trek330

I ride most of the time with my hands on the top of the bars.Sometimes I'll brake on the hoods or from the drops and I'll ride the drops for speed or stability but most of the time I'm on the top of the bars.Is that amateurish or frowned on.I hear only about Drops and hoods.Anyone else?

Brew1

70% on the hoods, bar tops when climbing and drops when fighting the wind or going for speed.

StephenH

I use the drops mainly if I'm riding into the wind or having trouble keeping up with someone. If I'm riding in a paceline, I stay on the hoods mainly so the brakes are more convenient. Otherwise, I try to move my hands around from time to time to prevent some numbness issues that I struggle with.

back4more

I am mostly hoods - drops the rest of the time and only the bars if I need a break which doesn't seem to be very often.

BluesDawg

+1 give or take.

oldster

+several, on the hoods most of the time....(drops not comfortable, long term,,,
Bud

skinnysanta

x3

teachme

Is that amateurish or frowned on?

I don't think so....

Barrettscv 

75% aero bars, 10% hoods, 10% drops, 5% no-hand-ed.

DnvrFox

I ride the bars a lot. For me, there are no "rules" or things to frown about. Whatever works for you and makes one enjoy bicycling - that's my opinion. But, I am a crusty, "I don't give a hoot about what others think," kind of person. YMMV.

I also have "inline" brake levers - a la cyclocross - and had them added to both my road bikes. I love them, and they are great on MUPS and the like.

leob1

I ride the bars 100% of the time. My newest road bike has flat bars. My older one has drop bars. I got the new one with flat bars because I spent most of my riding time on the bar tops or hoods, Like 95%.
BTW, that whole "not enough hand positions" with flat bars is bunk.

nondes 

The only position that bothers me is when I try to pass someone riding no hands on the MUP.

bud16415

Hey I resemble that remark J

I ride a touring bike both as a weekend or overnighter and also as a daily driver commuter grocery getter, with or without panniers, and with the hopes of finding enough time to do an extend tour at some point. When I got back into bikes a few years ago around the 50 age mark I found things were not quite what they used to be and struggled with all kinds of bike related issues getting started. Drop bars seemed much worse than I remembered them. I went thru a series of learning curves (self fitting) to find out what I needed to do to make being on a bike for several hours an enjoyable experience again. I would watch other riders trying to not look amateurish riding along on the tops or just finger tips on the tops, but their bikes when parked sure looked like a pro fitted bike. At that point I started reading a lot of Sheldon Brown and others and saw the clear advantage of multi hand positions and drop bars, removed all my bar wrap and vowed not to replace it till I figured out what would work for me regardless of what others thought my bike looked like. I replaced the number 7 stem with one that was adjustable and a long riser section. what I found was the most comfortable position for me was in the drops but when the drops were at a height where they split the difference with the tops and my saddle height, at least 3 inches higher than the classic fitting and a good 2 inches closer to me. That let me shove the saddle back to where my weight was balanced between my legs sit bone and hands. I always liked the hoods but with STI shifters and brakes and my hand size I never felt really good about stopping and shifting from ether position and raising the bars didn’t improve that. I did feel so good about staying in the now elevated drop position that I lowered the STI's way down on the hooks rendering them useless as hoods, I didn’t care as the control both shifting and stopping was so much better. My speed actually improved because I was more aero on high drops than not being in the drops at all because they were low. And with the tops high and upright it was perfect for a good secondary position more upright to get a back stretch. I then added a front only mountain bike brake to the top position as an experiment as I was thinking about adding cyclocross type brakes to the top. I found that the single mountain brake worked so good I never did make that change. I don’t use it for hard stops but to scrub a little speed off or hold the bike at a stop on a hill or when mounting its fantastic. I still missed the hood position and thought about adding fake hoods (tandem stoker type) as an experiment made my own from a old hoods off a 10sp with a triple layer of inner tube cover. And once again they worked so good I just left them. I reapplied the old bar wrap but first experimented with padding under it. 3M makes a double stick tape that has tough foam in the center. I put that stuff at all the pressure points and put the wrap back over it.

I have been still tweaking here and there and in no way am I recommending this fitting for anyone but me, but I am recommending figuring out what works for you and keeps you comfortable, pain free and injury free, and most important riding your bike. I feel safer with this riding position now as I have much better vision, less neck pain, less hand pain, less butt pain, and less knee pain. I have also noticed I can get more aero with bending my elbows for a fair amount of time. Downhill's and wind surges.

Drops 50% Hoods 30% Tops 20%

Barrettscv 

You just need to HTFU! ;-)

Looigi

Hoods or drops. Hardly ever on the tops. The tops of my bars are ~10cm below the top of saddle.

bud16415

I would never say varying hand positions is "bunk" for me. It is a very individual thing for sure and I would suggest everyone figure that out for themselves. I have a friend that every road bike he has, the very first thing he does is put dead straight bars on it. I asked him why he liked them so much and he said he grew up with straight bars and anything other than straight doesn’t look right to him. I excepted that as a reason to have them for him. He's a strong guy and his idea of a long ride is a couple hours max. most being about a half hour. I always wanted to go on a 8 hour ride time day with him to see if his opinion would change.

I posted photos above with my percentages listed and that might not be fair looking back on it because I have other bikes I ride for other reasons and I would give a different answer. The OP asked about Drops, Hoods and Tops so I answered about my touring bike I have drop bars on. I also ride a Cannondale road bike that came with drop bars and Sora shifters and I hated the ride position on that and radically changed that up to this bull horn DIY setup.
Hoods 50% Bump 2" behind hood 50%



Once again I wouldn’t recommend this for anyone else but for me, it's good. and the slight change in hand position moves the pressure point from the pad of the thumb to the pad of the palm. I hardly ever grip the straight of the bar on this bike and if I wrap it again I won't go all the way across to the center. The main reason I did this on this bike was the Sora push button shift if it has STI that could be shifted from the drops I would have set it up more like the other bike I think. This type setup though for up to a couple hours is really fun. It's much quicker and sporty feeling and suits this bike and me. Many have told me they would hate this style also.

bobbycorno

Only 70%? For me it's more like 95%...

SP
Bend, OR

ps - my saddle-to-bar drop is ~7.5 cm on my everyday bike, and more like 10cm on my road bike.

Champlaincycler

I'm 85% or so on the hoods, the rest on the bars and only occassionally in the drops. I've an arthritic neck and can't look up to see ahead while in the drops, otherwise I'd be there more often. I just bought my first trainer and have been on it for a few workouts. I love being able to be in the drops while on the trainer with no fear of running someone over or running into a parked truck .