I’ve seen people cut the up turned part of the Vision Base Bar off. What kind of saw did you use to do this? Did you have trouble with inserting the brake levers (I have SRAM TT levers). The more detail you can give about how you measured, cut, etc… the better. Thanks.
Is it the alloy or carbon bar? I have the alloy and used a pipe cutter from the local hardware store. If you can, practice first! Because of the curve up, you might get a candy cane effect going. You don’t have a lot of room to work with. the flat part of the base bar extends into the pods a litle bit. So your brake levers won’t fit into the ends well if you cut too much off. I would have used a hacksaw and bought some clamps to use as a guide for the blade if I did it over again. Remeber, leave yourself room, cut as close to the bend up as possible for your levers. Best of luck.
this thread might answer some Q’s
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OP is asking about cutting the the basebar, not aero bars.
I was thinking about doing this, mostly for looks, but decided against it after checking the area up close.
You would have to cut all the way past the bend to leave an even, round opening for your brake mount. You would have to drill another oval hole behind that again for the cable to enter the bar. It looked like it wouldn’t leave enough room behind the bend to get the brakes mounted in all the way, (in front of the welds for the flat wing part.)
It might be possible to get all this just right. Good luck ! Post pictures if you do !
OP is asking about cutting the the basebar, not aero bars.
Jeeeez! What a bonehead! And I spent a half hour composing that post. I hope my writing was better than my reading.
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I didn’t read your whole post thoroughly, but it makes much more sense to me now. I was thinking, “I can’t believe how obsessed this guy is with where his brake levers are!”
Like someone else said, I used a pipe cutter to cut mine down. After you cut the ends off, you’ll have to spend some time with a rattail file to deburr and clean up the inside diameter of the basebar so the brake levers fit in there. I also switched over to the Profile Design OS2 brake levers which have an internally routed cable so I didn’t have to redrill the hole the run the cable outside the basebar. After the cut, you aren’t working with too much real estate, but I always gripped my basebar pretty far back anyways so it doesn’t make much of a difference to me.
I finished making all the changes to my Kilo (SRAM Force, cutting the basebar, etc . . .) I have pictures of what the basebar looks like before I put the bar tape over it. I have SRAM TT break levers on there. I’ll post the pictures later this weekend once my camera is working again. It was really easy to cut the bar down and I’m really happy with the result as it looks much cooler now.
Done any bumpy descents with those? Was it scary/dangerous?
They look great, by the way.
Yup. I was a bit worried about that as well (although I usually ride my road bike in the hills). It’s a little more scary than before, but reasonable.
I just finished cutting mine down. I use the Vision brake levers that clamp onto the outside of the bar. They require about 13 mm of straight bar to fit on, so I left that much beyond the bend on the tilting up part. This still reduced the brake handle length by about 3 or 4 cms and reduced the frontal area a good bit, but it left a nice amount of hand room and a slight upturn to help my hand find the handle when I have to reach for the brakes and control things.
FWIW
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Use a tubing cutter
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Here are some pictures.
Aerobars from the side.
Brake lever as it sticks out from the basebar - before bar tape.
- Where you see the electrical tape is how much of the SRAM lever that doesn’t fit into the base bar anymore. It’s not going anywhere though as there is still plenty of brake inside the base bar.
Aerobars from the front.
Obligatory full bike shot
Clean bike. That’s a lot of drop.
Yeah I cut mine before, I used a hacksaw and a threadless steerer tube cutter guide.
You will have to redrill the hole unless your using the Profile brake levers or the TRP’s which are internally routed.
I’d do it again, no regrets, less drag.
Thanks. I started stretching a couple years ago and it really pays off when it comes to my position. Looking at your sig, I’m sure you know core strength and lower back flexibility play a huge role in being comfy with that much drop.
To respond to the post below your’s, the SRAM brake levers are also internally routed so I didn’t have to drill a new hole for the housing.
Hi, I am interested in cutting down my vision base bar like you have done and putting on sram levers. Just wondering what stops the levers being fully inserted? Not enought room for the cable to ben around? Welding? or taperong of the bar?
use a small tubing cutter…take your time.
When I did this, the angle the cable hosing has to make to go internal on the basebar got sharper, and my rear brake now has too much friction. Any workarounds for this?