Drop bars + off road = rubbish braking options

Problem:
I find myself taking my CX bike down more and more technical descents.

I love the hoods position for normal riding.

I love the tops for climbing in the saddle.

I don’t use the drops very often, but it makes a nice change when I do.

Braking is rubbish on the hood + danger of getting bounced off.

Braking is good on the drops, but I don’t like the position for technical stuff.

As a compromise I have cross-top levers fitted which I mostly revert to on the descents, but the curve of the bars (towards the hoods) means that my effective bar width is very narrow.

With a full hydro system, even this option is removed.

Solutions (or not):

Cross-tops with some kind of right-angle welded junction on the bars before the drop would maximise width, but I haven’t seen anything like this.

A hydro equivalent to a cross-top would help, but very very difficult to make.
Time for this idea to be resurrected?

Flat bars and bar ends would still only provide braking in one position and obviously you lose the drops.

I’ve never tried all the jones/loop/sweapt back designs, but they still only provide one braked position.

Any ideas?

I have no problem descending in the drops.

Good braking
Wide grip
Can’t slip off
Weight over front tyre to prevent washing out.

Move your bars up?

Change your bar position so that you can ride in the drops without breaking your neck. As per various blogs etc, I have the flats of my bars at saddle height or a fraction below. The drops are then in a good position for getting the most out of the braking and control advantages of riding with hands in the hooks. Looks awful but hey ho.

The top of my bars is about an inch lower than saddle.
Here’s how it’s set up:
New cyclocross bike by tryingtimes[/url], on Flickr

Full hydraulic system = very good braking from the hoods.

Always better to be descending on the drops so get the braking to work from there, maybe changing the height and angle of the bars to make it work better for you.

Personal choice but I like Woodchippers as they give a nice, wide, elbows out position

Edit – just seen your photo. I’d want the levers pointing less skyward. Did it come set up like that?

Edit – just seen your photo. I’d want the levers pointing less skyward. Did it come set up like that?

No – that’s where I ended up with it but only after a couple of rides. Been happy with that hood position for 3.5 years now. Similar-ish angle to how I used to run my bar ends. This is my first ever drop-bar bike though. I can see how it raises the bottom of the levers.

as above, learn to descend in the drops, more control over both the bike and the brakes

if that’s how your bike’s still set up then braking in the drops is going to be hard as you’re reaching down into the drop and then having to awkwardly rotate your hands back up again to reach the levers

try rotating the bars so that the flat bit at the ends bit is about the same angle as the top-tube, that might drop the levers and bring everything into a little more of a comfortable position

Most top CX racers almost never use the drops from what I can see.
I prefer to descend on the drops though – not from a braking perspective, but I’ve had my hands bounced of the hoods and it wasn’t a great experience!

Shallower drops can help; my cx bike is much better off-road now that I’ve got Midge bars fitted and spend 90% of the time in the drops.

JoB will try to stop you doing this 😉

Drop bars and hooded levers = an ergonomic and engineering nightmare! I’ve never understood why anyone (other than a pro road racer) would want to run a bike with drops; they make no sense on any level, giving away both braking accuracy and steering control to a simple flat bar/mtb brake combo every time. Hooded brakes place the greatest leverage with your weakest and least sensitive fingers. Doh…
In turn, your best fingers are in a position with poor leverage and thereby compromised control.
Putting bar ends on a properly low flat bar gives you stretched out speed options as well as a more relaxed position on the normal grips.
The only conclusion left really is that many folk run drops as a fashion statement, in order to look racy…. feel free to flame!

I’ve been thinking similar highlandman – apart from I don’t think flat bars with bar ends satisfy me either. I’d like shoulder-width bar ends and wider flats – ideally with braking on both 🙂

I much prefer drops to flat bars, but getting the set-up bob-on for comfort and ease of lever reach from hoods & drops is tricky.

I love drop bars, but they aren’t suitable for technical descending IMO. Mtbs have flat bars for a reason. Problem is flat bars are not very aero so are bad on the road, see all the cross country racers holding either side of the stem when going hard on flat non-technical sections.

End of the day drops or flats are a compromise in certain situations and you just have to pick the ones that suit the bulk of the riding you do on that bike.

I’ve never understood why anyone (other than a pro road racer) would want to run a bike with drops; they make no sense on any level, giving away both braking accuracy and steering control to a simple flat bar/mtb brake combo every time. Hooded brakes place the greatest leverage with your weakest and least sensitive fingers.

You must be inhabiting a different world to me. I find that drop bars are the most comfortable for all day riding, and I’ve never had a problem braking from either hoods or drops.
Of course if you’re using shimano levers then quite a lot of what you say is partly correct as they have the lever pivot in a very strange place that gives terrible operating ergonomics. But I don’t use them, and don’t have that problem.

Move your levers down so the flat bit of the hoods is parallel with the tops of your bars, that way you’ll be able to reach the levers better from the drops and descend with greater confidence in that position.

Something like this below is a good start

I do use them (Ultegra 6700 with BB7s) and don’t have that problem.

Hyrdo brakes helps… I can one finger brake from the hoods with my 105 hydros

Chicken levers. For some reason most people wont use them ie they are for wimps/people can not ride properly. However these are probably the same people who ride around a grassy field thinking they are off road 😀

When you are descending proper hills chicken levers allow you to get in to a good / more comfortable position on the bars for descending.

I’d like shoulder-width bar ends and wider flats

So bars about 440mm wide then, unless you;re some kind of behemoth.

My 5600 105 and Shimano CX 77’s work just fine and dandy, can pull mad skidz and endos for days

See, that just looks really narrow for proper control. I like to have my hands out much wider.

