I put a top-tube-mount-type child seat on my wife’s commute bike. Based on his seated position relative to the bar tops, our recently-4-year-old will ideally have an auxiliary handlebar sitting ahead of the bar tops, not above the bar as seems to be the norm on most bikes with Shotgun and similar seats.
All I could find were cheaply-made no-name-ish extenders designed for double duty - for kids, or for additional mounting space for lights/head-units/etc. I’m aware that there are plenty of good Chinese bike parts, but everything here appears similar level of crappy.
The one I bought might be fine with friction paste on a 31.8mm bar, but the included plastic shims are TERRIBLE. Very little surface friction (so bar rotates easily no matter how tight), plus they don’t appear designed to withstand material compression anyway.
Ideally I’d use metal shims, or firm-rubber (how my Garmin mount is shimmed for a 26.0 bar). It’s easy to buy 31.8-to-25.4mm metal shims.
But even more ideal would be a setup designed specifically to clamp on 25.4mm bars. I doubt this exists, but if it does it would be preferable to a shimmed setup. Does anyone know of any such thing? I haven’t been able to find any.
I got the bit where you mentioned being after extension that features a native 25.4mm clamp diameter, but maybe this one from Kids Ride Shotgun, which interestingly, the 1st photo cloned (after first removing the Kids Ride Shotgun branding). Unsurprisingly, the KRS extenders look a lot better built. I’ve actually used the device bar extension mounts that include those clamps and decidedly say that your assessment is spot on. The clamps only lasted a week or so, simply because no amount of torque would hold them in place. It’s just bad.
The KRS option looks well-built, and if you’re after something of better quality, there’s a Shotgun Pro option as well, that feature quick releases. Not exactly what you were after, but hopefully it helps.
Thanks. I should have thought to search handlebars from KRS and such child seat manufacturers.
I’ll try the one I bought with good aluminum shims, but the likely outcome is that I can’t tighten it enough, even with friction paste, and will buy the KRS model.
our kid should have a handlebar extender oriented forward off the bar-tops (not up as always shown on long-reach MTB geo)
the cheap-a** thing I bought first was poorly-made - I got it close to holding against rotation with scored aluminum shims and friction paste, but the bolt stripped out of the aluminum clamp body, and odds are it would have begun to fail later anyway.
bar-end forward extenders (if anyone had made some that fit 25.4 clamp dia) would need a bend or curve at the end so kids hands don’t risk sliding off the front. Best suggestion I got for this approach (elsewhere) was to use two removable-faceplate threadless stems with 25.4mm clamp. Would look ridiculous but would do the job, although heavy and too-big-for-small-hands.
I’m just gonna get the KRS 2.0 handlebar as others have recommended in this thread.
The only question I had on the KRS 2.0 bar was whether the clamps is hinged, but it appears that it does. There’s no installation video (link is dead) and hard to find pics online that I’m sure are the correct brand. The bumps in the studio photo aren’t 100% obvious, but there’s a silver pin visible in the on-bike shot.
