humancongereel

+20.67432

dutret

then your stem is indeed to long.

It still involves twisting your wrist and and nowhere near as ergonomic as a hood. soft grips may make it bearable but thats jsut a kludge.


You ride track bikes with compact geometry? Twitchy enough? huh?

It is true that alot of nice track bikes pull the wheel far enough back that the drops are in the right fore/aft position for ideal handling with track drops. However switching to road drops with a shorter reach would put the hoods in that postion. Then you would be all of your ideal handling when your head was is and ideal spot for seeing what your handling around. If your drops provide the best handling position and thats no where you ride most of the time(as it shouldn't be) then you are not getting the best handling when its most important in city riding; Avoiding random **** that gets in your way.

hyperRevue

Just shut the **** up already.

dutret

Admit that the only advantage track drops have is aesthetic or point out a real functional advantage and I will. Otherwise this is an amusing diversion and maybe it will save some impressionable noob from a repetetive stress injury.

onetwentyeight 

yes. are you riding a converted touring frame? sometimes having hand positions that dulls the handling a bit is actually useful.

like hoods on my bars? something tells me I wouldnt have good leverage on some rubber hoods pulling a good skid or doing some rapid fire skips. theres more to fixed gear handling in a city then the ability to, you know... turn.

do they even have real cities in georgia? (kidding)

hyperRevue

Are you saying I'm lying that I find them comfortable? Because anything short of that, your theoretical points are moot.
Their "functional advantage" is that compared to the bullhorns, risers, mustache and old road drops that I've used, I find them more comfortable.

dutret

Sorry that was a bit confusing I meant that I didn't understand the correlation between compact geometry and twitchyness. I've ridden on plenty of non-compact bikes that are far twitchier then many compact track bikes.

Is that utility like the added carefulness you get from not wearing a helmet?

Something tells me you haven't spent much time on modern brake hoods. The give as good if not better grip then bar tape or ourys.

No, No we don't we have sprawling suburbs with scattered urban centers throughout. Think LA on a smaller scale.

onetwentyeight 

I ride a compact track frame with twitchy handling. I didn't mean all compact bikes are twitchy, but mine sure is. the twitchy handling is really nice for city riding, but not necessary for all situations. my other bike is much less responsive and while its a more leasurely and smooth ride, I like the agressiveness of what I am on now. And yes. Just like not wearing a helmet. nice assumption, way to go.

and no, i havent spent much time with modern brake hoods because I havent spent much time uhm. with brakes. heh. though its not the grip that I need on the hoods, if I had them, it would be the leverage that I get with a big fat steel bar.

dutret

Lying to yourself probably. Maybe you don't go on extended rides often. I am fine on the shoulders of my track drops for 3-4 miles before it starts to become uncomfortable. Some extra padding and rotating them slightly and I could probably increase that length to 8-10 miles but that still makes is less comfortable then brake hoods where i have no problem staying for the vast majority of a 60+ miles at a time. Also even if It isn't painful for shorter rides that kind of stress can still in the long term damage nerves and lead to repetitive stress injuries.

Maybe you just don't have enough experience with the alternatives. Maybe you really really want to believe that you don't just follow the crowd. I don't know.

onetwentyeight 

fwiw ive ridden over 50 miles at a time on track drops, I know others who ride further. perhaps you need to work on the fit of your bike? also, since were talking about city riding... I don't often need to go more than 10 miles at a time.

dutret

double post ownage!!!!

Do you ride those distances regularly or not? I guess you also don't have that much to compare them to anyway. Bullhorns don't offer much more versatility and ones with much of a drop probably aren't any more comfortable then the tops of track bars.

I know of very few experienced riders that will use track drops for long rides. I know more experienced riders that don't even think they are worth it for the track. I know of alot of comparitively unexperienced riders that ride around on track drops and claim they are comfortable. They generally ride alot less and have little or no experience with anything else.

msneeri2@hotmai

queerpunk wins. if your bars aren't comfortable, adjust them. still not comfortable, put em on the goddam trade thread and get some new ones.

hyperRevue

I guess I am I am just lying to myself about what I like.
Good to know.
It is now clear that dutret is just trolling.

dutret

accusing someone of trolling is tantamount to admitting you are wrong... Espcially when you have already responded to the post you are refering to.

Feel free to ride with track drops. Maybe they are good enough for your needs. Maybe you have some freakish physiology that makes them more comfortable for you. However, There is a reason why the vast majority of more experienced riders even those whose experience includes track drops don't ride around on them.

If you even start having nerve trouble or decide you want better handling or start spending more time on your bike or even if track drops just stop being stylish I suggest you try a pair of ergo road drops with some nice brake hoods(you can even remove the levers if you are afraid people will think you have a brake) As an alternative you might try putting mtb bar ends on in place of the hoods(if you do please post about how it works.) After you have ridden like that for a while if you still think track drops are more functional please come back and we can discuss why.

onetwentyeight 

fullsized

good enough for them, good enough for me. Track drops wouldnt still be around 60 years later if they sucked.

dutret

luddite.

onetwentyeight 

duhhhh. i ride older steel frames and bikes with only one gear and no brakes. of course im a ****ing luddite

46x17

Dutret - I am with you!

Track drops are silly for the street!
(but they look really good).

dutret

So now we have two reasons for riding track drops neither of them functional.
-fashion
-fear of technology

I wonder how many more we'll get.

bonelesschicken

You have it all wrong! Those road bike guys just ride ergo road drops w/ hoods to conform to some roadie aesthetic ideal.

onetwentyeight 

aero bars are the new white belt.

46x17

- peer pressure
- masochism
- poverty ( "I can only afford one set of bars")

dutret

Damn and I just had my mom ship mine down so I could get used to them again. Oh well as long as noone sees me it I guess it's ok.

dutret

- peer pressure = fashion
- poverty ( "I can only afford one set of bars")
Then wouldn't you want the cheapest most versatile bars possible which are unlikely to be track drops.

so I'll add masochism to the list but not the other two.

46x17

I'll give you the fashion = peer pressure

Regarding 'poverty' - what if you primarily race on the track and you are looking to get the most suitable bars for that?