I bought this Linus mixte 8 in May and have been using it to commute to work two or three times a week. Roundtrip it's a 13 or 14 mile ride. Lately my elbows have really been hurting. I thought I was riding with my arms too straight and locking my elbows so I put a shorter stem on the bike about a month ago.
But the pain has persisted and gotten worse. I think that going downhill and when braking I tend to lock up my elbows. It doesn't help that I have only one hand position with the original North roads handlebars.
I decided to give trekking/butterfly handlebars a chance. Honestly I think they're a bit funky looking but perhaps they will grow on me. I've often wished that my Linus could have drop handlebars, because I think the leaned-over position might be fun and faster, but I haven't known how to accomplish that with the twist grip shifters. These trekking handlebars will be the closest approximation of that possible with my current brake levers and shifter. I hope that with more hand positions some of the stress will be removed from my elbows.
Mostly because I wanted something soon so that I can start bike commuting again, I ordered the Nashbar trekking mountain bike handlebar, which was fairly affordable at $19. It's black--not my first choice. I was leaning toward the Dajia Cycleworks trekking handlebars from Velo Orange, which are silver, but they're out of stock. I decided to sacrifice looks for practicality in this case so I can get back on the road.
I haven't put bar tape on yet because I want to experiment with different configurations for the brakes and shifter. For now I have the bars flipped this way because it seems more comfortable. This stem pictured has about the same extension as the original stem that came with the bike, but it's taller. I wanted to raise the bars up a bit. Will post updates on how the new handlebars work out.
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