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01-10-12 | 07:37 AM

#18

bud16415

Senior Member

Joined: Jul 2011

Posts: 1,141

Likes: 5

From: Erie Penna.

I used to convert every drop bar bike I rode to some other type of bar because I wasn’t a fan of the drop position at all. Like some posted above I tried all kinds of setups and got pretty good at converting brakes. When I bought the tour bike it came setup with STI style controls, and I messed around endlessly with bar tilt first then when I would get the STI’s in a place I could ride the hoods and reach the brakes where I felt I was somewhat in control on the hoods the drops had too much angle and I couldn’t reach the STI’s at all. I stripped off the bar wrap and started messing around getting the bars level first then moving the hoods up some and that was a bit better but still no desire to ride in the drop position. I was reading some Sheldon Brown on the subject of fitting drop bars and he was talking about using drops for more hand positions and not necessarily just for an aerodynamic ride position and he had some photos of drop bars set rather high on the stem. I bought a more old age friendly stem with more height and a higher angle with shorter throw than the number 7 that was on the bike and started all over. This time I set the drops about an inch lower than the saddle and lowered the STI’s way down to where I felt I could work the controls with ease. I still had an upper hand position but no access to the STI’s at all and no hood to use. I was going to add a cyclocross brake to the straight position but as an experiment I used a single front only mtn bike brake leaver on the left side and also added homemade stoker hoods out of a pair of old brakes. I now am in love with drop bars and used this way work perfect for my touring needs. I ride 60 / 40 between the drops and the stoker hoods I would say, but the drop position is by far my preferred location. The single brake works pretty good for adjusting speed or when mounting the bike or holding it against a hill. All serious riding is in the drops when shifting and braking is needed. If I could find a pair of stoker hoods that had brake interrupters built in that would be slick. I might have to build my own. The setup isn’t pretty and cobbled together as I went with plans of redoing it a later time cleaning up the rough edges. But so far I have been happy with high drop bars, YMMV.

Bell location

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