Yes, maybe a little much. I get riders to sit on the saddle, hold the drops and rotate until comfortable – then lock the stem. Then I move the shifters down a little to give a level top. Some people don’t do this step.

This all assumes the saddle is in the correct position. A rough guide is knee over pedal at 90 degrees. A better guide is pedal on a turbo with no hands whilst leaning forwards to see how much weight is taken through the legs.

I think a shorter stem to bring the bars closer will give you more access to the drops. An elbow angle of about 150 degrees for your hip angle should be about right.

The finished article:

I can’t go out and test it because it’s pitch black and persisting it down.

Bars need to be rotated down and when you’ve done that you’ll probably find the hoods should come towards you a touch IMO. As it stands the hoods will be uncomfortable and drops pretty much unusable. As a first step rotate the bars so the brake lever is perpendicular to the ground. It probably won’t be perfect as above but it should feel better than now.

You clearly have no issue with adjusting stuff and wrapping bar tape etc, so do yourself a favour and get some of these http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/HBPX7075CL/planet-x-road-bar-strada-compact-lite-7050

As others have said You are on a hiding to nothing with those bars imho, something with a shorter reach will allow you to keep a sensible stem length and use all hand positions. I use these which might be a bit pricy for you but there’s plenty of ‘modern’ bars out there cheaper like the planet-x above and various FSA ‘wing bars’ . The Zipps have a specifically short reach
http://www.zipp.com/bars/service-course-sl-70—/

Those bars would drive me insane personally. It is nothing to do with the way they are positioned, they are not designed to be positioned with the hoods levelled off. I would try a more modern compact bar on there. Look at Don’s bike on page 1….they are tiny in comparison. It’s easy to think a bar is a bar….but it’s not.

That’s my personal preference of course. I just can’t get it straight in my mind how anything can be comfortable angled down like that. Surely it’s a relic of the past that will be slowly forgotten?

Check there’s not a seam in your gloves along the web of the hand too. I’m a MTB man who got into road riding for the first time last year, you spend a lot of time with that bit of your hand doing the work, MTB gloves might have a seam there that’s causing irritation.

Also, those bars look dreadfully uncomfortable to me, neither one thing nor another.

relliott6879 – Member

…or have I unwittingly bought a known ‘lemon’ in the world of road bike bars?

T’would appear that I have. Fed up now.

I don’t think you have a lemon. Small changes can make quite a difference to comfort. Here’s one I prepared earlier – last night in fact and set up for me Teen2. Shifters are Ultegra 6600, so basically the same shape as your Tiagra. Bar is not dissimilar in shape (but more like the Planet X linked above). Side on profile is a little less conventional than the classic slammed stem, horizontal drops, but it is very comfortable (and I mean two hour road race on the drops comfortable for this non-flexy soon-to-be-senior-vet). Note the vertical brake levers – you must be able to reach them easily from the drops, that sets the position of the hoods, and then stem length sets the reach.

You would not be the first rider to move to a 90 mm stem on a 56 frame. I had a rider at work who just could not get comfortable on a 110, and when the bars were moved closer, it was a revelation (and he’d ridden the Maratona before the switch) . The length of the shifter hoods means that handling will not be impacted.

Loving the wailing and gnashing of teeth my 70mm stem has caused the purists….f@$k,’em….the bike was fine when new two years ago with a 110mm stem but things change, I’m older, I’m not as flexible….and I refuse to use a ridiculous stack of spacers under the stem….so I just shortened the cockpit instead, much better, more miles on the bike and if I bend my elbows I can still get as low as I used to.

May post a pic when I get home just to really upset people!

Add a picture of you sat on it so we can decide if it fits 🙂

Loving the wailing and gnashing of teeth my 70mm stem has caused the purists….f@$k,’em….the bike was fine when new two years ago with a 110mm stem but things change, I’m older, I’m not as flexible….and I refuse to use a ridiculous stack of spacers under the stem….so I just shortened the cockpit instead, much better, more miles on the bike and if I bend my elbows I can still get as low as I used to.

May post a pic when I get home just to really upset people!

😀

I’m not upset; I just care about your road cycling experience; hence why I bother to spend time drawing red lines on pictures of men in lycra. Thought I’d give something back to STW since I get abuse for “trolling” all the time.

Give it a go; put your 110mm back on and slam it; push your saddle back and get your hips swivelled forward. Comfortable for hours in the saddle, high speed down hills will feel far better, as will out of the saddle climbing.

I just can’t get it straight in my mind how anything can be comfortable angled down like that. Surely it’s a relic of the past that will be slowly forgotten

Are you suggesting that for the first 60-70 years* of drop bar use that nobody was comfortable?

It is from the past, but things were different in the past, in the past the hoods were not the default position, bars were at different heights, brake levers were different shapes and all sorts.

Older/different shaped bars are not ‘wrong’ and they still have their place on some types of bikes, it’s just that they don’t play all that well with modern STIs and frame geometries, but then not everyone uses modern STI’s and not everyone has a default modern shaped frame.

I do agree with DT and Ti-Red etc. though OP, some modern compacts would probably suit your current setup better.

*not to scupper my own point but flat ramps are actually NOT a new thing, flat ramps with parallel drops were around as early as the 20’s but with much longer reach and designed for traditional brake levers, bars have been through a lot of variations and trends over the years to keep up with changes in riding, changes in kit and fashion. The number of shapes and variants is staggering when you look into it, some of them are for very specific uses/shapes of people but they all have their uses!

definatley try some of the FSA compact bars there around 20 – 25 quid…fixed all my woes and i can know use all the bar postions comfortably..i have the tops to hoods almost horizontal and the drops are horizontal too..the widths are measured differently tho so check that..its all on the fsa site.

I refuse to use a ridiculous stack of spacers under the stem

Hypocritical when bashing the “purists” for the short stem choice 😉