Need extra relaxed road bike

dreamspy

Hi there

Im on the look for an extra relaxed road bike. Í currently ride Specialised Sirrus, á flatar hybrid. Í would prefer á road bike bar (the ones that you can select riding position, go into the drops etc) but all road bikes I've tried are to aggressive. My neck has some problems and cant take that much of a bend. So something thats á little more upright. I've tried some cyclocross bikes like Trek Crossrip 2, and some cube cyclocross bikes, but they are still to sgressive.

Are there any other options out there fow someone with an extra stiff neck like myself?

Regards
Frímann

imposter2.0

Fit a drop bar to your Sirrus? Inevitably, a drop bar will put you in a lower position to a flat bar, unless you mount it so high that you would probably be better off sticking with a flat bar anyway..

dreamspy

Imposter wrote:

Fit a drop bar to your Sirrus? Inevitably, a drop bar will put you in a lower position to a flat bar, unless you mount it so high that you would probably be better off sticking with a flat bar anyway..

That might work. The reason I would like to use a drop bar is that I'm usually riding pretty fast and holding on to the edges of the steering wheel (with some pins that I attached), and switching gears that way feels a bit wobbly and even dangerous. So the drop bar concept is highly attractive.

But doing those custom fits is either time consuming if I do it myself, or costly if I take it to the shop. Would rather just find a bike that fits me better, than going into modifications. So I'm still open for suggestions if there are any other options.

dreamspy

Btw what would be the best way to make a road bike less aggressive? These are the options that I know of: Changing the angle of the drop bar, getting a shorter stem, and a stem with an angle.

Are there any other ways to relax the position? And how much shorter can the reach be, given that I do these modifications? Within safety limits of course, meaning not no make the bike unstable etc...

imposter2.0

I think you'd probably be better off looking at tourers as a starting point. ALso, not sure what you mean by 'steering wheel'...

joe_totale-2

Why do you want a road bike and drop bars so much?
It sounds like you should stick with the Sirrus given that it suits your neck.

If you really want a lighter, faster bike how about something like this:

https://road.cc/content/review/246772-boardman-urb-88

apreading

dreamspy wrote:

Imposter wrote:

Fit a drop bar to your Sirrus? Inevitably, a drop bar will put you in a lower position to a flat bar, unless you mount it so high that you would probably be better off sticking with a flat bar anyway..

That might work. The reason I would like to use a drop bar is that I'm usually riding pretty fast and holding on to the edges of the steering wheel (with some pins that I attached), and switching gears that way feels a bit wobbly and even dangerous. So the drop bar concept is highly attractive.

But doing those custom fits is either time consuming if I do it myself, or costly if I take it to the shop. Would rather just find a bike that fits me better, than going into modifications. So I'm still open for suggestions if there are any other options.

When you say 'steering wheel', do you mean handlebars?
When you say 'pins', do you mean bar ends?
And is the issue that you normally ride on the bar ends and find that the brakes and shifters are therefore too far away?

I really dont understand why you want drop bars from anything you have said. drop bars are almost certainly all narrower than what you have right now and the whole point of them is to get lower.

Might be worth looking at 'cowhorn' handlebars with bar end shifters/brake levers, something like:



And just fit them to your current bike?

fenix

I found that bar ends on my mountain bike gave me a good position probably equivalent to riding on the hoods.

It soudnds to me that you won't be riding on the drops anyway so I'd just go flat bars and bar ends.

dj58

dreamspy wrote:

Are there any other options out there fow someone with an extra stiff neck like myself?

Regards
Frímann

Have you tried any endurance geometry type bikes like the Giant Defy, Cannondale Synapse or Trek Domane?

They have a higher stack if you were to flip the handlebar stem into the positive orientation, with all the spacers under the stem, you may be able to get the drop bars high enough to suit your requirements.

photonic69

Felt VR range are "endurance geometry". Very comfortable. I've just bought one as a Winter commuter.

dreamspy

Imposter wrote:

I think you'd probably be better off looking at tourers as a starting point. ALso, not sure what you mean by 'steering wheel'...

Hehe sorry, in my language (Icelandic), a bar on a bike, and a steering wheel of a car, have the same name. So I frequently mix those up

Touring you say? Any recommendations on bikes in the category?

dreamspy

Joe Totale wrote:

Why do you want a road bike and drop bars so much?
It sounds like you should stick with the Sirrus given that it suits your neck.

Scrap this post and see the next one. Somehow it got sent twice!

dreamspy

Joe Totale wrote:

Why do you want a road bike and drop bars so much?
It sounds like you should stick with the Sirrus given that it suits your neck.

Well I'd prefer something between the relaxed Sirrus style and the agressive road bike style. Also I feel more comfortable on the drop bar, just don't like to have such a long reach. I'd like to add that in my super windy country of Iceland, being able to drop once in a while is really handy, but also to have the option to ride more upright.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

My 58cm Cube frame has 610mm stack (and 387mm reach), which is quite "relaxed," but IIRC the Domane frame has more stack for the reach.

pamplemoose

dreamspy wrote:

Hehe sorry, in my language (Icelandic), a bar on a bike, and a steering wheel of a car, have the same name.

This is my favorite thing I've learned this week

First.Aspect

Just fitting a drop bar to the current bike may not be a good idea. You would need to stretch more to the levers, or alternatively fit a much shorter stem.

Sounds like you need to start with a "sportive" model of road bike - most major brands have them - and perhaps modify by using a +6 stem or something like that. This would give you the secure feeling of riding on the hoods of road bike shifters and being able to shift and brake from there, but with a relatively upright position.

If your needs fall outside of a normal range, best advice is to go to a bike shop and try things out, with someone there to help. Otherwise you risk wasting money.

barongreenback

I did some research on 2017 models looking for similar and came up with the Trek Domane as the stack to reach ratio was the most upright. Bear in mind though that seat tube angle and stem length can have a big effect too even if the stack and reach are ‘endurance’ focussed.