[Closed] 10 years of trying to get on with drop bars...

I grew up a mountain biker - I have the same issue. Drop bars are utterly alien to me.

I have had 3 road bikes and 2 "gravel adventure" bikes over the last 10yrs and all with varying styles of drop bars, and I have never felt comfortable on them. My hands ache. My back hurts. I feel hunched / cramped.

It's a very personal thing. I've never had any of these problems. If you hadn't had 5 bikes I'd say it was a bike fit thing or incorrect bar size. But who knows, maybe you just don;t get on with the position.

However, off road they're not really very practical. It's a big compromise that only really makes sense if you do a lot of road/gravel miles.

Ever had a proper bike fit?

I've never felt comfortable on them, but it might just be that I've never had a road bike that "fitted".

Going to make a commuter out of a second hand road bike this summer and I think i'll just go straight to flat bars. Can put some normal disc brakes on too.

It's really just a setup issue by the sound of it. Your stem is flipped up and you've got a lot of stem spacers which is a recipe for the symptoms you describe.

Drop bar bikes need to be set up with a good reach to the hoods and quite a bit of saddle to bar drop, otherwise you'll not be able to get in a comfy position.

I'd have another go. Aim for a setup that looks more like this.

[img] [/img]

Those skinwalls are giving me the fizz.

Yum.

😀

Bless you!

Classic DTF.. 😆

I'm not joking

They look daft.

never been able to ride drop bars. always ridden flat bars on my tourer.
also like jones bars which give a couple of nice positions.

[img] [/img]

Yep, drops are rubbish off road.

[img] [/img]

Great replies guys. Thanks for sharing

I think too it ultimately comes from being a mtbr and having lots of back issues over the years which puts me upright.

David your setup makes my back want to be sick! It looks so aggressive

I think a bike fit would ultimately help the scenario but after the the stack this week I have decided to try flat bar commuting. Certainly will feel more in control

Thanks again guys

Something I've noticed recently is the number of people that ride drop bars with straight or almost straight arms. Only been riding drop bar bikes for a couple of years but when I first got one was told to drop elbows and use core to support body not hands. Verycomfortable like that.

I've previously ridden drops on road cx and mtb but recently over the last few years found them particularly uncomfortable and gone back to normal mtb bars

Many years ago when I did a lot of youth hostel touring the "correct" bar placement for drop bar tourers was top of bars level with seat. With everyone wanting to be TDF riders nowadays fashion decrees a really low bar position which is inherently much less comfy ( biomechanics innit!)

Sure your body can adapt to this very low bar position but its putting huge stress on your body to do so and until your musculature adapts it will be uncomfy.

I think the issue is that many people are not racing but touring on their drop bar bikes but are attempting to adopt a race position

whenever the question of wide drop bars comes up, the general consesus is that you dont need them, that a good bike fit will sort you out.

I am not that bothered about having a minimal profile going into the wind etc, but I do like the option to change positions on the bike and get a semi decent desending position. I should probably just go with flat bars and bar ends but then you have the faff of converting road shifters and brakes.

I think there is definatley a gap in the market, I have just bought some O-O Midge bars (not tried them yet) but they are only 554 end to end, I would like to see some at about 600-750.and maybe the greater use of those CX type extra brakes on the flats.

Drop bar bikes need to be set up with.... quite a bit of saddle to bar drop, otherwise you'll not be able to get in a comfy position.

Otherwise, it's an affectation.

A lot of people would be better off with flat barred 700c bikes, but there's no pro sport using them to look up to…

Long time rider ( 20 years + ) and long time bad back sufferererer. Dropping the front end of my fast bike by 5cm actually helped my fit and comfort significantly.
The issue for me was not enough set back in relation to saddle / bb.

I'm saying this as it's hard to guess what causes the symptioms without a bike fit.

I'd suggest it would be worth doing before you give up.

Bars are in the wrong place, that is all. Correctly set up they will be comfortable and relaxed, offering complete control and comfortable braking. You should spend about a third of your time riding on them, for speed, control and braking.

Without seeing you it is hard to commment. Do you spend all your time on the hoods? Elbows locked or have some bend? Have a picture? The normal problem is that the bars are too far away, often too low. This assumes your saddle is in the correct place to begin with. I always start at the saddle, get that right, then bar position is a matter of comfort.

Careful OP, the rabid drop bar fanatics will tell you are wrong, despite all your years of trying. They just don't understand that flat bars are better for most people, especially off road.

People said my tourer would handle like crap when I converted it to flats, but hey it handles really well and is comfy, but they don't want to hear that.

