Flat bars or drop bars!?!

JustRidecp

Best thing I guess you could do is to try and test ride both bikes and see how you do. Or try to borrow a drop bar road bike for a ride and see how you get on with it.

Also, what will you be using your bike for. If only for on the road then a road bike will be more efficient. If you plan on using bridleways, etc then the FCR might be the better choice. The FCR will give you a more upright ride. However the SCR is made for a more relaxed position than race bikes and if you flip the stem you get pretty upright.

Drops give you more hand positions than flat bars so i feel they're more comfortable over long distances.

As for putting drops onto the FCR, you'd need to buy drop bars probably new brake levers too but I guess you could mount the rapid fires on the top of the bar if you wanted to.

If you fancy the road bike route have a look around and see what you can get an SCR1 for. Might be not much more than buying drops/brakes etc for the FCR. I got an SCR2 and am kicking myself for not spending an extra £100 or so to get the SCR1. It works out much cheaper than upgrading the spec yourself.

baudman

How far are you gonna ride?

If you're going to do distances - go drops. (Better for wind, geo and hand positioning options).

If you're going to do quick commutes (10 miles or so), I prefer a flat-bar in traffic.

baudman

Drops. Will feel weird at first - and then for the first 5 minutes of quite a few rides after that. I love flat bar, but not for any significant distance.

shiftypow19

Its really down to your personal preference i have seen so many people with drop bars spend there whole time cycling resting their arms on the top of their handlebars. If you are going to do this get a fcr road bike

alfablue

Agree, its personal preference, I have both but prefer the bike that has dropped bars. I ride for 90% of the time on the hoods, but my wrist feels better aligned vertically rather than horizontally on the flats, which feels like more of a twist.

Converting flats to drops would probably cost about £125 - £150 (bars £25, STI levers maybe £100, plus maybe a shorter stem).

mattsv

Fitting bar ends on a flatbar gives you another option for hand position.

I am having the same issue at the moment - have previously ridden both drops & flatbar, now looking to spend £1k on a commuter. I was looking at the FCRR Alliance, however now saeriously considering a Planet X carbon - just haven't made my mind up about the bars yet :roll:

jonesy124

drop down bars are cool. You will never look like a pro with flat bars - after all thats the most important thing!

McBain_v1

Stanley222 - you can't get "aero" on flat bars (unless you put time trial extensions on them and that would just be plain wrong!) so go for the drop bars man!

banana_man

I'd definitely go for the drops as well... i just bought that SCR 2.0 from Tredz and after about 300miles, i can definitely say, it's awesome! Whatever you do, don't use a debit card on their webpage!!! I don't know if anyone else has had this problem with Tredz, but the company they use to process debit card transactions from their website starting spouting some nonsense about authorisation codes, and after about 4 trips to my bank I cancelled it and rang up Tredz and paid over the phone (their customer service is fantastic). Go for it... it's a ruddy bloody bargain and you can ride on the hoods when you don't fancy a low slung position.

Gwhizz

Go for the drops Stan.

I bought a Scott speedster (flatbar) about 3 months ago for the commute to work. This was fine to start off with, however it doesn't take long before you are trying to go faster and get better times for the ride home. I'm now starting to feel that I should have went for drop bars.

Any initial "weirdness" will soon pass and it wont be long before your flying along the road like a speed demon :twisted:

DavidTQ

IVe got a flat bar hybrid with bar ends and a giant SCR 1.0 with drop bars, FAR prefer the drop bars for my 7mile each way journey, I just find it more natural I spend 95% of my time on the hoods only using the drops for fast down hill sections - and then more for lower centre of gravity related stability. I dont get the wrist problems I had with the hybrid bike.

I always thought "racers" looked weird and uncomfortable, but IVe been using the giant for a good few months now and have to say for road use over distances the drop bars are far better.

I picked up my scr1 for £600 glad I did go for that instead of the 2 or 3. The only thing Im left thinking about upgrading really is skinnier tyres...

formerlyknownasbonj

Stanley - you really need to decide whether drops are something you are going to be comfortable using. Don't get them "because experts say you should" or because "they're what the pros have". Get them because you like them. But if you can't get used to the position, get a flat-bar road bike. It won't make you any less serious a cyclist, if anything it'll make you a more sensible cyclist for exercising your ability to choose the exact options that are right for you and thus being able to enjoy the dialled-in ride this gives you.

If you've tried drop bars and you were left thinking "hmmm, that could be right for me when I get used to it, it's just a bit weird though really" then you really need to spend more time riding a bike with drop bars, if you're going to be spending 4 or 5 hundred quid. Have you not got anybody who can lend you one, or a shop that is willing to lend you one for a longer ride?
If not, then you'll have to decide, but can keep it in the back of your mind that it's probably not that expensive to change over if you either get drops and can't get used to them, or get flat bars then decide you want drops. You basically need the new bars obviously, but then new brake levers, shifters and grips/tape. You may also need a bit of new cable outer. However, you can always sell the ones you take off on ebay.

Since you did ask for any other suggestions, this is what I ride, and this is the drop-bar version of it on tredz. Open those links up in two new windows, put them side by side and cover the handlebars up with your fingers, and notice the similarity.
I can recommend it though, it's a very good bike.

redddraggon

I hadn't had a bike for years, let alone used drop bars. But when I came to get my first bike for years, I wanted drop bars and a road bike, mainly because I've got a couple of friends who take road racing pretty seriously. I had no idea what it would like to ride with the funny looking handlebars, but I went for them anyway.

I spent the first 8 weeks or so only using the hoods and the flat bits, and still I only rarely use the drops. I don't regret getting this type of handlebars, I like the ability to change hand position as I tend to quickly get pins and needles in one position.

If you can't decide which to go for, go for drops over flats, you can always do what I did stick to the hoods until you are more confident.

evo

Hi stan, hi got the fcr2 2006 model early this year for the same price as you are going to pay-ish originally it was 650 quid (was looking at the specialized sirrus, but could not resist the bargin). i also have another road bike with drops, to be honest the FCR is a less harsh ride as it has slightly wider tyres and carbon seatpost and with bar ends fitted you have multiple hand positions. when i ride my bike with the drops i spend most of the time mainly on the hoods and arround the top. now i probably ride my flat bar road bike 80% of the time.

davidncohen

I have problems with my back, bending over too far so last year I bought I Specialized Sirrus Comp with flat bars - after riding it once, I had back ache as the stem was fixed, so the shop put a riser on the stem and then it was fine. I'd really like to ride a bike that's more aerodynamic and lighter, but I just find it tricky bending over too far (> 50 degress). I guess that a 'bent would be a good option for long jaunts, but I've limited storage.

David

mea00csf

I have the opposite problem! I found that doing longish (45km) jaunts on my more upright hybrid KILLED my back, i was nearly in tears by the tmie i got home. Bought a properly fitting road bike and cruised round 55km.

The hybrid has it's place, it gets me to work and back which is a few miles, with a rucksack on but i'd never use it for longer rides.

blorg

Comfort and whether you have back problems, etc. is going to be more to do with the fit of the bike than whether you are using flat or drops. A standard position on drops is "on the hoods" which is just a bit forward from the flat, best way to estimate this on flat bars would be to get bar ends and ride on them.

An important thing to note is that it is NOT cheap to change from flat bars to drops, STI brake/shifters in particular are a very expensive component, and you will likely have to change other components as well (e.g. V-brakes, maybe a derailleur.) I did this myself as I already had a "flat bar road bike" and it was cheaper than getting a new bike but it was certainly expensive and you end up with something non-optimal. So better decide now!