kiteboarder

Ok, so I'm finally building my new bike. Headset's on, stem and bar as well. Rear derailleur, etc. But, I'm installing the levers and hoods now. Is there any rule of thumb for those other than comfort? By the way, it a drop bar with SRAM rival levers.

Winter76

I think comfort and reachability are the two key points

svidrod

wherever it is comfortable when you are ontop of your hoods, yet you can still reach them if you are down in the drops

kiteboarder

Well, I just finished setting them up pretty much level with the top of the bar. I kinda feel I could go just a tad bit higher in order for me to keep my wrists really straight while riding. But, that may change if I need to make a handlebar angle adjustment anyway. I'll just take it for a ride as it is and then make any necessary adjustments later. I just wanted to get them as close as possible to the final setup. Thanks!

Volfy

In the "good old days" of the traditional S-bent handlbars, the brake levers are always installed with the bottom tips of them even with the flat bottom sections of the bars. You take a flat ruler, hold it against the "flats" and adjust the levers so the tips just touch the rulers.

I don't know if that rule still applies these days with all those of anatomical correct handlebars.

I just installed set of Sram Force brifters using the above rule-of-thumb, and they felt pretty good.

kiteboarder

Hi. Yeah, it's definitely different with some anatomical bars. I have a RAVX Halo ergo carbon bar. It's 420mm with 160mm drop. If I put the levers that way-both the flats and the bottom tips of the levers at the same level, the hood position will then seem very ackward and uncomfortable. Since you spend more time on the hoods, I think it should be set very comfortably. With the setup I chose, the hoods are more comfortable than the drops. When in the drops it seems the levers should be about 1cm lower, but, nonetheless it feels pretty good still.

waterrockets 

I ride with anatomic-bend bars, and all three of my bikes are set up with lever tip even with bottom of flat. Then I tip the bars up a bit in the stem.

Volfy

That's exactly what I ended up doing after a couple of initial test rides. I started with the bar lower flats parallel to the ground - again, per old-school rule of thumb - and the hoods felt just a bit too tilted forward. I didn't want to change the brifter position, because with my hands in the drops, the levers are about right where they should be. So I tilted the bar up just a little. Now the bar ends are pointing at the rear brake. Still not too bad esthetically, and the hood position is good.

BTW, test ride without bar tape installed, so you can change the positions if you have to. I did secure the cables on the bar with packing tape.

kiteboarder

Yeah, that's I great idea. I'll test without tape first so I can easily make any adjustments.

genejockey 

I tried the lever tip even with the bottom flat, putting Ergos on an ergonomic ITM bar. It was not good. They were too far down the curve, so on the hoods my wrists were bent down. So I tilted the bar up, and I had to bend my wrists up and reach wa-ay out for the brakes in the drops. Finally ended up ignoring the lever tips, levelling the bottom section of the bar, and placing the levers so the hoods were level with the bar.

But yeah, DON"T tape the bar till you're sure. I only made that mistake three times......