I’m having difficulty getting the bars & 105 STI levers set-up on my Grade, so that I can reach the brakes from on the drops.
Any tips / ideas that may help, please?

I’ve tried the DropTune flared bars the bike came with and some FSA Omega Compact bars, but in both cases, when I have the bars & levers set so that they feel just right on the hoods, I struggle to reach the levers from the drops unless I push myself right back and angle my wrists up at an uncomfortable angle, gripping as high up the bend as I can reach.

CX racers seem to have their bars and hoods tilted back more than road riders – surely they must have this issue? I know they don’t ride on the drops much, but I’d have thought they would want to be able to brake from there on the odd occasion they did…

Have you tried adjusting the reach to set them closer to the bars? On 11 speed there’s a screw to do this under the lever. On 10 speed you can get shims.

As above, adjust reach.
I have small hands and find that if I angle the hoods inwards slightly it helps with the natural reach and angle of hands/wrists. Purely personal preference though.

I was just watching the GCN video about adjusting reach – my levers are 11spd 105, so if they are adjustable as you say, I’ll give it a go.

Do you have a pic of how you’ve set them?

The hoods of mine are just slightly above horizontal, and the top of the bars are horizontal too, no problems reaching the brakes like that.

Drop aren’t really designed for this sort of thing, so they’ll never feel like you’ve got the control of MTB bars. If you look at Martyn Ashton’s ‘Road Party’ and the like, you’ll noticed they’ve tilted the bars down by 45 degrees or something to reach the drops/brakes easily (fine for a quick stunt video, but not really a normal bar position)

Yeh, probably poor position as above. Set the bars horizontal, along with the levers. Shimano are the worst levers for small hands IMO though.

I struggle to reach the levers from the drops unless I push myself right back and angle my wrists up at an uncomfortable angle, gripping as high up the bend as I can reach.

sounds like you might have the bars a little too low?

if the tops, ramps and hoods are horizontal (and you dont have the levers pointing up much) then with a level/horizontal forearm in the drops you should be able to reach the levers just fine, or at least be at the right angle even if the actual finger reach is too long.

the way you describe having to tilt you wrists up sounds like either you’ve got the hoods angled waaay up, tilting the levers up ans away, or the bars are too low.

This is pretty much the position I use, but have tried others.
Old bars:

New bars:

hmmm, doesn’t look unusual/bad, it’s always hard to comment without seeing the rider ont he biek though as fit is so personal, but there’s nothing obviously outrageously ‘bad’ about that setup, they’re a little pointy-uppy but not massively and no more than a lot of others (including one or two of my own bikes), tilting/moving the hoods down would improve position in the drops but you might not find it comforable on the hoods then.

Try winding the lever reach in and see if that helps you, other than that I’d go back to my bars too low for you comment.

(hard to tell from the two pics as could be angle/perspective but they seema bit lower in the second pic?)

It is hard to compare – especially as the bars in the top photo are flared.
I did lower the stem between when they were taken, but that was to give a bit more reach to the tops for seated climbing, nothing to do with drop position. The new FSA bars are slightly shallower and have 5mm less reach, but although the riding position feels different (and better on the drops), the reach to the lever issue is pretty much the same.
I’ll try adjusting the lever reach and maybe swap one of the stem spacers back over to lift the bar back up a bit.

Try rotating your bars forward a touch. Although this may make the hoods more uncomfortable…..

This is probably one of those cases where seeing a decent side-on picture of you (riding rather than stationary) would be very beneficial to offering useful advice.

Sadly not an easy thing to get unless you have some rollers and a friend handy!

Try rotating your bars forward a touch. Although this may make the hoods more uncomfortable…..

I don’t really want to do that if possible.
I’ve tried it and much prefer the hoods where they are – I ride on them most of the time anyway, so need to be happy there.

Hoping the reach-adjust and stem lift will fix things.
The bars aren’t particularly low, because the bike has quite a high front-end, but I’m long in the body and short of leg, so the saddle is quite low in relation to the bars.

This is probably one of those cases where seeing a decent side-on picture of you (riding rather than stationary) would be very beneficial to offering useful advice.

Sadly not an easy thing to get unless you have some rollers and a friend handy!

Agreed. I’ve no photos of me riding the bike on the drops.

difficult to see but it looks to me like the bars need to be rotated upwards, and the levers moved back down.

Agreed. I’ve no photos of me riding the bike on the drops.

Any picture of you on the bike would probably do.

I’d guess from the way your bike is set up, you might want a layback seatpost and more rotation of your hips to get a flatter back and a bend in your elbow.

The line in red is how I imagine your arms are now, the blue line is what you want; should make it easier to reach the drops.

Slow work day……

I’d guess from the way your bike is set up, you might want a layback seatpost and more rotation of your hips to get a flatter back and a bend in your elbow.

Funnily enough I’ve been thinking of that myself lately.
The bike came with a seatpost with more layback, but I couldn’t get the saddle level with it (cheap & nasty own-brand item) and swapped to the one in the pic. I felt at the time, I wanted to be a little more over the front so went for an in-line post. With hindsight, I’d probably have been better with a bit of layback, but it’s hard to judge these things without trying them and I haven’t ridden a road bike for about 20 years, so it all felt new.

Worth a go trying one.

So you look a bit more like this.

as above, there looks to be nothing out of the ordinary with the bars and lever set up, i’d even say it’s perfect 🙂

looking at the bike your set up does look a little long and high, so reaching the levers in the drops should be no problem, and from your description it seems like you need to have more upper body mobility and bend your elbows more, as mentioned above

and more rotation of your hips to get a flatter back

I love how people just presume this is possible. I know i cant just suddenly rotate my hips more, not without removing my man parts. Are you Mr Flexible-talyforth 😆

another thing to consider is that it may be a reach thing.

