I’m trying to set up my new salsa cowchippers, I went for 105 brifters over bar end shifters for a number of reasons.
The issue I’m having is that due to the flare, my hands sit further round the hood and as a result the corner of the shifter, which is quite pronounced on the 105 brifters, sits right along the ‘valley’ of the hand, pretty much along the ‘life line’ of the hand.

Its been alleviated a bit by putting the shifters further down the bar.
Any other suggestions?

I should add I really like the wrist position resulting from hood/flare, just not the pressure on my hands.

extra wraps of tape over the offending corner?

when I used flared drops, the hood position was compromised, but riding in the drops was so nice to compensate!

I you can’t ‘smooth’ the transition/area out by using carefully cut bits of tape or gel then you might be a bit stuffed.

I’ve actually gone back to using older levers on my flared bars for similar reasons as I can’t get comfy on the current long and flat shaped hoods with the flare, but they are great on normal bars.

Set them up to be comfy in the drops, hoods position be damned.

The reason I bought them was to have a variety of hand positions for touring hence wanting to cover all bases.

Fiddle.
I use both SRAM and Campag and both are fine. Must admit to using Midges though.

Woodchippers with 105 (the latest 10 speed type) and tektro levers (not at the same time) both have a sweet spot, found the best way was to set up the drops for an aggressive descending position (about 30-40 deg from horizontal) then match the brake levers to that position. I then added a layer of bar tape under the rubber hood cover to add a bit extra cushioning. This angle ended up being almost perfect hood position.

Oliverracing do you have any pictures with the 105 setup?
I might look to rotate the bars in the stem a bit given what you’ve said.

I had exactly the same problem with these bars and SRAM Force levers, adding gel or more bar tape compromised the feel of the bar in that area, so I took a flat bladed screw driver and heated it up and melted the sharp edge off.

These are Woodchippers and the older 6700 levers but I find this works really well.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/oE5359]DSC_0144[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/oE4xXC]P1010496[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Out of curiosity, where did you pick up the cowchippers? I’m struggling to find any in the UK in 46cm

Havevyou trued Charlie the bike monger

Last I saw Charlie had some 40cm sets, I wanted 42cm’s and just managed to catch a friend the day before they came back from the US to get some for me. Having spoken to Wayne at EDS bikes the next lot are due August some time.
If you need them now you could look at Jenson USA and add on import duty.

Sorry for previous glib answer but IMO the main concern should be a set up that is comfortable to ride in the drops, hoods comfort is secondary. On my flared drop bar bikes I almost never ride the hoods – it’s either drops or tops. I can appreciate that for touring though you want as many positions as possible. I agree with what others have said – experiment. A bit of tape between the plastic lever body and the hood grip could work well.

Has anyone found a shorter and/or higher rise stem is necessary? Just fitted Love Mud Bombers and after a quick spin around the block I’m wondering if the bike will manual up/drop off big steps quite as nicely without changing stems (canal commute).

Whilst it may not look cool, i used my Fargo as my winter commuter and clocked about 4000 miles on it, so while i ride i nthe drops off road, i’d ride on hoods on the road to be able to see better, what i did was actually continue the bar tape up and over the body of the hood as well with hardwearing Lizardskins, super thick tape (does help i have large hands!) found it a lot more comfy as it levelled the hoods with the top of the bars and covered join.

Scud, have you got pictures? Sounds great.

I haven’t at present as after hard winter, the Fargo is currently at the powdercoaters sorry. Basically when i taped the bars, i continued the taping on the flat part of the actual hoods where your hand sits before it curves up wards, if that makes sense?, i had a gel insert under the tape to on the actual bar itself. Helped a lot being a rigid bike.