thirtyminbreak

I am very comfortable in the drops, actually 90% of the time, and I only go to hanger(right name?, I am talking about where you pull the brakes down) when my lower back needs alittle rest.

I have angled my seat pretty "aggressivly". Are there any other adjustments I should make on my bike?

Like "flipping" my handlebar.

Also, does this indicate a type of cyclist that I may turn into. Mind you am only a month and a half into all of this. But i do 30-40 mile rides everyday and go atleast 16-18 mph solo.

This sport is the shiat and everybody should do it. I wonder what % does?

Oh and another edit. If I do need to flip it. It is a Schwinn Prelude(https://www.target.com/gp/detail.html...t_adv_XSMG1060)

How many degrees do I actually flip in my situation.


EDIT":":"P<KOH
thirtyminbreak: What kind of saddle do you have on your bike?
Alias 143 that 55/Rad mailed to me (used) for free. he is the man.

Here are the pics. (I hope.)
Attached Thumbnails



Editing edits:

the beef

what's your seat angle? post pics of your bike. have you tried other positions and other setups, and if so, are they more/less comfortable?

the bottom line is, find what is the most comfortable and balance that with efficiency, and you've got the position that is right for you. just because you don't do it the way most people do it doesn't mean it's wrong.

AEO

saddle should be parallel to ground, or near parallel.

If you're mostly in the drops, that'd be just fine.

thirtyminbreak

I would but my camera is dead.

I also never felt it was wrong. It feels like I have an advantage. I just cut through the wind. Really though, it is just like swimming through the air.

ridethecliche

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I set up my roadie for my GF and she was complaining that she was only really comfortable in the drops and not really the hoods. I told her that as long as the hoods work when she's out of the saddle, being in the drops for 90% of the time should be more than fine as there are enough hand positions and better steering/braking to be had.

urbanknight

Sounds like you're just more flexible than us old men, or there could be other explanations.

Are your elbows bent at least slightly whenever riding? If not, they should be.
Is your back close to parallel to the ground when in the drops? If not, you could get more aero.

You could try flipping the stem to bring the bars lower, then try spending a little more time on the hoods (correct term) or even if you can still ride the drops most of the time, but you'll be more aero. Just don't hesitate to flip it back up if your back starts to ache.

Bekologist

I believe everyone's everyday road bike should fit them so the drops are as comfortable as the hoods. A properly fitting bike should be comfortable in either position.

Drop bars are very damp when you ride them on the ends of the drops- people that ride the tops get a lot of road chatter transmitted thru the handlebars. Want to make a rough road feel smoother? ride the drops.

urbanknight

That's only true if you're putting significant weight on your hands, which you should not. If that's the case, the saddle is not in the correct position.

Longfemur

Well, if you're riding in the drops 90% of the time, you're not using drop bars as they were intended. But on Bike Forums, it does earn you some brownie points among the other relative newbies. You're also probably not making best use of your drops if they are indeed that easy to use. It leaves you with nowhere else to go when you really need the extra power or aerodynamics. Hard to say anything about your bike fit without seeing you or the bike, but it does hint that there is something unusual about your positioning.

That being said, there is no rule or best way. It depends what you want to emphasize. It's your bike.

RIC0

I'm starting to ride in the drops more so that' I'm not a big wind sail, but it's only about 25% of the time, there's no way in hell I could do it 90%.

urbanknight

Well, I imagine that if the OP is really in the drops that much either (1) they're really short rides, (2) the drops aren't low enough to serve their true purpose, or (3) the OP is a gymnast or yoga instructor.

I also noticed the "How many degrees do I actually flip?" question. You don't get to choose that unless you buy another stem. Just flip the stem you have now and see if it works.

merlinextraligh

What's the drop from your seat to the bars? (i.e. the distance the top of the bars is from an imaginary line extended forward from the seat parallel to the ground. or stated otherwise, measure top of seat to ground, measure top of bars to ground. Subtract.)

Bekologist

interesting perspective. is that a historical view of drop bars on bicycles? when did 'riding the hoods' become a position on road bikes anyway? can you elaborate?


is this just a forum for Walter Mittys to discuss their carbon fiber obsessions about winning the next tour de farce?

urbanknight

Although you pose an interesting question (I am now trying to find the history of the drop bar), it doesn't matter what the former uses of it are. The drop bar has evolved to the point where we can utilize multiple positions, so the drops can be very aero but less comfortable because you can always switch to the hoods or tops for more comfort.

Back to trying to find the history of the drop bar.

Bekologist

I believe you are confusing 'race position' as the only road bike configuration. I don't think the drop bar has 'evolved' much but I see a LOT of everyday riding bikes set up so the rider can't even use the drops reliably, much less comfortably.... bikes with the drops pitched 10 degrees or more off horizontal make me chuckle...

Road bikes can ( arguably, should) easily be set up for all day comfort where the drops are just as 'comfortable' as the hoods and tops of the bars with a minor offset of aerodynamics...

And if a rider isn't out to race, why would they NEED to have an agrressive race posture? To get to the end of a ride a few minutes earlier?

Carbon fiber obsessions can cause your sprockets to go pocketa-pocketa-pocketa...

Longfemur

Riding on the hoods has been more the common position since the advent of combined brake levers and shifters, and with these being used on the more Italian-like drop bars that drop down quickly.