Enjoy your new comfort ride!

Mary bars for real comfort. Put your hands / wrists in a natural relaxed position. North road bars if yo want to go lower

Or yours didn't fit either and probably should also consider a session.

Or yours didn't fit either and probably should also consider a session.

See what I mean? 😉

I have Mary bars on 2 of my bikes. I only fitted them to my 29+ as I didn't have any others that fitted the stem I wanted to use, absolutely spot on. I'm just about to fit some to the Gravel bike to replace the drops, as I rarely ride it as is.....

However in the spirit of following the crowd , I perservered.

^Mistake no.1

F*** fashion, use what works for you.

I use drops on my ATB/tourer, high and wide-swept cruiser type bars on ute/shopper. Don't currently own a MTB but when did I found that Mary bars worked best for me. Demoed some wider-style (read modern) MTB bars on a plus setup recently and they felt good too.

Thinking about it, not one of my bikes past and present would ever pass a fashion test 🙂

I reckon there are two issues here...

1. Your road bike probably doesn't fit you right.

2. You are rightly sceptical about drop bars for off-road riding. I find them rubbish for anything techy - and you'd probably be better with a 29er HT unless you're just riding "gravel".

*runs off to grab hard hat*

I've a drop bar bike i ride off road, i quite like it but not on hardcore stuff.

Lots of the drop-bar off road types have their bats set really high.

I prefer flats for more demanding off road stuff.

Honestly; try my suggestion. If you've got a turbo trainer, it'll be easier to try it on that.
Remove all your spacers and turn your stem so it's facing downward. Looks like you've got an inline seatpost, so push your saddle back a bit. Sit on your bike (but don't clip in, let your legs hang freely). Now place your hands in the drops; providing your bars are low enough and far enough away, you'll have no choice but to rotate your pelvis forward to reach them. And hey presto, that's your position for a drop bar racing bicycle.
Lowering the nose of the saddle ever so slightly might help.
Your arse will stick out backwards, so a setback seatpost might help.
You'll probably need to readjust saddle height (lower it) as you've effectively lengthened the reach your leg has to make.
A narrower saddle will probably be more comfortable.

Just curious - why is everyone so adamant that the OP should go for drop bars? What's so awesome about drop bars off road?

Just curious - why is everyone so adamant that the OP should go for drop bars? What's so awesome about drop bars off road?

have we just read the same thread? Seems a balance of "because they're crap", "give them another try with a different bike set up" and "ride what you want". And where are the claims that they are "awesome off road"?

I'm a fan of drops, I find them all-day-long comfortable on the road bike, and quite capable off-road. My CX bike has drops, and I think that they reach a similar limit to the rest of the bike; by the time it's gnarly/rooty/rocky enough for me to want fatter tyres and suspension, I also want wide flat bars.

Your stem is flipped up and you've got a lot of stem spacers

Looks like you've got an inline seatpost

Iz confused- has the OP posted a pic of the bike that I can't see? I'm starting to feel paranoid lol

I'm very close to building up, or buying a road tourer.

Been looking at the usual suspects, Trek 920, Specialized Sequoia and the other variants of this type of do it all bike.

Been riding bikes , both mtb and road for donkeys years. Always rode with drop bars on a road bike.

Always viewed anything other than drop bars on a road bike as a bit naff, listened to all the arguments about the varied hand positions, but in reality only rode on the hoods and close to the stem.

Never had a problem with flat bars on mtb, then I briefly had a Jones.......

Seriously considering buying a Singular Swift and making a road based tourer using the Jones bars. Now that's a lot of different hand positions, and plenty of space for a bar bag, Garmin and lights.

Pretty sure I won't be going drop bar on a tourer, different matter if you are keen and want to race etc, but for most, a type of flat bar would be good.

Also makes it very easy to make the rest of the brakes (disc) and mtb gears ( to make it low enough) for proper grovel climbing.

I find comfort mostly on the flat part or just read of hoods but still not great for me

That sounds like the distance from saddle to bars is too long for you. Unless your back issues are such that even with a fairly short reach you are going to still have problems, or the top tube is simply too long whatever you do (i.e. too large a frame or a bike designed for flat bars rather than drops), the logical answer would be a shorter stem, assuming it would not need to be so short that it compromised the handling. You'll know if the stem length is 'right' because the instinctive natural place for your hands will be on the hoods. If the curve of the bars and the levers will allow it, rotating the levers on the bars back towards you will also effectively shorten the reach, and may give a more comfortable position on the hoods.

My hands ache. My back hurts. I feel hunched / cramped.

