Drop handlebar position – starting point

After getting back into cycling around 20 years or so ago, I’ve been keenly riding ‘gravel’ on flat or riser bar hardtails. I’m now in the lucky position of having all the parts to build up my first proper gravel bike.

I’m not clued up on geometry but I’m not a skilled technical off-roader (I have no skills at all) nor am I chasing times on the road and needing an optimised ride position. I like to ride hard[ish] for health and fitness whilst being able to look around and enjoy the countryside at the same time. I tend to arrive at a ride position by riding the thing and occasionally tinkering if I feel a change might help and there’s undoubtedly going to be an element of this with my new bike.

I’ve done a bike of reading around reach and stack and I have a number of stems in the spares box but I’m aware that the gravel bike is going to be quite a different beast. As a starting point, should I be looking to approximate the position the flats of the drop handlebar in a similar position to the flat bar of my current bike (a Singular Swift) or should I be thinking about getting the drops in this position as I gather that this is the main riding position?

I appreciate that I’m a bit of a numpty.

Personally, I’d start with the top of the bar at, or barely below, saddle height and go from there. If you are doing core exercises of any sort you’ll likely soon adapt to lower bars pretty quickly. Most folk I see riding gravel bikes are sitting on the tops or hoods, not the drops. I’m happy either way, but definitely prefer the drops when braking and/or descending.

Sorry, I think I meant to write hoods, rather than drops (I’m not even getting my terminology right).

The flat bars of my Swift are a tad lower than the nose of the saddle which seems a good position for me.

Whatever is comfortable

On the road bike I have the top of the hoods level with the top of the bars, so the hoods are almost an extension of the bars. On the gravel bike I prefer to hoods angled up slightly

Probably best to use google images to give you an idea

I think hoods about where the flat bars go is a good starting. That’s how I spend most of the time on my gravel bike.  But it’s very useful to be able to descend on the drops

Don’t over think it. Delay putting tape on and mess around with height and lever position until you feel comfortable, that’s the main thing. Following others or looking a pro set ups is not the thing to do. Comfort first, this will give you more control. Just take a 4 or 5mm Allen key out with you and have a play around

Brake levers reasonably vertical so you can reach them easily from the drops. Distance away and height is entirely personal. A shorter stem helps with wider bars. But you want to be descending technical stuff on the drops. For me that means top of the bars is only about an inch or so below the saddle. On my road bikes the drop is nearer three inches. A shallow drop bar (from flat top to bottom of the drops will be approx 10cm) means it’s also easier to ride on the drops. They’re quite common for gravel bikes. I also like wider bars for control and leverage. 

What Rocketdog said, don’t put on any bartape until you have the setup dialled,  I rode in full finger gloves while  adjusting everything on  my franken-bike for almost a whole year without any bartape.

I set bar height first. Reach next, I’m running a 40mm shorter stem than with a flat bar. Bar angle tweaked to get the drops at a comfy angle. Last of all  I refined brifter position. There was some iteration involved. As I got used to the position with stronger core and more flexible, I was able to drop the bars.

Locked elbows are bad, if you find yourself riding like this your bars are too low, to far away, likely both.

It’s worth looking at saddle position at the same time as bar position, saddle fore-aft rather than height.

It may be something that changes as your bar type or riding preferences change. Having your weight too far forwards or back due to saddle position will make setting up the bars far more difficult. If your saddle (and thf CoG) is in the right place your bar position isn’t as important, or it’s important but can be set up for handling and other preferences rather than just comfort.

In terms of height, as others have said hoods just a bit below the saddle is a good guide. Bar rotation angle makes a fair bit of difference too and no need to follow what the photos of other bikes suggest. The level tops that most seem to use isn’t the most comfortable for me for ex and I find hoods angled/pointing up a bit create other bad position influences.

I’ve got my new gravel bike set up with the drop bar extension very slightly down and the top of the hoods pointing up around 15 or 20 degrees. I thought it would create a bit of a curve under the hand. I’m finding the heels of my hands are getting sore. Thinking of rolling the bars up a bit so that bar to hood is a straight line but keeping that rise that the hoods currently have.

Another thing to consider is “toeing in” the hoods/levers a little towards the center of the bike as it can give your wrists a more natural/neutral/relaxed line. Mine are at different angles as I broke one wrist some years ago, and it just likes to sit a bit different to the other.