Drop bars for commuting?

daver1
daver1 Posts: 78
edited March 2008 in Road beginners
After several years of commuting on a mountain bike I have decided to use my old road bike instead. I'm finding that I get calluses and worn skin across the base of my thumbs and the gaps between my thumbs and fingers. I think that it is from riding in an upright position with my hands mainly on the top of the brakes for my stop/start journey as I never used to get this when going on long rides at the weekends. I've tried gloves and any difference was negligible. Any ideas on how to prevent this (different bar position, better gloves, cyclo cross brakes???) as I don't really want to go back to flat bars.

Thanks

Comments

  • alfablue
    alfablue Posts: 8,497
    Are these drops STI's with rubber hoods, or old fashioned bare metal? If the latter, try the former. Other than that maybe your riding position is putting too much weight on the bars, can you raise the bars? Either put spacers below the stem if there are any above, maybe flip the stem so it has a rise rather than a drop, rotate the bars up a few degrees, or ultimately buy some new forks and fit with cutting less off the steerer to allow more spacers to be fitted, thus raising the bars.

    My own road bike: I didn't have the problems you had but the comfort of the whole bike improved dramatically by fitting a shorter stem with a bigger angle, and fitted it flipped to raise the bars up - probably moved the bars about 2cm rearwards and upwards, transformed the ride. I place less weight through my arms, and most of the weight is taken on my palms on the part of the bar just before the drops, rather than between thumb and fingers on the drops, though I ride 95% of the time on the hoods.

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