Thought a change was called for, so I took the plunge and ordered some Ragley Luxy drop bars, levers and a SS kit for the Roadrat.

Tried it for the first time today, first thing I noticed was how quiet the whole set up is, tried the drop bars off road and TBH the jury is still out on it, feels soooo wrong. But I’ll keep them on for a bit and see what it’s like.

I’ll take my hat off to you CX guys drops off road is a whole new ball game. 😕

P1030476 by eastham_david, on Flickr

P1030477 by eastham_david, on Flickr

Got some neat little tugs off ken shields and currently running 45/18.

Bars are massive compared to the drops on my road bike & the recently purchased Lyra cable discs are taking a long time to bed in. 🙁
I have obviously been spoiled with Hydraulics for too long.

P1030478 by eastham_david, on Flickr

I’m going to use it to commute (13 miles either way) over the next few weeks so we will see how it pans out after then.

Might cut those bars down before then though 🙄

Is it a ‘short’ or ‘standard’ length frame? The reach to the drops looks loooong…

Try a sorter higher rise stem so the dropped position is in the same place as your flat bars.

short frame and the stem is already a 90mm. Dont Fancy going much shorter, that will make it a bit twitchy

don’t grow a beard, i only grow mine to act as an airbrake

like the bars btw

Speaking as a bearded sandal wearing SS rider with funny handlebars, get a higher rise stem.

Try reading Shiggy on how to make drop bars improve your ride rather than be the latest fad.

shiggy is well into it isn’t he, how flipping high are the bars on that coiler?

They weren’t bought as a fad TBH, I wanted something that would be better off road than std drop bars.

Even though I must admit the thread did make it sound like a fad purchase.

Cheers for the advice on stem (i’ll flip it over) and linky.

agree with other comments regarding stem.
you need a proper riser stem. flipping the stem in the pic over won’t give you enough rise.

With your hands in the ‘hook’ of the drops-fingers on levers it gives an effective stem length much longer than 90mm.You could go much shorter and still have more stability than flats with a 90mm.I had to go the other way with carnegies.
Edit-you had normal drops on before did’nt you… 😐

righto, i’ll try a higher rise and shorter stem.

Ta