Review of Origin 8 Bicycle Drop Bar Ends, Black

Origin 8 Bicycle Drop Bar Ends, Black
By: Origin 8 Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 6
More Information

What you see is what you get!

On: 2009-06-19

I have an old Trek 800 mountain bike. I stumbled across these after searching for bar-ends. I realized Im on flat ground more often than hills, so I figured Id give these a shot. I had to chop off a piece of my handlebar grip-ends to accommodate these. Youll lose about 1 1/4 inches off of the ends of your bars. (There didnt seem to be any left or right; they appear interchangable.)
After using an Allen Wrench to attach them, I YouTubed "how to put on handlebar tape". There were several helpful videos. (Dont forget to buy bar tape, as this item comes bare! I recommend you purchase from the same seller, that way they will arrive together.) I did a sloppy tape job, but itll do for now. I went out for a 20-mile ride and loved it! (Be careful when you use the drop bars as your brakes will not be within reach! Also, be careful of sharp turns as the bars might hit your knees. Perhaps this is an issue with any drop-bars?)
Overall, I really like them, but would really love it if they had a 2-in-1 style bar - tucking and climbing. Not sure if that exists.
A great buy for your money. Look for me riding at Griffith Park, CA : )

Works as expected!

On: 2009-03-02

If, for whatever reason, you want to add a drop-bar position to your flat bars, or transform a flat bar into a drop bar, these bar ends are for you. They work very well.

The clamp seems reasonably secure, in that the bars have not changed position since I installed them. the clamp does form a bit of a knuckle, though, so if you expect to have a perfect replica of a standard drop-bar, you might not be happy.

Theyre well-made, but theres not much to get wrong with this sort of product. The drops seem fairly shallow, which is neither good nor bad, unless of course you were looking for a deep drop.

A great solution to a common problem

On: 2008-12-25

Look on the internet and it is a common problem that people buy a hybrid bike and then decide that they want to switch to a drop handlebar road bike. Either spend another $800 and up on a new bike, or spend $300 on switching the handlebars to drops requiring new shifters, brakes, labor to put them in, etc...

With some experimenting and research with how wide you want them and minor adjustments to your flat handlebar, you can turn your hybrid into more of a road bike with these. Its not a perfect solution. Components of your bike or the frame may not quite be a real road bike, but you cant beat the price of just these bar ends to make the conversion until you are ready to drop the cash on a new bike.

4 stars for the cost and ease of the solution. Didnt get 5 because the rest of the bike will still not quite be a full road bike, but that is no fault of the product.

Awesome Drop Bar ends, Fantastic Dealer

On: 2008-10-07

I purchased the Origin 8 Drop bar ends from Niagara Cycle Works a couple of weeks ago and I love them. I ride a Trek 7.2 FX and have upgraded the wheels and Crank to get it as close to a road bike as possibly, the only thing holding me back was Drop Bars. Real Drop Bars would require Brake levers and shifters too - very expensive. In desperation I searched to see if there was such a thing as Drop Bar ends... the results of my googling was to find these bars on Amazon through NCW. I shortened my flat bars so that with the Drop ends the bars are the same width as a real set of drop bars. I have increased my speed by a couple of mph, riding into the wind is much better too! I love them! I plan to get another pair for my back up bike soon. O yeah! I ordered them on a Friday night and had them in the mailbox the following Monday afternoon! NWC is a fantastic company!
Buy em, youll love em if you want to cheat the wind, pick up speed and make your hybrid or fitness bike ride more like a road bike!

Work as intended

On: 2008-08-14

They work just fine. No complaints, although I think I prefer the traditional mountain bike bar-ends

Very good bar ends to make your hybrid or mtb more road like

On: 2008-05-01

I bought these bar ends a couple weeks ago and really like the fact that they give me a more aerodynamic profile on my bike. I have a hybrid bike with flat bars and was regretting not buying a road bike. These dont make your bike into a road bike, but they are the best bar ends with that purpose in mind. They come only in metal so if you are riding bare handed it can get cold. Im buying lizard skin wraps available here on amazon to fix that problem.
Taking off one star because they are smaller than I thought they could be and riding without brakes is scary as hell. I would like the loop to go a little lower and have a little more room when you are holding on to the highest part. People with bigger hands might find that they can only use the bottom part of the grips.
Without brakes on these things you should be careful to only use them when no cars are around, otherwise switching to the flat bar brakes, depending on your skill level and speed, you are going to have to take one hand off at a time so you and your bike dont fall over which takes a couple seconds and might be too late if you need to react quickly. One more thing, these are also not as good as real drop bars because they are further apart at the ends of your flat handlebar, real drop bars are much narrower, giving you a more aerodynamic profile. Lastly, you are going to have to probably cut some of your grips off to fit these on. On my bike, I found that 105mm of grip let me fit these a little more than halfway on. Most grips seem to be 130mm. Bottom line, biking is funner with these on. 4 and a half stars if amazon let me give a half more :).