fietsbob

Not Much ,, but Im an old guy with a few extra Kg atop the saddle ..

wphamilton

4.25 inches on my default commuting road bike, 1.5 inches on my "comfort" setup commuting single speed road bike. The SS is much slower.

OldsCOOL

Be careful you don't crash.

Bob Ross

Yes. One of my bikes has a slightly more aggressive, "long&low" geometry inherent in its build, and so it just seems to make sense to keep that one setup with slightly more drop; that's the Go Fast bike, as opposed to the Go All Day bike. I think it's 5cm versus 3cm on my other bikes.

Voodoo76

Current setup is 85mm drop. Very little change over the last 20 years. I don't have any issues on the tops or in the drops. But I don't typically ride > 3hrs.

It's a very individual thing, so many factors come into play. Worth some experimenting.

oldbobcat

Long arms, more drop. Short arms, less drop.

Fiery

My lower back tightens up when I don't have enough reach to the handlebar. It's counter-intuitive, but sometimes going longer and/or lower can be more comfortable - food for thought and possibly something try out if you haven't already.

gsa103

If you look at a lot of pro riders, they don't have extreme hip angles, or even look that odd riding. Many have very long legs, and long arms. So they typically ride smaller frames (short torsos), with lots of seat post (long legs) and decent bar drop (flexible).

Pro riders are a subset of the population genetic optimized (randomly) for cycling and so you might expect their bodies to be toward the extremes of the bell curve. If you have a more normal proportioned body then something like an H2/endurance fit is likely going to be a better starting place.

rat fink

When people have seen my bikes, many of them have commented that I must look like a gorilla because of how much sale to bar drop my bikes have, but that's not the case when I'm riding them because they fit me well. I have a friend who is the exact same height as me and rides a frame two sizes larger with pretty much the same hip angle and drop. He's a lanky fella.

Doge

10cm top to top. I'm 6'2"

caloso

Roughly 9 cm.

Campag4life

Well said.

therhodeo

He also looked terrible on a bike and had a very hunched back. Not even counting his better riding through chemistry approach.

Campag4life

I didn't think he looked terrible on the bike at all...no his back wasn't poker straight. Yes, he had chemistry enhancement...as did many that raced in the era. Yes, he took doping to a very high level...a champion of doping.
Still, many believe he was the greatest rider of his era. I believe this. But will also say, he is a despicable human being. Ruthless beyond description. Sociopath. Nerves and morals of a jewel thief.

Banzai

Sixes. That's another way to say what I was getting at.

grolby

Yep. Obviously many people do have their bars too low, but there's such a thing as too high for a given reach as well. I like a long and low fit myself; recently I even switched from a -17 to a -26 stem on my race bike to get another 12-13mm or so of drop over what I had. Now it's about at the limit of how low I want it. My cross bike is a more moderate fit, and if I were going for maximum comfort at lower speeds I'd probably prefer it. But the road bike isn't uncomfortable, and over the years I've tended to be happier when I changed my fits to be lower instead of higher. The best thing I ever did with my old Surly Long Haul Trucker was to flip the stem and drop the bars from slightly above to slightly below the saddle. Completely transformed how I felt on that bike, from awkward and slightly uncomfortable to poised, steady and quite comfortable. So it turns out Grant was wrong, about me anyway! I like my drop bars below the saddle, even on a touring bike.

Oh, I'm not really sure how much drop my bikes have. Let's say: road - a lot; cross bike - a little. I haven't measured it in a while.

Edit: campag mentioned being able to ride in the drops for hours at a time as important to him, a ways upthread. That's fair enough. Personally one reason I dropped my bars was I felt that I was only adequately aero in the drops, and for hand and sometimes back comfort I don't want to spend an entire ride or race on the hooks. The problem I had was, when I moved from the drops to the hoods, the increase in height felt like I was throwing out a parachute. Switching to a compact bar with less drop made the difference less pronounced, and then I could drop the bars and feel like the hoods were useable without a big aero penalty, but the drops weren't too low. Now I do ride more on the hoods than before, but my wrists are a lot happier. And I still use the drops plenty. So really we're all special snowflakes with our own needs and preferences. Even my own fit is a moving target year to year.

StanSeven

Tests showed he had a very good aero position. There's nothing wrong with his back. In wasnt flat but his position was effective.

69chevy

7 inches or 17.7cm.

gsa103

Flat back doesn't matter at all for aero. Head position matters far more, since rarely is there a rider who's head is below the level of their back. It's even possible that a humped back is more aerodynamic by smoothing the transition off the head.

Campag4life

Individual snowflakes indeed. Heed this ^^^post OP including my preference for less bar drop as well. Individual preference and in fact independent of body shape.
Even relates to strength and age. You won't see many 80 year olds with 5 inches of drop reported here...but a few riding around with handlebars above the saddle.

Bike fit is like DNA almost independent of body size and proportion which includes the comments about taller riders with longer arms needing more drop. Even though this trend can be extrapolated within the pro ranks, not true at all in the amateur universe...me being a notable example. So a Grant Peterson aka Rivendell fit may work best for me and the bike industry has incorporated this fit philosophy into modern carbon endurance bike geometries, I ride with a much higher handlebar than many if not most decent amateurs with long arms and tallish and can keep up with CAT boys at the higher range if they don't try too hard to drop me. If I drop my handlebar low, my neck screams. With some its their back that complains with a low handlebar. My back doesn't give me too much trouble as it turns out independent of handlebar position.

Again OP, pick your pleasure or poison as it were. To me, hood, top and hook position is basically a compromise or trade off as grolby well explained. In fact, if you dabble enough, this will become quite apparent when it comes to even handlebar selection...getting the ratio of three correct...shorter reach versus longer reach bars....deep drop hooks versus compact drop where three positions are closer to one another.

Lastly, I also agree with grolby about fit being a work in progress. Our fitness and bodies and even venues we ride change with time. I am forever tweaking my position on the bike...a spacer here or there...saddle pushed forward or back a bit and a tweak to tilt and even the saddle up or down a couple of mm's. Recent experiment was cleat position. I moved my cleats more forward to a more conventional position because I just purchased new Spesh Sworks road shoes...my fav...and wondered if my about 14mm rearward position from foot ball that Speedplay extender plates allow was better or worse for overall riding. Sprinters many times prefer a more foot ball over spindle and distance cyclists a bit more rearward position. I decided after some testing that I preferred the more rearward position...easier on my calves and achilles in particular and steadier out of the saddle. Basically choices and not adherence to any text book fit as there is no such thing as each of our bodies are different, sometimes radically.
PS: A tangent about cleat position. Where you think the ball of your foot is compared to where it really is maybe quite different. A person with long toes...not uncommon....moves the ball well back in the shoe which also dictates shoe size preference. This applies to me and partly why I ride Speedplays with their Al extender plates to get my cleats back away from the nerves near the ball of the feet and base of the toes to prevent hot spots and mitigate neuromas.

GlennR

10cm

Fiery

That doesn't look like 10 cm to me. How did you measure it?

GlennR

Just rechecked and it's 8cm... good eye.

Ground to top of saddle and ground to top of bar on a level concrete floor.

the sci guy 

basically level on all my bikes

TexMac

I have them different since i ride a S3 51cm, dogma 53 and CX 51cm. S3 more agressive slam, Gogma & CX some slam