Originally Posted by
khatfull
Coming from a fully modern, brifter-equipped bike on which I rode the hoods 95% of the time I've really, and I mean REALLY come to love the far wider range of hand and body positions I'm experiencing on the Fuji Tiara I'm riding daily now. On my modern Cannondale, riding on the bars was barely different than the hoods. The drops were really too awkward for shifting and braking. I have very small hands which exacerbates that issue with brifters.
On the Tiara with some Sakae anatomic bars I get a wide range of hand positions and, more importantly, my back is actually in a different position in each one of them:
I've really come to like being down in the drops on this bike. Oddly, the hoods are my least favorite position
I tried using Ergolevers with Ritchey Biomax II bars, a few years ago. The bend-back of the "anatomic" area of the bar (what you show as "drops when braking ... ") was a lot more extreme than on your bars, but that straight section made it hard for me to reach the brake levers. I found a moderate-drop conventional bar with a large radius of curvature (Maes-style), such as a Nitto 115, 176, or 177 (Noodle), brought my hands closer to the brake and shift levers. I think you could get your hands between 1 and 2 cm closer to the brake levers if you changed to one of those bars.