Butterfly bars

[roberts8]

I am thinking of getting an ebike for touring and day to day lugging stuff around. I normally use butterfly bars for the range of hand positions as with arthritis I need to alter frequently. I assume when purchasing a 2 grand bike the bike shop would be happy to change the bars. Do continental ebikes frequently use butterfly bars as they do on conventional bikes I have seen whilst touring?
First real thoughts so comments appreciated.

[NickWi]

Assuming the brakes, shifters etc can be swapped to the butterfly bars without any hassle, then yes I would expect a bike shop to fit them as part of the deal, but I also think it wouldn't be unreasonable for them to charge you for the actual bars & tape. Margins are tight nowadays, but they're paying the mechanic regardless. A you pay for parts and we'll fit them for free deal is fair to both parties.

[Vorpal]

I've seen a few e-bikes with butterfly bars, but I'm not aware of any than come with them.

In general, it's pretty easy to swap from flats to butterfly bars, but I think you can expect them to charge you for the parts, or increase the overall purchase price to cover them.

[goosegog]

I bought an Ebike with straight bars I haven`t seen any with butterflies. I fitted the butterfly bars my self. The bike shop should change them for you, as you are buying an expensive bike they might fit them for free. If you are going to fit a bar bag it might foul the display( depends on which display is fitted) There are now special E bike bar bag mounts available which are wider.

[goosegog]

To fit the bars in the conventional way with the end of the bars at the rear you will have to fit a longer stem so that the end of the bars are roughly level with the steering tube. The longer stems are 110-120 mm. I suggest you fit an adjustable stem.
By adjusting length and height you should be able to get a comfortable position. I have seen some bikes where the bars are fitted with the ends are pointing forward but the fitting of the brakes and gear levers is more complicated and it just does not look right.

[arnsider]

I had a much loved Claud Butler that I fitted butterfly bars to. The bike came with the defunct GripShift changers and I carried them over to my new bars.
They were excellent changers, and I cannot understand the prejudice against them. The Sachs Wavy variety that superceded Grip Shift were excellent and were much easier accomodated on the butterfly bars than rapid fire.
My Whyte Coniston E bike has very wide straights which I am Okay with, but the steering "Flops" where the fork center is offset forward of the streering head.Converting to Butterflys would be costly, but would improve comfort. I would definately go for "grip shift" changers.

[stodd]

I much prefer grip shifters.

I cut my right thumb muscle when I was about 4 and cannot oppose the thumb, which makes trigger ones a little awkward. I could not work the early ones at all except by removing my right hand from the handlebars to push the trigger forward. (I never owned a bike with those!) The later trigger ones are much better; I can operate them with thumb fairly easily, but still prefer twist.

The only downside of twist shifter to me is that I have very occasionally shifted by mistake.

[arnsider]

I have a similar problem with my Shimano Thumb shifter. I have onset arthritis in my hands and the Thumb joint can be painful. No doubt, with grip shift, the problem would be less so.

[Devon Wilfy]

i have a similar problem, i slashed my wrist open on some farm machinery and lost some of the sensation in my thumb and index finger, so traditional shifters can be tricky at times, i think the perception that grip shifters are bad is down to the cheap rubbish like Apollo that Halfords used to sell ? i have Sram grip shift on my Dahon TR24 which is very good, and i'm seriously considering to switching to Sram X0 gripshift on my touring bike