On Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 4:07:47 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:
Ok, ok….I really will consider drop bars. But I do wonder…everyone says they offer so many hand positions; but I only see people with their hands on the hoods. Are riders really utilizing different hand positions? Great question. Racers and wannabe racers as I noted set up their bikes with a big drop from saddle to bars and a shorter horizontal reach to the bars. And they spend almost all their time on the hoods. I roam all over the bars. Today's 100km somewhat hilly, fairly windy ride was a great example. Heading out into the wind I spent a fair amount of time on the drops and hoods, but I was not riding at a hard effort (averaged around 22kph going out). Getting into the hills was a lot more time on the tops and the hoods, with a few standing climbs, working harder on the hills that got up to 15%. Coming home with a tail wind was a fair amount of time on the top curves, not riding too hard, enjoying the tail wind motor assist (and the net down hill). Also, I saw a pic of an albastache with brake levers in the middle of the bar. Would this mimic the freedom of hand position changes a drop bar offers? My experience has been that's not a great alternative. The wrist angles tend to be weird. I practiced tonight on my ride by grabbing the front of my Billie bars. It felt nice to be stretched out like that, but with no access to brakes or shifters from there I didn’t like to stay long. Unnerving. Understood! That's one reason why some people set up drop bars with cyclocross-inspired interrupter brake levers under the tops. I never have felt the need for that on road rides. If my hands are on the tops, I'm probably not going fast enough to need an immediate stop. 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/2dca7c80-71d3-4d21-a826-2dbf94b3fe9cn%40googlegroups.com.