If you are actually too cramped when on the drops, it can make it difficult to get your arms in a position where your wrists are at the right angle to reach the brakes, hence having to rotate your wrists up.

If you had more length to stretch out then your wrists would naturally be at a shallower angle, but obviously if the reach feels right on the hoods you may not want to increase it with longer stem, so trying to get lower/flatter and a better bend in your elbows if possible, more saddle setback might help?

still just speculating without being able to see you!

EDIT – above posts snuck in while I was writing this making tea

I love how people just presume this is possible. I know i cant just suddenly rotate my hips more, not without removing my man parts. Are you Mr Flexible-talyforth

I can touch my toes! Although I don’t think I’m very flexible; I don’t stretch (anymore).

Saddle shape and saddle height are both limiting factors though…

I’m pretty sure my arms are straighter than in that photo when on the drops. It’s odd because I would have thought that meant the reach was too long, but maybe it’s more that I’m too far forward.

This is the only photo I have of me riding the bike seated:

See that pic up there, well that is kinda how I feel like I am on a bike, but my problem is that from there I can only just get a finger on the bottom of the brake lever as I have very inflexible wrists. To get more fingers on, I have to drop my whole body which is not ideal. I spend all my time on the hoods so was wondering if a bull bar set up might help, but I guess the brifters are clamped further round the bar so that the levers are sort of parallel to the bars, so it wouldn’t work on a bull bar?

I am about to strip down my cross bike to put some new v brakes on, and new cables throughout so it would be a good time to asses my position and bars

my problem is that from there I can only just get a finger on the bottom of the brake lever as I have very inflexible wrists. To get more fingers on, I have to drop my whole body which is not ideal.

That’s exactly the problem I have and if I spend any length of time low enough to cover the brake levers fully, my neck kills me.

In your pic, your arms are bent which is a good start! Your bar height looks probably fine, maybe a bit too high although I’m not sure what a good bar height is for offroad stuff. I’d say just rotate the bars forwards a bit, can’t see why it’d be an issue from your picture.

The thing I’d be more concerned about is why you look like you’re dropped off to your left hand side….

As said above…try rotating the bars forward so that the top is more horizontal, this might make the levers easier to reach as will be more in line with your forearms. You might need to rotate the bars a bit more and reposition the shifters…

Is it possible that your fingers may not be long enough to reach the levers? I’ve been wondering if I can adjust mine – I’m happy enough with the wrist/arm/hand position but the lever is just a tiny bit too far away. Will check out if I can adjust them.

“The thing I’d be more concerned about is why you look like you’re dropped off to your left hand side….”

Maybe saddle a little too high causing rider to rock a bit….or he’s just putting the hammer down!!

It also looks a bike like you’re either crouched or pushing hard on the pedals in that pic,?so probably positioned slightly lower than normal cruising position?

I tend to agree with DTF based on that pic, but (I feel like I’m saying this too much) still hard to tell from limited static pics.

In your pic, your arms are bent which is a good start! Your bar height looks probably fine, maybe a bit too high although I’m not sure what a good bar height is for offroad stuff. I’d say just rotate the bars forwards a bit, can’t see why it’d be an issue from your picture.

The thing I’d be more concerned about is why you look like you’re dropped off to your left hand side….

I felt the bars were a bit high at that time (for climbing, at least,)and have since dropped them a little. (It’s quite an old photo.)
I see what you’re saying about my left side – I think I was pulling on the bars with each pedal rev, the hill is steeper than it looks – I wasn’t spinning the gear and my saddle might also have been a little high. (Again – I’ve altered that since.)

still hard to tell from limited static pics.

Yeh, especially a front on picture…..!

What about putting your stem back up a bit, but rotating your bars forwards?

Do you have a turbo trainer? It’d be easier to experiment if you do.

How much did you lower the seat by?

Also, what length are your cranks?

this is certainly getting the day in!

I don’t have a turbo trainer any more. (I got rid of it when I stopped road riding all those years ago…)

I lowered the seat by just a few mm. Cranks are (I believe) 172.5mm.

I think my plan of action will be:

a) Stick to the shallower FSA compact bars. (Not the flared GT ones in the riding pic, which are back on again now.)
b) Adjust the lever reach.
c) Raise the stem by one spacer.
d) Check my saddle height again and lower if needs be.

…oh and:

e) Try a layback seatpost again!

To get more fingers on, I have to drop my whole body which is not ideal.

I thought that was exactly the idea of being on the drops? Flatter back, engage the glutes more, more aero, more even weight distribution, better access to brakes.

I thought that was exactly the idea of being on the drops? Flatter back, engage the glutes more, more aero, more even weight distribution, better access to brakes.

But not to lower yourself to brake, even more than when you are comfortably riding on the drops.

Slight exaggeration – but I feel I have to do this to reach the levers:

Slight exaggeration – but I feel I have to do this to reach the levers:

Maybe you do need a setback seatpost then!

Or maybe a custom frame 😉

I wouldn’t fancy climbing in anger on that bike of Bauer’s! 😯

😀 ahead of it’s time. Looks slacker than some of todays downhill bikes

I think I must have small hands. I wouldn’t be able to reach the lever in the position in this photo.

Perhaps I’m over-thinking the whole deal and reach adjustment might sort it. My position riding on the drops is comfy enough after all – it’s just the brake reach I worry about. I ride less in the drops because I can’t cover the brakes from my normal position and would be in bother if I had to slow / stop in a hurry.

Never used to have this problem with my old Cinelli bars & 600 Ultegra aero levers! 😉