Bicycles are great, since they’re functional enough to use for daily commute while being compact enough to fit inside even a small apartment. Problem is, those darn handlebars always make a point of sticking out, almost assuring you’re bound to bump into them at some point whenever you have the bike parked inside the house. Billibars changes that.
A set of detachable handlebars, the contraption can help reduce the width of your bike by a whopping 45 percent, making it narrow enough to fit inside places that wasn’t originally possible. Pair it with quick-release pedal to streamline your bicycle’s profile to the slimmest possible proportions, allowing you to store and transport it in the most convenient way possible.
The Billibars manage to accomplish this neat width reduction by having removable side sections – as in, the left and right sections not hooked up to the stem tube can all be detached from their place. It uses a twist-mount mechanism to easily attach and detach the handlebar sides, so there’s no need to use tools or spend a lot of time before you can park your bike at home or get it ready for taking on the road. Detaching the bike, by the way, requires you to push, twist, and then pull the sides off, which is a series of actions you’ll have to mindfully do on purpose, so there’s little likelihood the handlebars will come off accidentally in the middle of a ride.
According to the outfit, the handlebars were designed specifically for use with parts common to commuter-style bikes, so you might want to check potential compatibility issues if you want to use it with other types of bicycles (e.g. mountain bikes). For instance, if you use brakes with levers that mount on the handlebar arms, it could present an issue, since you’ll have to take out the brakes along with the handlebar sides.
The Billibars come in three models: straight, drop, and bullhorn. Width size is 17.2 inches for the straight handlebars, 16.5 inches for the drop handlebars, and 16.5 inches for the bullhorn. The center component for all three (the one that stays attached to the stem) measures 6.7 inches wide, so you can attach different side arms each time, in case you own multiple units of these detachable handlebars.
Aside from the handlebars, the outfit also makes a matching wall mount that’s designed to use the detached handlebar arms as the rack. There are two types of wall mounts: one for the straight handle bars and another for the other two, with the former sporting slots in front of the faceplate and the latter coming with slots on the sides. We’re assuming the wall mounts are fitted with the same twist-mount mechanism as the handlebars, so your bike should be perfectly secure the whole time it’s hoisted on the rack. Then again, with its uniquely narrow profile, your bike may not even warrant mounting up a wall, depending on storage options you currently have at home.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the Billibars. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $79.