Reddit mentions: The best powersports bar ends

Get a pair of bar-ends. They even have ones that "convert" a flat bar to drops. But even traditional bar-ends will provide you with some additional variety of hand positions which will help alleviate hand/arm discomfort on longer rides. This is an inexpensive solution that may effectively alleviate your comfort problems.

As for any further upgrades, I would not bother with this bike. Keep it well maintained, and sell it and buy another used bike that may be better suited to the kind of riding you want to get into.

It's never worth it to upgrade a lower-tier bike such as yours (and actually most hybrids). It's barely worth it to upgrade even mid-tier bikes, but not all decisions are economical when you're comfortable on a particular bike or have an emotional attachment to it - upgrades in the "few hundred dollars" category might be worth it, and wheel upgrades are definitely worth it, as you can bring a good wheel to your next bike. Upper tier bikes rarely need upgrades, except maybe a wheelset.

Woohoo! A fellow Space Horse rider!

My ride as of today: http://imgur.com/vruVzQu

Did a 17ish mile ride earlier from the most northern point of Manhattan, over the Manhattan bridge to my apartment in Gowanus, BK (my longest single, almost non-stop ride yet! ). It was great except for the fact that my Brooks needs to break in already. :(

One thing I will recommend is to replace the bar end caps, those cheap plastic ones kept on falling out. I got these Fyxation aluminum ones off Amazon and they are sweet.

Hope you like it as much as I do!

If you did want to do this, you've got a few options, but none of them are good or cheap.

You could get your shifters to the tops of bullhorns by buying some thumb shifter mounts. These run $65, but you might be able to find some used. You can mount downtube shifters on those, which I bet you can find in a used bin.

For brakes, you'll need to switch to mechanical brakes. You might find hydro levers made for bullhorns, but they're usually sold as a set with brakes, and they won't be easy to find used. The current levers aren't the right diameter for bullhorns, so they'll need to go. You could probably find some cheap road disc brakes, and some TT levers for $50- $100.


So, all said and done, you'll be in between $200 and $300 if you go all used, and that's with the absolute cheapest parts you can find, all for a bar setup that will probably stretch you out more than you want (if your bike fits you properly), and with a downgrade from hydro to mechanical brakes.


What about just buying some barends for $15 to see if you like the position?

You want to support your body as much as you can with your legs and core, not your arms. There's a saying in MTB "heavy feet, light hands", in which you should basically be able to ride the bike with nothing more than your fingertips on the bars.

As for extended bars, there are a few options. Ergon makes grips that are really nice and come in a variety of sizes as far as the extensions.

You can also get drops/extensions that clamp onto the ends of the bars.

>but they came with the bike

Uh huh, uh huh. Here, I completed your shopping list for you!

Levers

Swing arm spools

Bolt kit

Bar ends

Frame sliders

Edit: Sorry, didn't realize you already found the bolt kit! (makes it.....sorta hilarious, really)

You good man. Replace when you can.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074WWWMR5/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_szP4DbQ1X9HYH

The bar ends that come with most handlebar wraps tend to fall out, so I bought some quality ones that tighten in the handlebar so they are sure to hold. these

Bar ends prevent you from taking a core sample of you or anyone else if you have the misfortune of crashing.

What if I put some handlebar ends ? But I saw someone on the internet who converted his bad boy to road bike but I think that's going to cost you a little money.