What Ted says, exactly. I began “serious” biking over 50 years ago on a road bike with drop bars and never looked back. That’s not to say that there isn’t merit to other kinds of bars and more upright riding positions, but the “drop” road bar offers those various hand positions. Once you adapt to them it’s hard to go back.
Ad On Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 2:23:39 PM UTC-5 Ted Durant wrote: > On Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 1:12:20 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! > wrote: > > I am, right now, leaning toward a Gallup bike but will keep reading and > learning. And right now, I’m heading out to do Tabatas training. I had to > look it up. Promises to be the most miserable 4 minutes of my day. > > Wow, first we hear you are road bike curious, now you are doing tabata > workouts. Leah is going super hard core on us. > > My 2 cents worth ... "road bike", as opposed to what you currently ride > and love, is first and foremost about riding position. FWIW, my > recommendation is to skip past Albastache and Mustache and go straight to > drop bars. Start with them relatively high and close, so when your hands > are on the tops you feel like your back is relaxed and comfy. Bernard > Hinault, I think, said you should feel like you're playing piano on the > tops. You then have the curves on top, where your hands are a bit wider > apart and slightly forward, and your back should still be comfy. Then you > go forward to the brake hoods. Now you should feel like you're more forward > than you would be on your current bikes. But, if you're riding at a hard > enough effort (we're not talking super hard here), the force on the pedals > should be carrying enough of your weight that you're not having to hold > yourself up on your hands. Next you go below the brake hoods to the > farthest forward part of the drops. This is the speedy aero position. You > won't have a low, flat back here until you've lowered your stem/bars quite > a bit. But you should have a flat back and you should be putting a fair > amount of force into the pedals. Finally, there are the flat parts of the > drops, with your hands back a bit closer to you, which are a "cruising" > location for me (and right next to my bar end shifters), low enough to be > efficient but not fully stretched out. I've recently read comments from > "racers" that if you spend any amount of time down there your bars are too > high. Well, my bars are certainly too high by their standards, but mine are > set up for me to be comfortable in every spot. Very important: in EVERY > position you should not be gripping the bar or brake hood tightly, you > should have a very loose grip and not be bearing too much weight there. I > typically am very slightly pulling up on the brake hoods or drops to > counteract the pedaling force of the opposite leg. Also, you should ALWAYS > have at least a slight bend in your elbows in every position. If you are > locking your elbows something is wrong with the position and you're doing > bad things to your wrist and shoulders and neck. > > General rule of thumb for starting out, have the tops of the bars maybe an > inch above saddle height or, if you're already pretty flexible in the heaps > and low back, level with the saddle. Put the back of an elbow at the front > of the saddle and stretch your finger tips toward the handlebars. They > should just touch the back of the handlebars at the stem. Maybe a little > closer if you're tight, a little farther if you're flexible. Somebody > recommended Noodle bars, which I heartily endorse, as that's what I have on > most of my bikes. I like them because 1) the curves are generous 2) there's > a little rise in the top curve, making them very comfy in that area) and 3) > there's a fair amount of reach and drop, so you have a good range of > positions. That last part is key for me on long rides. Sometimes I'm riding > hard and need the long and low positions. Sometimes I'm taking it easy and > need the high and near positions. > > I won't opine much on "which bike", because once you figure out your fit > criteria, any bike that allows you to have that position will work fine. I > have my Sam Hillbornes set up almost identically to my custom Waterford ST > and Rivendell Road, except on the Riv Road the handlebars are a bit farther > away and lower. > > Ted Durant > Milwaukee WI USA > -- 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/3b74674a-c09f-490d-8c61-7e5b23dea4fdn%40googlegroups.com.
