Nina had flat bars and bar ends on her hybrid road bike, with integrated brake levers and gear shifters, and she was a bit fed up with them. She liked riding with her hands on the bar ends but couldn’t reach the brakes or gears easily from there. When one shifter packed up, she asked our advice: she wanted a neater alternative that allowed her to ride with her hands in a forward position, but she didn’t want drop bars and combined road levers.

I came up with this solution, and I’m rather pleased with how tidy and effective it is. Nitto bullhorn bars are superb and put her hands in just the position she wanted. Cane Creek “cross-top” levers allowed clamping around the bar (instead of clamping in the ends of the bar like many TT brake levers) and Shimano 9-speed thumb shifters slotted neatly into the bar ends. All the cables are neatly concealed under the bar tape and not only does it look tidy, it works very smoothly and feels very natural to ride.

Nina promptly took her bike on a several hundred mile journey across Italy, and was very happy with how it felt and handled.