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Thinking of some tarmac riding back lanes chocolate box villages in the summer sun and stuff rather than commuting round town.
Don't know if I'm ready for full on darkside and although I sold a Jake only a few weeks after buying because of drop bars a few years ago am thinking of giving it another go.
Has anyone tried drop bars and regretted it? Have you tried full on road and preferred a rigid retro mtb or cyclo?
Built mine with low rise MTB bars, done the road "thing" and didn't really like the riding position of drops TBH. Does that help? 🙂
Woody, is that a Roadrat? Cos they come with different top tube lengths and I wondered if it was a big issue changing if you didn't get on with them.
Yep, short 'rat with MTB risers and a 110mm stem. Guess you could use drops, but you might have to use a v.long stem?
drops look gash on hybrids.
I thought the short ones were for drops and the long for flats? But if the short is OK with flats I guess that answers my question.
Also, do you need a new hub to put a geared cassette on?
Short ones are "designed for drops" but at least one person on this forum (name has escaped me) bought a short one to use with flat bars because it gave them the position they wanted for riding in city traffic.
Roadrat wheels have a freehub for gears and use spacers to take the SS cog of the complete build bikes.
By the way, I use midge bars with a short high rise stem on mine. Probably upsets both drop and flat bar purists.
Hang on, you're right - it's a small, long. I didn't buy a complete bike, just frame/forks then built it up, so not sure about the wheels that come on the complete bike.
kelvin - What sort of brake levers do you use on the midges? And is yours a long or short.
I've had 2 recent goes at drops (1 with a Jake as well). I'm considering giving it another go with a short steep stem and very wide bars.
+1 for the midge bars - never use the drop section on my road bike bars but find loads of comfy hand positions on the midges - nice n wide, bit flexy and retro cool
Got a medium/long roadrat with flat bars. Bought from Cotic as a complete bike. Came singlespeed and running it that way for my 25 mile round trip commute.
over the course of a few months used midges, risers, butterfly bars and a set of profile airwings and a set of standard ITM drops on my 'rat.
Personally I don't get on well with drop bars, the midges (although comfy) had terrible braking form the hoods. Risers ride beautifully but unless you have a lot of weight on the front wheel (panniers) they're too much leverage for normal road riding. The butterfly bars were brilliant but ugly an dmake you look like one of the ctc types.
Airwings are brilliant (the narrowness suits the fast handling of the bike) and the fact that they're so long let you pull all your weight to the fron tof the bars for climbing.