Thread: Drops or Flats
View Single Post
Old 01-11-12 | 05:50 PM
  #33  
JoeyBike's Avatar
JoeyBike
Member Not Found
15 Anniversary
 
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 7,491
Likes: 418
Originally Posted by tcs
My suggestion to riders who never get down into the drops is your bars are too low.

Hand positions? I like the different body positions drops provide when spending hours in the saddle - and then there's the whole nasty head wind thing.

Still, it's personal preference and no right or wrong here.
+1 all of this.

I have tried both. My flats had small bar ends. I needed real off road capability about 10 percent of the trip, including some fairly steep drops while running with 4 panniers. Flat bars put my brake levers where I could reach them with my posterior way behind the saddle and REAL breaking power. Otherwise I run drops. When I crossed Kansas/Eastern Colorado uphill and against the wind, I lived on the drops for a week.

Like the man said, if you never use the drops, your bars are probably too low. If you like your bars low, flats should work fine even into a wind. Sooo many choices in drop bars. Perhaps less of a drop than what you currently have? Multiple hand position options can be a wonderful thing. I alter my hand position on my bars every few minutes out of habit unless there is some reason (city traffic) that keeps my hand on the hoods near the brake levers.
JoeyBike is offline  
Reply