So, what works for people? Setting the drop so the wrist is straight or flat topped?

Hoods to make a flat horizontal platform or so the blades are vertical?

Tempted to take it off the beaten track a little more often. Don’t race it but I don’t bimble either.

For me, I position the flats so that they are horizontal (from the side), and the hoods with a slight rise so you can grip them more firmly when standing and putting the power down. Just make sure you can still reach the levers when in the drop position. I also double-wrap the bars with innertube underneath to reduce vibration – biggest help with hand numbness issues.

Cheers. I’ll give it a try.

FWIW, I found the Salsa Woodchippers much better than standard drops off-road, so much so I’ve left them fitted to the tourer/CX permanently.

IMG_2575 by TandemJeremy, on Flickr

Everyone has a difference preference, some like the tops flat, others pointed up, others really low down, some like the bottom of the drops to be at an angle etc, its all about what works for you. FWIW here how I’ve got mine set up:

Bottom of the drops pretty much horizontal, hoods slightly up so that my wrists are straight when I’m on them.

Everyone has a difference preference

That one looks possitively painful though 😯

Depends on what bars you’ve got and to a lesser extent what levers.

Deep drop bars or anatomic bars can make the right position in the drops hard to acheive.

Compact bars on a cross bike:

Cheers folks. Mine we’re set like whatnobeer’s pic but I found my hands were blistering on the bars.

From the look of that, I think mine are compact bars.

That one looks possitively painful though

It’s not nearly as agressive as it looks. The frame is very ‘compact’ design with a radically sloping top tube. It makes it look like there’s a massive drop between the saddle and the bars, but its not nearly as bad as you’d think.

Always have bottom of bars parallel to ground and a slight rise on the hoods

My road bike setup looms identical to Crikeys. I like having a flat “transition” between bars and hoods, almost like a set of bullhorn bars. Those with a dip between bars and hoods just look/feel too squashed.

Bobbins. Tweaked the bars and thought I’d replace the tape at the same time. I didn’t bank on it needing longer gear and brake cables!

druidh
The problem with the set up you describe is that it makes it very hard to position yourself for sprinting off the drops.

Mine are flat on top like crikeys, with the hoods pointing up slightly. But to achieve that The drops are at about 30 degrees and I can’t reach the levers from the drops.

If I put the drops horizontal then the top of the bar is pointing down and it feels like I’m about to fall off the front of the bike.

What are your bars Crikey? I need some like that.

They’re cheap FSA compact bars; you can pay from £15 to £200 depending on what they are made of.

Here’s the problem with deeper bars;

My bars and hoods also set up like crikey’s (in his first pic) and I have similar shape bars (ITM Millennium 4Ever Road Bike Handlebars, Anatomic 42cm, Ebay cheap jobbie from HighOnBikes). Don’t have a problem sprinting on either the drops or the hoods. I also raise my bars using an adjustable stem for more hand comfort. However, I can reach the brake levers. I’ve just got some budget Tektro brake levers – maybe they are a bit shorter reach? Dunno. I started off with all the ‘standard’ set up measurements, then various pains forced changes. Now it’s fine. Depends on you and your body – trial and error.

You might need to reposition the hoods on the bars if getting the ideal position is too difficult at the moment. Shouldn’t be too tricky a job. If possible, try having a go on some mates of the same size bikes too see if the way they have their bars and hoods set up works better for you. They might have different styles of drop bars too, so it makes for an interesting comparison. I really don’t get on with ergo style drop bars and find the ones of got (Cinelli Vai Palm) perfect in terms of the drop, the shape of the curve and the position of the hoods.

Mine are like MikeWW’s. Flat portion of the drops pointing somwhere between horizontal and the top of the rear tyre. I also like a flat ramp from bars into hoods, but that is very much dependent on the shape of the bar itself.

I start by setting the angle so I’m comfy on the flat part of the drops…It’s a road bike so I’ll spend some time there. Then set the stis so I am comfy on them.

I use shallow round (old style) drops, never liked anything else.

You so often see odd looking set ups! EG my woodchippers are totally different to druid’s, I couldn’t use the drops on his.

EG my woodchippers are totally different to druid’s, I couldn’t use the drops on his.

Agree – they are angled way too far down for my liking.

Bike fit is a mystery to me, so I infinite monkey it- fanny around til it feels right for you (then fanny around a bit more to see if it feels any more right)

I had my hoods parallel and on the basis of this thread thought i’d try out the slighty raised setup.

As it turns out, its been one of those revelation moments – suddenly my wrists and arms feel right, I’m in the middle of the saddle and don’t have to shuffle during the ride, and i re-took a strava KOM tjhis morning with a 3 minute improvement (over 10k).

This (gratuitous) pic shows the setup – you can just see the raised hoods – and for the record when in proper riding position my arms are slighty bent a tad more than this shows:

setup

Note the compact bars – yet I can still reach the levers with two fingers when on the drops.

I agree its a revelation and my comments are all based on going to a professional bike fitter. I would still say your bars need rotating forward slightly and then move the hoods up on the bars-you will need to take the bar tape off to do it.
A proper full bike set up makes a world of difference

LOL, I was just going to say exactly the opposite of what MikeWW said…

My opinion is that your fit will change over time, and your preferences can result in you changing stuff to suit your riding rather than being stuck in one position for ever.

Don’t be scared to experiment, think about your position while riding; can I get my seat back? Could a longer stem help? Can I go lower?

Try riding only on the drops for an hour or so; when you sit up and get back on the hoods, it’s amazing how high up it feels..

Fair enough Mike. I’ve never had a proper bike fit and the bars are factory standard so…

Maybe one day 🙂

I’m still amazed how big a difference such a small adjustment made to my whole position though.

Edit:

crikey – Member
LOL, I was just going to say exactly the opposite of what MikeWW said…

Maybe I’m in the perfectly in the middle 😉

Mine are like Crikeys too. Pro PLT shallow drop bars, tops flat, hoods of STI’s slightly up. Seem to be able to use all hand positions quite comfortably.

I’ve been making incremental changes since I started, now have the bottom of drops parallel with the ground and hoods slightly raised so when I’m just on hoods (rather than fingers covering brakes/gears) my forearms are parallel to ground and wrist straight. Will get a photo later. This setup feels the most comfortable to me.

One before I had the hoods too high, pushing the brake levers out from the bars more so was getting aching hands on longs descents covering the brakes in the drops. Deda RM01s I think, compact. Nice ovalized section on the tops is very comfy.

Well, just tried my tweaked set up. I’d put the top section of the bars flat with the levers slightly inclined. Riding on the hoods felt loads better. However, my wrist was too cocked on the drops. The “ergonomic” section felt too vertical. Time for a new bar me thinks.

A better side on pic of how I usually set up my bars. Drops angled slightly down, then levers positioned to get a flat ramp from the tops to the hoods.

Just been lookinng at some salsa cross type bars. My drop is about 60 degrees from vertical. I don’t get low enough to use that, even on the drops I’m relatively high so something closer to 45 degrees would work a lot better. Charlie the bike monger seems to be out of stock on all the bars I looked at. Where else is good for salsa bars?