Most drops now anticipate brake/shift levers with a longer dimension from the bar clamp to the lever pivot. That extension of the lever body triggered a slew of shorter reach bends that cheat those of us who love generous ramps ahead of the hoods. Talk about complicating the field for your choice.
When STI arrived there was a bit of struggle for those who loved riding the hoods/ramps but could feel how expended they were from previous brake hood positioning. Shorter stems were a quick dimensional solution but closed the distance to the tops, depth of hooks and knee clearance if sticking with a favorite bar with the new brake/shifters. I was and am still a bar-end shifter across my fleet and like the range of handholds for the spectrum of positions from which I address the effort input of riding. Some of the brifter-tailored, widely flared and shallow drop bars significantly limit the number of hand positions and worse, for me, lock those holds by limited wandering from any of them. The Midge bar on the tandem has to go because of this. My body rejects being locked into any position for very long at all as I ride, even if the terrain doesn't vary. I have Nitto RM-013 bars on both my commuter and Rambouillet and make great use of their generous ramp length (not designed presuming brifters) but on my Coast rando I chose the RH rando bar for the additional contours of the tops for wandering hands and anticipated longer hours on the bike. I imagined that with different steering geometry a different bar would be good for my proprioception and new, distinct muscle memories as I switch back and forth between the others. It took a little bit riding to get accustomed to and make use of the attributes of the new bend after riding the same bars for 20 years before but really does work for me. Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 11:17:20 AM UTC-5 modemm...@gmail.com wrote: > Eh, I'm really thinking of going back to a drop bar of some sort - there's > 100000000000 of them out there, and it seems ones with shallower drops and > mid to high flare are going to make the drops usable. And I probably want > something with a longer ramp for even more position variability. There are > just. so. many. bars. now. > > On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 10:47:53 AM UTC-5 Johnny Alien wrote: > >> I love handlebar discussions. I am a pretty big fan of the Albastache >> bars and generally have moved to them in instances where I would normally >> use drops. Similar to you I don't really ride in the drops so Noodles just >> don't have the same amount of options. That said I also love the look and >> traditional feel of drops. I plan to try out the Blue Lug specific variant >> of the Noodles. They are the same bar but with shallower drops and less >> reach. It seems like that could be perfect and make riding in the drops >> more accessible. As far as anything that would keep you with road levers >> for brifters thats about the only options. Albastache bars are clunky set >> up that way because of the way you need to throw the lever to shift. I have >> only held off trying the BL bars because I am waiting for a stem I want to >> come in so that shipping makes more sense. >> >> Now if you do want to move toward a thumb shifter route for road bikes I >> cannot recommend the Losco bars enough. So good for a sweptback road >> experience. >> >> On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 9:54:02 AM UTC-5 modemm...@gmail.com >> wrote: >> >>> I have a 2016 Sam, from the batch of completes that year. I love the >>> bike, and now that I'm riding a lot more (my wife was gifted with being >>> able to ride again after not being able to for years; she has a '16 Sam >>> too), I swapped bars from the stock (Nitto Noodle) to an Albastache. >>> >>> The Noodle was only giving me ONE hand position, on the hoods. The >>> drops didn't feel usable to me and the flats are just too narrow for my >>> comfort. The hoods position was putting a lot of pressure on the meaty >>> part of my hands behind the thumbs. >>> >>> The 'Stache fixes that and gives me a lot of hand positions - on the >>> "hoods" (but it's a big flat on the 'Stache of course), behind them, and >>> pretty much all along the rest of the bar. I like it, but... >>> >>> I do miss the hand position that only comes from having a drop bar on >>> being on those hoods in that orientation; I just need one that will put >>> them in a spot that doesn't put all the weight on the meaty-hand-part >>> behind the thumbs. >>> >>> I have to admit I also miss how the bike looks with a drop bar. O_o I >>> dunno, I guess the bike just "wants" that look, to me. >>> >>> I'd also like to not run the shifters as barend shifters... So I'd go >>> thumbie or some type of (SHHHH DON'T TELL GRANT) brifter. >>> >>> The other issue I don't have access to the funds that some others around >>> here seem to. :) These bikes were EXPENSIVE to us ($2,600 a pop and we've >>> added front and rear racks, fenders, etc.) >>> >>> Ideas, comments, questions, help, etc, etc? I'm sure lots around here >>> have Sams and have done this handlebar/cockpit rodeo lots of times! >>> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/dde37279-6719-428d-af8f-b2cc8aaf5d89n%40googlegroups.com.