JoB and steve_b77 – ok – I’ll try that (along with raising the bars to the top of my spacers). I’m not sure it’s going to make me feel comfortable though – yes, the brake leavers aren’t currently comfortable in that position, but I just don’t think I want to be that bent over while picking my way down a rocky Peaks descent.

I’ll try though – before I either give up on drops or try and invent a new bar shape/brake lever design 😉

FunkyDunc – I have suicide levers / cross tops already and love them.
But as scotroutes says you can see how narrow they are. If I could just push my hands right out into the corners it would be much better, but of course the bars curve there (which is in part to help cable routing).

Then there’s the fact that to keep them with hydro, I’d have to use a Hope V-Twin or similar which is a bit hacky.

I’ve found that this setup is pretty good, I use the cable from my 105 10speed shifters to pull a pair of SLX (with XT covers :wink:) brakes, but to be honest I only use the hoods position on the flat/climbs and descend on the drops, so don’t mind if the hood braking is a little bit weak. From the drops the braking is easily as good as my XTRs or XTs on my flat bar bikes, if not better. The “cross top” position is only ever used when on very long days when I’m pootling up a climb so sat near upright

EDIT: Thinking about it I doubt you could use this on conventional drops as I’m using it on a pair of wide woodchippers and even then I don’t have much spare bar space.

Nice bodging oliverracing!
Your bars look more sharply curved than most at the top/hood junction. What are they?

Edit: Sorry didn’t realise OP was already using Chicken levers. 😳

On my Boardman CX (as in pic above) the levers extend far enough out that I can sit with my hands right on the ends of the flat bar and still reach them.

I did move the levers as far out from the stem as I could get them though

You must change to flared drops, salsa cowbells or maybe more. They spread your elbows out so you feel much safer descending in the drops on technical stuff.

TurnerGuy – Member

You must change to flared drops, salsa cowbells or maybe more. They spread your elbows out so you feel much safer descending in the drops on technical stuff. Thanks – I hadn’t realised about the angle/elbows thing. Those Salsa Woodchippers look to do the same.

Shame it’s not as easy to swap them about like it is with mountain bikes!

Interesting to see that Rob has his bars rotated similar to mine – bit it does look uncomfortable!

If the handle position of your dropbars is in the same spot in space as bar-ends would be on an ordinary bar, you may find it more logical.

It’s a mistake to apply roadbike thinking to dropbars offroad.

I agree with oliverracing, you don’t use the tops much. It’s hoods for climbing, drops for braking and descents. The advantage of using the drops like that is you can have a very loose hand position but still be hooked into the bike despite what the terrain is throwing at you. I find it a much more secure grip than a flat bar.

Another solution is to use a bar that takes a normal mtb lever as I do these days.

On thing to consider with dropbars offroad is that having squared off corners can lead to wrist banging on steep climbs especially on wide bars – a more angled corner avoids this. Just a minor detail, but adds to comfort.

I did move the levers as far out from the stem as I could get them though

Yep me too – that was on of the first things I changed.

I agree with oliverracing, you don’t use the tops much. It’s hoods for climbing, drops for braking and descents.

At the moment I’m using 40% tops 50% hoods 10% drops

Sorry just put Rob pic back in 😆

Interesting to see that Rob has his bars rotated similar to mine – bit it does look uncomfortable!

I doubt he probably uses the drops much in the 3 peaks. When I saw that pic I thought he has just set it up to give maximum control on the hoods.

I’ll just leave this here as something to aspire to… controlled, comfortable, fast, stylish 😉

Bar-top/interrupter levers are horrible and you just end up with mushier braking and narrow stance makes control awkward – I much prefer to get the bar/lever position right – SRAM and Campagnolo are better in this respect. Bars level with saddle and hoods/bars provide a smooth platform to support the whole hand – I’ve descended technical / black runs without issue – even though I’ve got small hands I can still maintain a good grip.

I’ll just leave this here as something to aspire to… controlled, comfortable, fast, stylish

As I said above there is a world of difference between riding around a muddy field and riding down stuff like this for a mile or two.

I’ve never understood why anyone (other than a pro road racer) would want to run a bike with drops; they make no sense on any level, giving away both braking accuracy and steering control to a simple flat bar/mtb brake combo every time

I’ll also admit to forever trying and failing to get on with drop bars – partly the brake position but more the wrist angle of the hand position(s).

I’ve just finished my uncloggable freak cx bike for this winter. Only doing regional races, so running a (slightly) “illegal” frame design and On-One Mungo bars.

This gives me a couple of comfy hand positions that are very secure and near the brake lever. Then a slightly more aero position / tuck on the flats of the hoods where there is still some access to the brakes. Downside is these bars lack a decent flat centre position.

Some photos that will probably make JoB vomit….. I’ll explain the bike some other time 🙂

I’d like shoulder-width bar ends and wider flats

Velo Orange Casey Crazy bars, not drops, more like a swept flat bar but with welded on bar ends kinda in the middle to replicate a hoods position of drops, sound mad, named mad, look mad, work great for mixed terrain and touring, take a look

I’ll just leave this here as something to aspire to..

That looks like a very shallow drop…

As I said above there is a world of difference between riding around a muddy field and riding down stuff like this for a mile or two.

Why the.. ? Just get a flippin rigid 29er. What’s next – Fort Bill on a shopper? Newport Velodrome on an Alpine 160? 🙄

Shallow drops make a huge difference, other than that – what JoB & Steve said.

Descending off road on properly set up drops/levers gives you way more control than on the hoods.

the only time I’ve struggled with braking is when my pads were mis aligned leading to excess leaver throw, otherwise I find drops more confidence inspiring when things get steep and rocky