Changing from Drop bars to Straight bars

[razor]

LOL , Russell it's nice you're trying to save me from myself but you're making a number of assumptions .Really I am not suggesting anyone use STI levers with straight handlebars , I am using Bike Nashbar " Nashbar Trekking ATB/Hybrid handlebars " they are mostly flat but ,not straight , each end kind of loops around till it almost touches the other .I have the STIs on the curved ends lined up about where they would be on drop bars . While the levers are close to the bars they will not touch them when closed and actually bypass the bars . This is great if you have short fingers like I do . When I put them on "temporarily " I was very careful to make sure it would work . Now 3 years later and thousands of miles they still work great for me .  They have been field tested on 5 trips of between 350 miles and 830 miles , and many , many shorter trips . They have stopped me when I was tearing down a hill at 50 mph headed for that stop sign hidden behind the tree branches and so on . I do not live in a flat area and most of my trips have been in Appalachian Mt's from Virginia to northern Maine .
  I'm not sure what you mean by V brakes , center pull , side pull maybe ? I have cantilever brakes on my bike and have been able to lock the wheels up when that bone head pulls out in front of me . Enough about the brakes they work ,they just don't look the way some people want them to .
   The nice thing about the handle bars is the many positions for your hands , and the way mine are set I can rest my forearm on the back part and hands on the front part like aero bars .Will these bars work for you ? Maybe , just find ones that more than one place for your hands .
    Clear minds and smooth roads .

Razor

[staehpj1]

Concern over ability to stop doesn't seem to make sense, since it sounds like you didn't change the brakes or the levers.  If they worked with the drop bars there is no reason that I can see that having trekking bars would make a difference unless you mounted the levers in some way that limited their travel.

Did the mechanics give some reason why they supposedly won't work?

[RussellSeaton]

I'd say there is a lot to this story you are not telling.  If the only thing you changed was the bar itself, no bike shop mechanic competent enough to get a job would say

"The only problem is I found some bike mechanics tell me they won't stop the bike."

You're implying multiple bike shop mechanics say the bike won't stop.  Not just one.  It takes more brain power to speak or fill out a job application at a bike shop than it does to realize changing the bars has no effect on how the brakes work.

Maybe you have the brakes mounted at such an odd angle or place on the bars that the mechanics cannot visualize how you can even grasp the levers to activate the brakes.

[razor]

  I have had 4 different bike shops work on it over time and 3 have told me the brakes would not stop the bike . After I showed the mechanics at 2 of the shops they believed me particularly after testing them for themselves . Not something I have a problem with as I am a hands on kind of person myself . The 4th one told me they wouldn't work without even testing them . And when I asked him to just look at them he gave me a song and dance about how he was manager of repair and told me he had 35 years experience working on bikes . I had just wanted it checked out for an up coming charity bike ride and just needed a check off sheet filled out , but he held onto my bike a week without even looking at it . Now , I was trying to do the right thing as I could have just filled the sheet out myself .I went to a different bike shop and they took care of me that same day . I got upset at a number of things ,first he wasted a week of my time , second supervising 3 teenagers does not impress me , third I built my first bicycle from junk bikes when I was 12 years old and still do work on them , and fourth I have worked as a maintenance mechanic in heavy industry for almost 30 years in many different plants on a lot more complicated equipment then this joker has even seen .
    Most bike shops will at least try to help and if they can't they will tell you so and most of the time tell you why , don't have the parts , no time , "darn , I just have no idea what's wrong ." Most of the time I let the mechanics at the shops work on my bike so I don't have to buy a lot of specialized tools and store them as I do wood working and carving as a hobby . I don't think sawdust works well in the bearings on bicycles , maybe that's just me . As to assuming I have and still work around hazardous " stuff "  explosive , flammable , poisonous , acid , caustic ,and known carcinogens . I do not like to assume anything . How's that for way more than you really wanted to know . As you can see I am not impressed by smoke and mirrors .
  What kind of handlebars do you like I have gotten away from the drop bars ?

Razor

[Cycleguy]

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Thanks to all of you that gave me advice on switching handlebars on my touring bike.. I'm going to change the stem to bring up my drop handlebars and see how this combination works before I go to the straight bar change.. Razor, it sounds like you need to change to another bike shop I sure wouldn't deal with a bike shop that treats customers like that.. PAUL

[razor]

Cycleguy , I no longer use that one shop . I am lucky to have two other shops in my area that have great people that are willing to help . I only wanted you to know two things , one that an unorthodox change could work for you and if it was not what everyone was expecting you might meet road blocks . Whatever you decide good luck and enjoy your trips .

Razor