Anyone else struggle to reach brake levers from drop bars?

For as long as I’ve had a road bike, I’ve found it uncomfortable to reach forwards to the brake levers when down in the drops. The angle of my wrist seems to compromise my finger extension and grip strength. Has anyone else experienced this?

I’ve started to do some longer and faster descents, so would like to tweak my ergonomics so I can control speed whilst staying in a more aero position. I wondered if rotating th whole bar forwards a bit would help? Any other ideas?

What levers do you have? Most of the shimanos have a reach adjuster.

Most sram levers do too.

A side-on photo of your set-up might help.

Certain shapes of bars can make it more difficult.

Some Shimano levers come with plastic shims to cut down the travel

maybe body position stem too slammed

maybe body position stem too slammed

How to: Adjust the Reach on Road Bike Shifters for Small Hands

I find levers and hands pretty much parallel on all my bikes when in the drops. In fact find braking in the drops much easier than on the hoods as it’s a straight clench rather than a twisting of the fingers. Usually go to the drops on technical descents for that reason.

My arms would normally be fairly level when in the drops. It sounds like yours aren’t – or your levers aren’t?

They’re 105 10 speeds circa 2012 Haven’t found a reach adjuster yet. It’s the original setup on a Cannondale Synapse. It is by design fairly upright – more so that the equivalent CAAD. I dropped the stem by one 5mm spacer, but this hasnt’t made braking any easier or harder.

Pics

2012 is pre-adjuster I believe (mad that it’s only a recent addition to road bikes). Shins are hard to come by, probably worth chatting to a bike shop to get hold of some, they do make a substantial difference

I”ll get some pics in the morning

Levers too high up on the bar? The further forward/down the bar they are the closer they get. It only takes small adjustments because the clamps sit on the tightest bit of the bend.

Or adjust the brake cables so the brakes don’t engage until much closer to the bar, once you’ve got a fingertip to the lever to pull it closer the leverage of your fingers increases as it moves towards the bar, it only needs to be engaging near the end of it’s travel when you’ve got the most leverage.

They’re 105 10 speeds circa 2012 Haven’t found a reach adjuster yet

have a look at my link…. if you need the rubber shims probably best bet is to stick a wanted ad up in case people have some lying around in parts bins.

I suspect you’ve rotated the bars back to improve reach to the hoods. That makes using the brakes on the hoods very difficult. Brake levers should be vertical. When they are, even my tiny hands have no trouble reading the brakes.

I found the reach toolong on my Ultegra levers- luckily they are reach adjustable. I adjusted them in literally as far as they would go and it’s transformed my confidence on the drops.

I can’t track the adjuster screw down on my 105 hydros though if anyone can help?

I would like to know if or where the 105 hydro reach adjust is, bringing them closer would definitely give me more confidence downhill on my cx bike.

Page 14 on here:

http://si.shimano.com/pdfs/dm/DM-ST0002-04-ENG.pdf

apparently. Trouble is, it never loads on my browsers ???

Actually, found the hole but my smallest Allen key which I thought was 2mm, won’t fit the screw. It’s a tiny bolt in a tiny hole!

I used to always run slim shims (think they were Specialized)….but adjusters on newer shifters make it so much easier. Remember seeing some of the pros at the time just cutting shaped plastic to fit between lever and body.