Re: [RBW] Upright vs Drop Bars

[Jay Lonner]

Reading through these threads makes me realize how slow I am — I generally toodle along at 10-12 mph, and anything over about 14 mph starts to feel downright brisk. I still like drops on longer rides though, not because of any aero gains (which at my speeds I won’t realize) but because of the variety of hand positions on offer. I find myself riding in the drops a lot just because it’s comfortable. The models I favor tend to be very wide, medium flare, shorter reach, and shallow drop — the Crust Towel Rack might be the ur-type of this style. In contrast I’ve tried a number of Bosco/Tosco variants and they are just too upright for me. So even for those not concerned with maximizing performance/efficiency, there are a lot of cool drop bars out there worth consideration just for their comfort/ergonomics. Jay Lonner Bellingham, WA Sent from my Atari 400 On May 15, 2025, at 10:49 AM, Ted Durant <teddur...@gmail.com> wrote: Jumping off The Charlie Gallop Thread, I thought I'd share some thoughts and data on upright vs drop bars. In that thread I made the observation that wind drag becomes an issue as I get into the 16-20mph range. Today I did a 40 mile ride at an average of 16.8mph, with a nicely low 5mph wind out of the southeast, and modest amounts of hills. So, a bit above that 16mph threshold, and trying to maintain a steady pace all the way around. I found myself riding on the drops for the vast majority of the ride. Anything over 16mph and unless there's a good tailwind I'm likely to be in the drops. Around 16mph I'm often on the brake levers or just behind them. By 12-13mph I'm almost certainly on the tops, with wind drag a non-issue and hill climbing benefitting from more open hip angles.  So, that's anecdotal. Now for some data. From November 2016 to November 2017 I commuted to work on a Cheviot, with a typical Cheviot upright position (though I experimented a lot with bars and stems). For commuting I carried a backpack in a front basket. Then, in November 2017, I replaced the Cheviot with a Terraferma Corsa 650B (a very light tubing, very low trail frame) with Noodle bars (the very wide ones, to get around the backpack and basket). Pretty much every ride to work and home was recorded on my bike computer. So, I can take a year's worth of commuting rides on the Cheviot and a year's worth of commuting rides on the Terraferma and compare the data. I expected, just based on my internal dyno, that my average speed on the Terraferma would be higher than on the Cheviot. Subjectively I felt very slow on the Cheviot. It turns out, though, that the average of average speed is exactly 23.2kph (14.5 mph) for each bike. However, the max average speed for the Terraferma is 27.9kph (17.4mph) vs 26.0kph (16.3mph) for the Cheviot. The 80th percentile, i.e. the speed above which 20% of the rides were ridden, is 25.2kph (15.7mph) for the Terraferma vs 24.8kph (15.5) for the Cheviot. I think this data supports my anecdotal feel about the 16mph threshold. Over almost 300 rides averaging 14.5mph, the aerodynamics (and the other bike factors ... I might note that tires are pretty much the same on each bike, including studded snows during the winter) don't appear to slow me down, though I don't have any data to address the question of whether I was in fact working harder to maintain that speed. I didn't record when I swapped out the studded tires, so it's possible that factor confounds the analysis. The fact that many more of my faster rides were on the Terraferma, I think, demonstrates the effect of a more aerodynamic position at speeds above 16mph. 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 visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/2adb1ed9-4cba-4b91-91c3-785272efc79bn%40googlegroups.com. -- 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 visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/6167AB03-7FFE-40CF-B986-5FA35401E2D9%40gmail.com.