I share your passion, I just got these put on my bike and love them. But, I didn't get grip tape with them. Is that something your LBS did? I emailed HED after I got them and they said they are working on something but didn't have anything to send me. I just got them 2 weeks ago...

---

Andy

'You'd be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Thinsg Are As They Are.'

I contacted Hed last week to ask whether they had or were planning on rectifying the alleged flaw in the bullhorns identified by Dan. They said no (which I understand now as there really is no flaw) but that they were shipping the units with grip tape. Also I wanted to be sure that I got the most recent model in case they had made any other small design changes so I ordered direct from HED rather than my LBS (which is not tri-friendly and didnt have the part in any case). The grip tape is nothing fancy - kind of like skateboard grip tape but not so rough. I'm sure if you contact HED through their web site they would send you some.

"the alleged flaw in the bullhorns identified by Dan."

another set showed up here a couple of weeks ago, for monty. they had grip tape on them from the factory.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Can you wrap the bullhorns with normal style handlebar tape, or are the shapes all wrong to make that possible?

PS - johnthesavage, I'm considering getting the HED bars and I had a laugh reading your comments because if I get them I AM actually going to ride them up and down Alpe d'Huez. Obviously they're going to be principally for triathlon, but now that I'm living in France I still only have my tri bike here, too much of a hassle I think to have two bikes at the moment, so last Summer I rode the P2K (set up very steep) on most of the major French climbs. I must say descending some can be a bit of a bitch (descending Alpe d'Huez with tens of thousands of others after the Tour went through was a MAJOR bitch, I've never had such sore hands from braking so much).

Anyway, at the moment I have a Syntace base bar with Syntace SL extensions, bar end shifters and DiaCompe brakes. So my two questions are, do you think the HED bar is going to be a bit of a stretch in the mountains, especially on the descents? For the climbs I often grip the horizontal part of the base bar (near the stem and right next to the armpads). Can you do this with the HED bar or is it way too fat here?

Cheers

Camel

I can say re: climbing that the HED aerobar is fine for me. I like to keep my hands and arms relaxed in seated climbs so I just lightly place my hands on the flat top of the bar. In fact the flat top makes it easier for me to stay relaxed and I don't need or want tape or grip there, although if i did i guess i could use more of the same tape HED now provides for its bull horns. Out of the saddle is also fine unless you have a cockpit fit problem w/ your knees. But I personally would not do big descents on my TT bike if I could avoid it, no matter what the frontend set up. I just don't feel comfortable at high speeds on technical downhills on a steep angle TT bike. And HED's small bullhorns would definitely not help. Even if you are fairly confident that your hands won't slip, its not nice to have that possibility nagging in the back of your head as you line up your next turn at top speed.

JTS

PS. Didn't mean to come down too hard on Dan's review which was very good and generally quite positive. But the goop remedy seemed very excessive to me (not to mention ugly as hell) and the review gave the impression that the HED bar had a design flaw when in actuality I think its just a personal thing as to how big you like your bull horns and/or how sweaty your hands get.

i love my head bars and they can be wrapped with regular bar tape just fine. I do find that no matter how I tape them, the electrical tape or whatever tape I use to secure the bar tape ends up coming off rather quickly and gunking up that whole area. I can say that I wouldn't reccomend tackeling any really techincal descents which require a lot of hard braking however. I don't know about you guys but my heds are just a little lacking in the brake power department and that little lever just kills my fingers. in know the new levers are more ergo than my set though. i put a small strip of skateboard grip tape on my levers to make them a little more usable.

Just purchase Profile's aerobar grips, cut them to fit the HED Bullhorn handles (about two or three inches long) Use hairspay to help them slide on then stay in place. Just enough grip and cushioning, yet still keeps the bars looking good. R&A Cycles has a lot of them as well as Tri-zone.com. They cost like $8.

---

Jason Goldberg
FIT Multisports

Do you have pictures of what you are talking about? Or does anyone have pics of their set-up with the bars? This forum needs more pictures posted so we can see what you are talking about...

Thanks in advance.

mine came with the griptape, too. but it only took one day in a slight drizzle. their toast now. a solution to this that i found works very well is just to wear gloves. obviously you won't have time in a sprint or oly but at least most of the time you have better grip.

Kim