The original handlebar on my Trek FX 7.3 is a very comfortable, ergonomic Bontrager Satellite Plus IsoZone model. I wasn’t happy only with one aspect – the lack of positions other than pushing straight-armed on the handlebars. For a few days it was ok but when I started planning my journey to Armenia, I knew that I have to add some bar ends.
The reason I write about this is because the handlebars have unusual endings and I had to spend some time researching what would be the right solution, and there weren’t too many materials at that time.
Since the handlebars have non-round endings, I had to use adapters to make them round before installing the bar ends. At that time the only adapter produced by Trek was the Bontrager Race Lite Ergo Bar IsoZone Bar End Adapters. Now I found new Bontrager Satellite Plus IsoZone Bar End Adapter which does the same thing, i.e. making the handlebar round at its end, only it has a different cap (which in my case plays just an aesthetic role).
So the job to be done was to remove the grip from the handlebars, cut out part of the white insert because otherwise the adapter wouldn’t fit, and put the adapter and fix it with the grip.
Now what you get is a few centimeters space to add a bar end. Mind that the end of this (Race Lite Ergo) model is not even – last few centimeters are a bit lower and the bar end should not come on that part.
Adding a bar end is a simple task. It’s good to test the exact position you want them to be in, like the angle and the direction of the bars.
Later I have wrapped the bar ends with a soft tape so that I don’t touch cold metal when riding in winter months.