Unless your back issues are again the overriding factor, the fact that you feel hunched/cramped, and yet at the same time do not feel comfortable reaching the hoods, suggests the bars may be too low.

To state the obvious, the optimum position and set up on a drop barred bike for road racing - like in the image posted by David Taylforth above - is unlikely to be the optimum for more relaxed riding or even for 'letting loose off road'. It's all about horses for courses. If you are mainly using the bike for commuting and off road, then I would have thought that flat bars were the best choice anyway.

In contrast, if you were spending hours in the saddle and wanted to clock up the miles in comfort, then a classic drop barred touring position is likely to be best, even if it doesn't look fashionable. The cycletourists in this photograph are not going at any great speed, but are clearly very comfortable on their bikes and could probably happily maintain that position all day long:

[img] [/img]

tjagain - Member
Many years ago when I did a lot of youth hostel touring the "correct" bar placement for drop bar tourers was top of bars level with seat. With everyone wanting to be TDF riders nowadays fashion decrees a really low bar position which is inherently much less comfy ( biomechanics innit!)

Yup.

Take a look at the era when normal people used dropbar bikes for their general transport, mainly 1950s and 60s. They did many thousands of miles a year on their bikes.

You'll notice the bars tend to be level with the saddle, also the toptubes were usually shorter.

Bikes built these days have short headtubes, so to get the bars to a comfortable height means lots of spacers or a kinked up stem. Toptubes tend to be longer, so using the same length stem as you would use for flat bars is likely to mean you are reaching too far.

The Singular Gryphon is an example of a modern bike built for dropbars, but unfortunately it has been discontinued. It had a nice long headtube and a shorter toptube.

To ride a race position you have to be as fit as a racer or prepared to put up with a lot of discomfort. Think tourer or audax instead.

[url= http://g-tedproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/drop-bar-mountain-bike-tips-updated.html ]This is a pretty handy guide if you want to use drops on your mtb.[/url]

Iz confused- has the OP posted a pic of the bike that I can't see? I'm starting to feel paranoid lol

I'm assuming this is the bike.

[img] [/img]

It already has a short, high stem. Going even shorter and higher is likely to make things worse. I'm assuming you must be trolling, Slowster? The cycle tourists in the photograph above are old and unfit; do not copy the position of someone who rides with their bars rotated backward and the levers up in the air. Try and ride quickly down a steep lakeland pass in that position; you'll probably crash and hurt yourself (like the FW Sportivists do every year).

Here you go, every MAMILs favourite endurance bike, the Mason Definition. I'm assuming this must be comfy since it gets ridden 4000Km across Europe. Note the saddle to bar drop and flat back position.

[img] [/img]

yes, Denise99 -- look at the video that Lee Craig did for the Caledonian Way -- I think it was on a Shand but you get the picture, Jones bars, simple rigid steel bike -- as it happens Swift + Jones here and looking forward to some longer rides this year..

ah, looks like a front bus fork but get general idea.

Denis99 - Member
...Also makes it very easy to make the rest of the brakes (disc) and mtb gears ( to make it low enough) for proper grovel climbing.

You can get a dropbar that fits mtb brakes and shifters. I use them on my general purpose bike.

It is a very short drop.

davidtaylforth - Member
... Note the saddle to bar drop and flat back position.

If I was that fit, I'd probably set up like that too. That has the look of a rider who has ridden big mileages.

Two classic road bikes, note the seat to saddle heights. (Mate holding them, blue one is mine)
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Classic road bikes are ridden in the drops, not on the hoods though. They don't have compact bars either.
The bars on the blue one look wrong aswell; the flats at the bottom should be parallel with the ground.

Two classic road bikes, note the seat to saddle heights. (Mate holding them, blue one is mine)

Note how low on the bars the brake levers are in your photo. On a modern bike the brake levers will be the same height whilst having a lower stem due to bar geometry.

Back in the day it was impossible to get a tight bend in a handlebar. Materials and processes have improved and now most bars use a changing radius with flat ramps, thus stems have lowered whilst the fit has stayed the same.

Good bike-fit has not changed.

[img] [/img]

Crashtest: Apologies - I'm assuming that everyone who is giving the OP setup advice is doing so because they believe drop bars to be inherently superior to flat bars.

FWIW, I love drops for riding on tarmac and my CX bike gets used for touring a fair bit set up fairly similar to my road bike (fairly racy). Works great for me but I wouldn't assume it's better for anyone else. I've never really been excited by drops off road though - was kind of hoping someone might pipe up and elaborate on their experience.