Where to start with new drop bars

Ritchey Venturemax seem to be very widely liked

Any idea on the stubby finger front?

Any idea on the stubby finger front?

Have you adjusted the reach of the brake levers?

wouldn't you run the levers so that the direction of the lever blade roughly matches that of the flare? I don't think flare makes any difference to finger reach.

5lab
I don’t think flare makes any difference to finger reach.

No but shape of the new bar would.

wheeliedirty
Have you adjusted the reach of the brake levers?

I'm after new bars, adjusting reach is something I'll look at after.

i just put some venturemax on my boardman, went from 420 standard to 440 venturemax wcs? is it. the mid tier range, not carbon.
i prefer the extra flare, seems to be how my hands sit.
I made the mistake of setting the drops up near parallel and putting the controls where i though they should be.. anyway, i ended up rotating the bars back more and more.. making hte hoods comfy, but the drops unusable. so i had to redo, rotate the bars back near parallel and move thecontrols up maybe an inch.. this in effect shortened the reach a bit which was needed.. drops are more comfy again.
using spank tape and gel, the bars have a nice flatter section, although i rarely use them they are comfy
my levers are only accesible by my last 2 fingers when on the hoods, but with disc brakes ive got enough power
Also just bought some cheap 480mm super flared funn g-wide bars to try out on a stupid monstercross single speed thing ive pieced together.....

Thinking I'm going to have to go round a load of shops and squeeze some levers to get a feel for different shapes and sizes aren't I?

99% sure bar swaps will not effect your ability to rab the levers in any way
on the hoods its defined by the elvers, as long as your hands are comfy on the hoods
in the drops, as long as they are comfy, your first and second fingers, maybe 3rd? sohuld be able to reach very easily, more so

Isn't the answer to 'what flared drop bar' pretty much always Salsa Cowchipper?

Isn’t the answer to ‘what flared drop bar’ pretty much always Salsa Cowchipper?

Never tried them. I do like the Redshift Kitchen Sink and the Vemturemax though.

Look on whatbars.com for visual comparisons

Curve Walmer without a doubt! Pick your size, then buy the next one wider.

shermer75
Isn’t the answer to ‘what flared drop bar’ pretty much always Salsa Cowchipper?

I think I might be more of a Cowbell person & its not really the flare I'm overly interested in, its more the general drop shape.

alan1977
99% sure bar swaps will not effect your ability to rab the levers in any way

Well I can get 2 fingers on the brakes with the current bars, the Alpkit ones looked like they would need the levers in a very unnatural position to achieve the same.

jimdubleyou
Look on whatbars.com for visual comparisons

This is really good, shame it doesnt show a side profile.

Basically if you look below, the Ergosum & K-force have the levers set much further way because of the shape.

Which means according to this old thrread I probably want bar shape 1 or 4
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/drop-bars-with-flat-throw-section-into-hoods/

I know nothing about drop bars. Zero, Zilch.

So are road bars different from gravel bars ?. or can you make do ?.

USE has an outlet, i posted this up a bit back, but they still have bits and pieces and amongst them some carbon bars for 30 quid. - I think the widths are 400,420 and 440mm

https://www.exposure-use.com/Brands/Ultimate-USE/Outlet-Store/SUMMIT-Carbon-Road-Bar-SUMMC

Basically the same but gravel tend to have a bit of a flare. Good prices on the USE stuff but not a lot of info.

Basically if you look below, the Ergosum & K-force have the levers set much further way because of the shape.

right, but can't you just compensate for that by winding the lever reach back in, so the distance between the finger you want to use and the bbar is about the same, regardless of bar?

Perhaps on some but not the Alpkit, would prefer to get bars that suit me than make levers suit bars that don't.

Interesting how they’ve set up the images of profiles above.

I pretty much exclusively have my drops set up with the “cow horn” part of the bar horizontal and the hoods running off that in as straight a line as I can get. They all seem to have them angled down and a sort of v shape formed with the hoods.

Obviously affects the reach, but I quite like how I do it and the images look weird to me, but maybe I’m the weird one…

Is it worth fettling with your existing bars to see what’s preferable before you buy new ones?

Hey shallow drop and reach bars if you are having reach issues. Venturemax or beacons are good for that. Don't go too wide on the top of flare. All the salsa bars have a big drop

A mate of mine is running Beacons so will try and wangle a test ride. Thanks

I also thought the bars are set up wierd but I dont have classic shape road bars.

I set mine up similar to 3 (and my bars are that shape) with the bullhorn level and a smooth transition into level hoods.

If you raise or lower the bullhorn part, and then compensate by moving the hoods up which you see quite often when someone attempts to raise the bar position, I think that makes it harder to reach the brake levers from the drops. I found compact style bars in shape 3 were best for reaching the brakes, and set level you tend to hold the bars higher on the drop. I've of the bars I have are Selcof I think.

Mine are the bottom bars and taking that photo make me realise I had raised the bullhorn slightly.

[img] [/img]

Finally, I don't think adjusting your lever reach is at all bodging a bad bar to fit. You said yourself you have stumpy digits, that's what lever reach is for. And everyone adjusts it on their flat bar MTB brakes where it's a feature, don't they?

Venturemax here, tiny tiny fingers okay on them.

Like serious small fingers.

I'd figure out the reach, drop & flare of your current bars, figure out what you'd like to change and then look for something that meets your new spec.

Isn't there a handle bar comparison website somewhere?

https://whatbars.com/

what was said above, i try to set the hoods up to form a level as possible platform wit hthe top of the bars.. sometimes i will be fully on the hoods, sometimes ill bring my hands back a little and wrap my fingers under the bars rather than by the levers

with my original boardman bars 12 degree flare perhaps, i found the lower part of my hand was flaring out more than the levers, meaning to reach the brakes i had to use the end of my fingers or rotate may hands lsightly onto them, the greater flare helped me with that