I got a good deal on a Raleigh Airlite 200, but the fork was damaged out of the box so I had it swapped for a Carraro D’Aimez 915. I’d never heard of the brand before, but it looked pretty good with an excellent spec for the price.

Anyway, here’s a couple of pics

Really pleased with it so far, although putting the bar tape was interesting! It went on ok, but I could do with some practice.
I have only taken it for a ride ’round the block’ – perhaps 7 miles so far.
I think I have the riding position ok, and have flipped the stem from it’s ‘slammed’ position so it is a bit more upright. The length feels ok, especially seeing as I am more used to riding an mtb. I expected it to feel like I was on a rack…

I have some questions about the handlebar though…when riding, the muscle at the base of my thumb was quite achy. I am not sure if that is because I am not used to it. I was swapping between holding the bars just behind the brakes & then resting my hands on the curved bit of the brake assembly. I am not sure whether there is a correct position, or just wherever feels comfortable.
When braking, I was reaching two fingers around the front of the housing & pulling the lever at the top, rather than changing position & using more of the lever. This felt ok, but I don’t envisage It being very good if I need to brake quickly.

Any advice on how to hold the bars/general set-up would be appreciated.

Oh, and does anyone know much about these bikes – apart from the fact it’s Italian I have no idea if I have bought a ‘Ford Mondeo’, an ‘Alfa Giulietta’ or a Trabant…

Carraro – never heard of them either, but it looks perfectly acceptable for a first road bike. What are your plans for it / type of rides?

As for hand positions there’s no hard-and-fast rules (unless you prescribe to the Velominati). I also get a bit of thumb-ache if I’ve been off the roadie for a while, its just a matter of a different hand position to MTB and you’ll get used to it.

Good thing about drop bars is there’s so many options. I tend to use:
Right on top of the flat bit when cruising or climbing in the saddle.
Hands on the outside of the top curve when climbing out of the saddle (spinning) – this takes a bit of practice but gives a very upright standing position.
Hands wrapped round lever hoods – climbing out of teh saddle
Hands on lever hoods with fingers on top of lever – in traffic or peleton for immediate braking
Hoods between 1st-2nd fingers and elbows dropped when time trialling
Hands in curve of drops, fingers covering brakes when descending
Hands near ends of drops when time trialling or when knackered!

I also ride with my forearms on the tops when time trialling along smooth open roads cos it makes me look like a pro 😉

You’ll soon learn what works when you wobble off or crash into things!

Not a whole lot wrong with the set-up or your description of braking tbh. Could possibly rotate the bars up slightly if you wanted the hoods a bit higher/easier to reach but they’re about in the correct ‘standard’ position already. How you brake whilst on the hoods is how you describe, whether you get enough stopping power from that position to be safe will depend on how good the brakes are and if you’re able to put enough power through the levers in that position. I do most of my braking from the hoods and only go onto the drops and brake with the bottom of the levers on fast/technical descents.

the internet suggests it might be a ‘viking – carraro’…? – they seem to be good cheap bikes.

When braking, I was reaching two fingers around the front of the housing & pulling the lever at the top, rather than changing position & using more of the lever. This felt ok, but I don’t envisage It being very good if I need to brake quickly.

this is ‘riding on the hoods’ – you’ll spend a lot of time in this position, and as you’ve spotted, you don’t get as much oomph on the brake levers. Get some new brake pads, cheap ones are often terrible.

(swissstop ‘greens’ work well)

as for positioning: there’s nothing weird in your photos – try changing something and see if it helps…

I also ride with my forearms on the tops when time trialling along smooth open roads cos it makes me look like a pro

this +1000

Plus your Rapha cap at a jaunty angle.

Only then will you be one of the gang.

Oh, and shave your legs too please. No hairly legs in the peleton

🙂

Hands on top of the brake levers – “on the hoods”
Hands down in the curly bit – “in the drops”
Hands on top of the flat part of the bar – “on the tops”

Nothing really wrong with what I can see except the hoods (rubber bit top of the brakes) are very flat you may find as a newbie that rotating the bar toward you very slightly so the hoods have a slight angle upwards is more comfortable on your wrist – especially when you’ve got used to it and put the stem back in a proper position 😆 😉

However, this is personal preference and welcome to the world of road biking and its infinite minute adjustment process……

I agree it might be worth rotating the bars up. Your brake hoods might be more comfortable to hold if they were a touch more upright.

40mpg – this bike is just to supplement the mountain bikes really, as it’s easier for me to get miles in my legs on the road during the week. I’ve been using an Inbred with a second set of wheels up to now with slicks on.
I’ll probably be doing 20-30 miles on it until I get used to it, but would like to work towards 50 miles or so through the winter. It retails at £800 so should see me good for several yrs.

Your description of using the bars sounds similar to how I was experimenting last night on it, but a dark first ride during rush hour wasn’t ideal. I think I am on the right track though. There was quite a lot of low speed wobbling going on!
As for ‘the rules’ – I am pretty sure I will have to rebel. I’ve got mtb pedals on it & was wearing my visored helmet – which was a pain, and an Osprey pack with bladder (force of habit). New helmet definitely on the cards.

Fuzzywuzzy – I used a recent thread on here to set my bars up. Interesting that you mention rotating them up a bit, as that was about the only thing I thought that might need doing to the position. Perhaps move the saddle forward 5mm or so, but that is marginal, I reckon.

The bars look fine. You haven’t got much of a drop from the saddle to the bars so it should be pretty comfy. Once you get used to it, you may find that you can move the saddle back and drop the bars to strech you out a bit.

ahwiles – yeah, did you see the Viking name on the Rutland Cycling website? A mate of mine works there & sorted me a good deal on the bike. Their website, http://www.carrarocicli.com/ doesn’t mention Viking though, nor do any other description I have seen. Not that it really matters. They seem to have some fairly decent bikes on their website.
I did wonder if new pads/shiny rims weren’t helping, although the braking was actually ok – I think it was the unfamiliar position & narrow bars that made it feel a bit uninspiring/awkward.

Cheers for all your input although there will be no leg shaving!

Good to hear the general consensus confirms that I should make a slight adjustment to the bars…

I think if I ride this regularly, I will have to start going to yoga classes again!

f me, never heard of them, but then you look at that website, not a box they dont tick, the ti 29’r is lovely, electric MTB’s, offroad tandems…

Yep, that’s what I thought, tinsy. The frame on this one seems really nice, with like a cowled dropout & a really smart looking seat collar etc. I was giving similar priced bikes the once over while waiting for a wheel to be repaired at my LBS this weekend & it wouldn’t have looked at all out of place amongst them.

Will probably take some more pics once the weather has sorted itself out…