Titec H-Bar designed by Jeff Jones

The newest incarnation of the Karate Monkey came about when I got a new 29er cross-country frame (a Titus Racer-X, to be described later). Originally single speed and then converted to a geared hardtail, the KM is once again back as a fully-rigid, single speed bike. It's become my "Vermont bike", and in cobbling it together from the parts that came of my geared cross-country bike, I needed to get a pair of handlebars.

I have had my eyes on Jeff Jones' distinctive handlebars since they came out and were only three hundred dollars; now these titanium conundrums are up to five hundred dollars. Five hundred dollars for handlebars? Now don't get me wrong, I am all in favor of saving up for quality bike gear, but to drop that much on a pair of weird handlebars with a design I have never ridden before seems nuts.

Luckily, Jeff Jones has allowed some of his design innovations to trickle down. Working with Titec, he has created two versions of his H-bars; I have purchased the "riser" type at a price that was comparable to other more conventionally-shaped well-constructed aluminum handlebars.


Because I am running the KM as a single speed, these bars made sense to me. There are a lot of advantages of these bars that are specific to single speeds, which is good because running these on a geared bike limits your options. If you run this bar without gear shifters, all you need to do is throw on your favorite pair of brake levers and grips and use half a roll of bar tape to finish off the side and center sections. If you want to use gears, you probably are best off using the integrated brake/shifter levers offered by Shimano. I have never used these extensively, so I can't vouch for their utility, but suffice to say that when it comes to shifters I fall more towards the "thumbs up" than the "peace sign" side of the debate. Seems that's the way the wind is blowing these days anyway.


I really thought that it would take awhile to get used to these bars, but it did not. They are incredibly comfortable and intuitive to use. The best "control position", which I use for going downhill and riding through fast technical sections, is with your hands on the grips. Although the brake levers may seem far away, as long as your brakes have good two-finger power all is well. One of the big benefits of this position is that is naturally places your weight further back on the bike, the safest position to be in when flying along.


The most important positioned offered by these bars is doesn't look much different from the "on the grips" position, but it is. If you ride a road bike with drop bars and/or are old enough to have seen the golden age of bar ends, this position will feel very intuitive. Placing your thumb through the crook in the bar and enjoying the comfort of the bar wrap that extends the overall grip area, this is the best position for climbing. Unlike conventional bar ends, which are at the widest place on the bar, these bars place your arms further in and your weight further forward, much like a road bike. Winding my way up steep and treacherous climbs in the backwoods of Vermont, I use this position a ton. Riding single speed and doing a lot of standing up, I almost can't remember how I climbed before these bars.


In addition to these two "major positions", the H-bars offer a couple of "minor positions". First, you can grasp the bar extension and brake lightly just above the brake clamp. This position is best when you want to loosen up in an easy section and reconfigure your posture on the bike to save you arms, neck, and back.


The second "minor position" is to rest the heel of your hand on the wrapped "flat" of the bar and grasp the very end of the extension. I use this position the least, but it is a comfortable mode to be in and stretches you out for aerodynamics on flat, windy sections of road. In the woods I don't find myself using these minor positions much, but they make my bike more versatile when dealing with the asphalt that connects the sections of real riding.


What's interesting about these bars is how easy it is to transition on and off of them. Honestly my brain has to work a lot harder to remember how to shift when I switch from my low-normal bike to my high-normal bike than it does when I switch from using these bars to using more conventional risers. For a single speed bike, particularly one that will be ridden in hilly areas, these bars just make a lot of sense.

Although I have seen pictures of Jeff Jones competing in a downhill race using these bars, I would say that for all their comfort they really are best matched to a cross-country bike. The angle of pull is different, but you can get the front end up or do little bunny hops with these bars just like regular risers. However, the inability to roll your wrists forward on jumps and drops would make me hesistant to use these on any bike that sees freeride kinds of terrain.

There's a fair amount of flex in these bars, which is in part due to the great leverage they provide. To be honest this flex is somewhat welcome on my fully-rigid KM, and I never felt a loss of control due to flex.

There are only two true downsides that I can see with these bars.

First is that most people won't be able to adopt them for their multi-geared bike without purchasing dual control brake/shifter units, which are expensive and as mentioned before potentially weird. For those with money to burn, you could consider Jeff Jones' "next generation" titanium H-bars, some of which allow for the placement of both shifters and brake levers. Further showing his commitment to the everyday people, Jeff could allow these designs to trickle down to the Titec line, empowering the multigeared set to alt bar away.

The second downside is that these bars are fixed in width. I found the width to be comfortable, but if you don't there's nothing you can do about it. I have not fully measured them to compare with other bikes, but they are pretty wide. Those who ride in narrow areas should break out the measuring tape before making the commitment to these bars.