Before that, it wasn't so much "riding on the hoods", but riding on the ramps. That's the forward extension that leads to the brake hoods. Drop bars had a longer, more horizontal ramp back then, and these were where the hoods are today in relation to bike fit. So the most used position was on the ramps. At some point in the 1960's or so, brake levers acquired rubber hoods, and so on these bars, you mostly rode on the ramps, and you rode on the hoods for more extension. The drops themselves were always a 3rd position. Touring bike riders used those as another hand position for muscle and hand relief, and for more control of the loaded bike in certain situations. Road riders used the drops for situations that required a sudden burst of speed, like sprinting, for positional relief like the tourists, for downhills and any other situation that could benefit from a lower position.

It's not and it has never been a racing versus non-racing issue. The drops are also there to provide more braking leverage. This is not quite as important with the dual-pivot brakes we have today, but the old sidepulls required more force to brake. You often needed that extra leverage.

The drops are like the hoods. Even the hoods should require just a bit of reaching if the bars are to be positioned properly. For most road but not racing riding, the bars should be positioned such that you get a good, totally comfortable position on the tops and on the corners or ramps, a bit more stretch to the hoods, and a reasonable drop to the drops. I say again that if your bars are such that you end up riding in the drops 90% of the time, there's something about your bike fit that isn't quite right. On modern drop bars which are positioned with the hoods closer so they can be the normal riding position, this is going to give you drops that are too close-in to you unless they drop down more.

I don't think I've ever met a newbie yet who didn't think that the drops are the normal riding position. If you're happy riding like that, then keep doing it. But if someone comes on Bike Forums and asks about it, then you're going to get answers like mine, and also the inevitable counter-arguments.

urbanknight

Bekologist, you're not making any sense. If drops are supposed to be just as comfortable as the hoods or tops, why would anyone ever ride in the tops or hoods? Even a casual cyclist would choose the most aerodynamic position if they were all the same comfort level.

Sure there are people who don't care about shaving seconds of their ride. That's why they sell flat bar road bikes and hybrids, and everything else under the sun. I'm quite positive that drop bars were invented for aerodynamics, but some people have them without concern for their intended use, like a lawyer commuting to work in a Porsche. No big deal because it still gets the job done, right? I have friends that own a road bike and always ride in the tops or hoods. They even asked me what the heck the "hook part" was for!

You are absolutely correct that many bikes are set up incorrectly. Since I can get my back parallel to the ground with a 3.5" saddle-to-bar drop, I have no clue as to why anyone needs 6-10". Still, there are pro's bikes with that extreme, so there must be some reason.

I guess my simple question is if drops are supposed to be just as comfortable as the hoods or tops, what's the point in having the various hand positions?

I also don't get your "carbon fiber obsessions" comments. My bike is aluminum.

logdrum

Drop bars are still here for stretching jerseys as your gut bloats out more when you are in the drops.

If you have a French Fit and therefore a small saddle to handlebar drop, even if you are not racing there is less road buzz when on the drops. I also find that standing while on the drops is less tiring. maybe it is just me.

I am quite flexible though even for someone who does not have a six pack.

urbanknight

I still maintain that road buzz to the hands shouldn't be an issue if you're properly balanced and not death gripping the bars. I may be alone in this, though.

Longfemur

To some of the others who are making the "not everybody races" argument, I'm not a racer either, but do you really want us to believe that you ride a road bike and you never at any time want to go fast or get the most out of the effort you put in, or that you never have to go somewhere in a decent amount of time?

How about the high handlebar idea? This is really more of a modern concept than a historical one. There has never been a time when if you had a properly-sized frame and a not too low saddle, you had handlebars at saddle level. Stems were a certain height limited by the metallurgy, so they wouldn't snap off. The end result was that handlebars ended up lower for the expected more forward position on road or racing type bikes. City type bikes had the same height stem, but the bars rose up from there to put the handgrips higher than the saddle. I don't know where the idea came from that those French touring bikes had high handlebars. If they were high, it was because the person riding it wanted them high and the frame was too large, not because the constructeur intended them to be high. In fact, in the world of French cycling (and really, all of the continent), saddles weren't quite as high as they are now, and if you had a road bike with a normal stem, your handlebars could only go as high as about an inch and half below saddle level, maybe an inch in some cases. That's how people who considered themselves to be cyclists rode them. There is just no denying that this is the single most efficient position for handlebars where you make the best use of all the available hand positions, and you make the best use of your muscles for pedalling.

Bekologist

why would they? to vary their hand position from the drops.

Hands in the drops were originally the #1 hand position on drop bars. Bars on early road bikes only had grips in the drops. here's a picture link.... I wonder how the guy on the right would feel about longfemur's perspective? But the guy on the left, he's a little higher on the bars, closer to turning his wrists to the classic resting position on the tops of the bars..

https://www.classiclightweights.co.uk...osgear-hs1.jpg

Here's a road bike that must break the mold- it's comfortable all day no matter the hand positioning, and I am still distinctly more aero in the drops...sweet spot is right in the cradle of the drops on this bike.

I do'nt know why someone would want to own a bike that WASN'T comfortable in the drops. I guess I'm a newbie

Bekologist

here's a pic of Fausto Coppi in 1953. observe the horizontal back for greater aerodynamics while the rider is in the drops. must be a newbie.

https://www.rockhillbikes.com/wp-cont...oads/coppi.jpg

Zurich

I hardly ever ride in the drops.... My theory; who cares...ride what feels good!

thirtyminbreak

Well then I am glad to be the first. I never thought that style was for the normal riding position. I thought it was for decents and getting into an aerodynamic position. Maybe that is wrong, but it is what it is.
However, it just so happens that is how I ride.

I will have pics in a second.

Kotts

No, mostly to get a little relief from 20 MPH headwinds... (No joke, it's windy here in between the buildings.)