Handlebar – Nitto Bullmoose, dull bright TIG – 150mm reach, 190mm quill (B901R)

The Bullmoose Bar, TIG

Nitto made a few TIG bullmoose bars, looks as nice as fillet, except different.  Tiny, symmetrical, clean tig welds.

It’s a handlebar and a stem in one, was invented by Tom Ritchey in 1980, and named by Charlie Kelly. We got Tom’s approval to recreate it with the slight modifications noted below, and Charlie, all he wants for our using “his” name on this modified bar, is one of them for himself, and that’s easy.

This is the handlebar that graced the early production mountain bikes and defined the breed. It first appeared on the Ritcheys, but by 1982-4 or so, it was on all the Japanese models. It was always an expensive bar to make, and that combined with the onset of the weight-obsessed mtn bike in 1985 killed it.

The Bullmoose bar is still unequaled for rough terrain. You’re a big guy on a big bike riding fast over rough ground, and the wide bar lets you manhandle the bike like a monkey manipulating a peanut. You wrestle it here, pound it there, lift it over that last-second cow-pie, whatever. The 66cm wide bar gives you the leverage you need, and if you don’t need it, cut off an inch or so. But try wide first.

More normal bars are easier to make, offer more adjustability, weigh lessbut represent a caving in to practicality and manufacturer’s wishes at the expense of this bold, unique handlebar style. In some tiny way, in the right circumstances, under the wrong influences, some slightly irrational person in the passion of the moment could say that being a bicycle rider in the 21st century without having ridden Bullmoose handlebars is like being a photographer who’s never shot film or rewound a roll of it. True, film and rewind levers have been around and more popular than the Bullmoose bar, but this is the bar that really made the mountain bike, back when the mountain bike was tough and manly, rough and tumble, all business and unsissified.

There were Bullmoose variants, and the one we offer is yet another. It retains the signature triangle and the expansive width of the originals, but with two subtle differences that make it the best one yet (so we think).

(1) The far end of the triangle is curved. It looks just as good as a flat side, but offers a friendlier place to perch your hands, if you want a change-of grip. These Bullmoose bars offer a good change of pace from the originals, without looking like a whole new bar.
(2) The grip-part sweeps back a bit more, for a more ergo position that feels more normal and slightly improves climbing.

They’re CrMo steel, tig welded by Nitto. That’s the way it was back then, and there’s no way to improve on that part.

The quill is uncharacteristically short for us, because we designed it mainly for the Bombadil, which already has a high head tube; and because there’s plenty of built-in rise on the extension. Vaughn here put them on his Bridgestone XO-3, and that bike has never ridden better.

The dull bright finish is an exact match of the dull-bright finish of Nitto bars and racks.

Weight: 30.6 ounces (867.5 grams)
Reach: 150mm

Sweep: 30 degees
Top of quill to max height line: 3-1/3″ (8.5 cm)
1-3/4″ (4.5 cm) of vertical adjustment.

Requires brake levers with 22.2mm clamp diameter.

Since this bar is steel, please squirt some boesheild inside the bar and roll the goop around before installing it on your bike.