

JP

[John Phillips]

Eric,  The bar clamp section of my Ortho bars is much more off center than yours, and I think if I sold them to someone sight unseen, they would be justifiably PO'd. If I tried to clamp my Ortho bar in a stem, I would be tightening the stem down on the section transitioning from the 25.4mm clamp section to the 22.2 bar.

Crust emailed me within minutes telling me to send the bars back. This must be a complete bummer for them, and I only hope they recover compensation from the manufacturer.

I think if the shape of these bars was based on the Albatross rather than the Bosco, they would fit more bikes, and give people more choices in stem length to fit their bodies and riding positions. I think the Ortho's don't need shorter grip sections, they just need some reach, maybe 3-5cm?

YMMV,

John

[lucky...@gmail.com]

Am I wrong that these bars were hand bent by Ron and a vise,  vs “factory made”? 

On Feb 17, 2022, at 10:13, 'John Phillips' via RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[Eric Marth]

Lucky – These were made in Taiwan, can't remember the factory. They make bars for one of the big companies (but can't remember who at the moment). 

[Eric Marth]

John – Sorry your bars are wack! Yeah, must be a bummer for Crust with a ton of people saying "When ya gonna get me some more of these bars!" and other people saying "I got these bars but they're FUBARs!"

[John Phillips]

Ok, this is really, really embarrassing, but I rechecked my Ortho bars before packing them up for return, and they are not, definitely NOT as FUBAR'ed as I had described earlier.

  I'm really doubting my sanity here. I remeasured where the bar clamp section was, checked it over with calipers, and the 26mm bar clamp section is right where the stem needs it to be. The roughened section is a bit off, but still where the stem needs it to be. What in the world made me see otherwise? This is scary, I hope this isn't a sign of early dementia. I have to email Crust and apologize.

Comparing the Ortho bars to my Albatross bars does show off the Ortho bars' flaws more than you notice just looking at the Ortho Bars alone. The right side grips are about 5mm higher than the left, and the clamp section's flaws look worse when held up next to Nitto's, but they are perfectly usable bars.

I'm going to keep these and try these out with as a long a stem as I can find, and hopefully get them to work.

I apologize to everyone for my what I wrote earlier.

John

[Bill Lindsay]

Sam Perez reported:  " I found that a single bolt dirt drip stem holds okay..."

Off the topic of this thread, I'd just like to report that if/when I open my one-man offroad allroad bicycle boutique up in Gold Country, I will consider using the name:  Dirt Drip

Trademarked!

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[sam.per...@gmail.com]

Eric ,

I did the same thing I think it’s the outer bend I compared my bar with a nitto bar as well.

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 17, 2022, at 10:45 AM, Eric Marth <eric...@gmail.com> wrote:

Lucky – These were made in Taiwan, can't remember the factory. They make bars for one of the big companies (but can't remember who at the moment). 

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[MoVelo]

Patch

Thanks for the reply. I knew you lived on the edge, but please becareful or your bars will end up like Eric's, who's are seriously wacky.

JP

[Hugh Smitham]

He, he that was me, the clamp size made me pause on snapping up a set. I regret not buying them, they were in my cart. I could have just purchased a 26.0 stem from Simworks and be on the other side of this have vs have not :)

Hugh

LA.

[ctifusion]

Anyone have one that's not crazy off center and want to sell them (or trade) let me know.

Thanks,

Brynnar

[James M]

Hi, Brynnar.  I have a set of Ron's Bars that I'm not going to use (switched over to Choco-moose on my Hunqapillar).  Like-new shape, maybe some marks from clamping, but otherwise perfect.  Centering looks good on them too - the edge of the blue tape in the photos is the center.  I'd sell them for the same thing I paid: $120 + shipping.  (Shipping probably will be significant - I'm in northern NJ/NYC if you're local.)  Photos here - https://photos.app.goo.gl/kdqHP5vX727RxhGq9 

[Eric Marth]

Uh oh, an available set of Ortho Bars! 

[Johnny Alien]

Since you mentioned the cost of shipping for a large package, check out pirateship.com. Its free to create an account and they offer heavy discounts on shipping. I use it all the time now.

[James M]

Thanks for the tip!  I've sold a fair number of handlebars online lately and they're a pain, first having to custom make a box, then dealing with shipping rates.  Anything that helps - helps!

[Ryan Frahm]

Message sent. And another vote for pirate shipping, has saved me a small fortune!