Handlebar rotation?

CRAIGO5000

This may sound daft but has anyone ever found that their handlebars either don't offer all the positions without sacrifice to another position because the brake hoods aren't set-up correctly?

My Allez was like this. I could rotate the bar so that the hoods felt comfortable in a more upright position (my wrists weren't angled down) BUT this pushed the drops too far forward.

I'll get some pics later, but essentially I took the plunge and removed the bar tape, rotated the bar so that the drops are now near horizontal (and also accessing the forward part of the drop allows brake coverage) and then moved the brake hoods higher up towards the flats some more.

Why do alot of bike come set-up like this from most LBS? Looking around my works cycle store shows that various manufactures appear to poorly set-up the bars for proper use. They can't be comfortable for most people surely? Since making the changes, I can now have 4 solid hand positions at no expense to each other (flats, hoods, horizontal drop and 45deg drop with brake coverage)

Is it just me?

amaferanga

I'd have thought that the standard position should be with the bottom sections of the drops horizontal and then the levers set so there's a smooth transition from the bar to the hoods - just as the OP has now set his. How else would a mechanic set them up be default?

CRAIGO5000

You'd have thought so but it's not often the case it seems. The guide I read stated that setting up the handlebars should start with a comfortable "drops" position and then adjust hoods to suit.

It's here:
http://mattmagee.blogspot.com/2010/06/b ... lebar.html

Chris James

I am not sure I quite understand the original post.

As long as you can reach the brakes whilst on the drops then I don't really think there is a problem.

Normally the brake hoods are positioned at the beginning of the curve of the bar to give a steady progression onto the hoods. This usually means the bottom flatter section of the bar is approx horizontal or maybe pointing to half way along the chain stays.

It is usual for bikes to come like this from the manufacturer.

Sometimes people rotate the bars backwards to compensate for their lack of flexibility or for having bought the wrong size bike, however this tends to make the drops practically unusable as they can no longer reach the brake levers.

Wacky Racer

Couldn't help but notice on the great link provided by Craig, that they refer to the old school method of pointing the bottom of the drop towards the rear brakes. I was always taught that way as a kid, and from there just make any minor adjustment to suit your idiosyncracies. Still works for me!

Monty Dog

Depends on the shape of the bars IME - a lot of modern bars aren't designed to the old school norms i.e. drops horizontal, particularly as most people now ride 80-90% on the hoods. I set mine up with the tops about 5 degrees below horizontal and the hoods extending nicely into a broad, supportive platform.

MichaelW

Many road bars are far too deep for normal use. A few years back there were only one or two models with a shallow drop but they have come back into fashion, which is most welcome. 3TTT Ergonova is a good example.

I thought the std bar rotation was pointing back towards the rear axle.

racingcondor

It depends a lot on the bars, the 'standard' was that you set the bars so that the bottom of the drops is horizontal but the modern method seems to be to have the tops horizontal (flat as it goes right up and on to to the brifters).

Personally I use Deda Zero100 which (probably because of their modern, shallow drop) work very nicely for me with flat tops.

CRAIGO5000

Here are my photos as promised.

As the bike came:


Rotated to make the hoods feel good over long distances but made the drops virtually useless:


Adjusted hood position and rotated to a more neutral location to make hood and drop riding over distance more comfortable:


Now running this with 10mm shorter stem and Soras adjusted with levers further toward the drops.

CRAIGO5000

How is wrong? I'm not looking to argue, I really just want to know what's wrong?

I'm new to road bikes and the bottom pic gives me the best comfort over all the hand positions. The one at the top hurt my wrists when on the hoods as the were forced to angle downwards.

The one in the middle made the hoods feel great but using the drops for more than 2 mins hurt my wrists.

The bottom pic offers me the best of both worlds and the markers on the actual handle bar itself are perfectly centralised in the "neutral" position. I'd asume Specialised would set the markers for a reason? The hoods and drops feel great so why is it wrong? :oops:

topdude

The hoods and drops feel great so why is it wrong? Embarassed

It's not "wrong" if it is right for you

The problem is that drop bars come in many shapes, yours are not the best shape for what you want to achieve.
If you got some compact bars with shallow reach and drop they would be easier to set up to suit you

carl_p

That's one enormous saddle! Are you happy it is in the correct position? Looks as far forward as it could possibly go. No point in finalising bar/shifter position until you've sorted the back end.

MichaelW

That is the saddle position for someone with short femur/long lower leg. It works for some people. More on bike fit here.

CRAIGO5000

Aye, the saddle is a Specialized Body Geo. The face isn't actually huge but the side profile is very deep which makes it look massive. I've actually swapped in my Bontrager SSR saddle as I've rode over 1100 miles on that and it's a beauty!

I've actually changed the hood geometry AGAIN and still find it difficult to have the hoods in a nice place and have near horizontal drops. With this type of bar it seems you can only have one or the other.

I'm off to Evans in my lunch to check out this compact drop bar: http://www.evanscycles.com/products/ded ... handlebars

I hope they have one in stock I can look at and possibly offer a Shimano hood up to check hand positioning.

flateric

CRAIGO5000 wrote:

I've actually changed the hood geometry AGAIN and still find it difficult to have the hoods in a nice place and have near horizontal drops. With this type of bar it seems you can only have one or the other.

quote]

Its not just you, mine is being a right mare at the moment, to the point of considering flat bars and ditching drops all together. Changed my set up again today and riding on the hoods is causing wrist and hand pain over a short distance.

Sooooooooo i think a complete re think is needed. Conversion to flat bars is too expensive so i might look at a more compact bar or may even be looking at complete set up from scratch. I will get this bike set up lol

CRAIGO5000

For me, drop bars are deffo staying. I've done the flat bar with a hybrid that was as fast and very similar weight to most road bikes.

A compact drop bar may well be on the cards soon BUT for this style of deep drop I think I have finally cracked it after moving the hoods again re-wrapping, re-positioning the bar and also adjusting the Sora's lever reach to bring them closer to the drop position.

I'll get a pic later but after a 15 mile shakedown yesterday, I'm confident this is now as good a set-up as I'll get for this type of bar.

Just in time for my Manchester-Blackpool-Manchester ride tomorrow!
:shock:

CRAIGO5000

Sorry to further hark on about this but I have FINALLY got my bars perfect!

Although the above set-up on the Specialized bars worked well for the 60+ miles to Blackpool, the drops were far too low and angled which meant I couldn't get stay in them
for more than 5 minutes. The hoods were nice though.

I then bought an FSA Velo compact bar and FSA 110mm oversized stem. The result is fantastic, I can literally stay in the drops all day and can cover the brake levers too.

For £30 all in, I'm much happier and will certainly be more comfortable on the next long run out.

Here they are. Quite drastic changes compared to the older bar.



Old set-up: