After reading the whole thread again and also the Sheldon Brown’s take on this again. I thought back to my first dislike of my STI drop bar setup. I ended up removing the tape after experimenting for a few months with different stem heights and bar angles and nothing seemed to be optimal for my hands. I found the hoods a comfortable riding location with the bars lifted and that made the drops awkward. I found I liked the drops when nearly level as a riding position and liked them even more when I set the stem higher than the excepted norm. I started moving the STI’s around on the bar looking for a location I could shift and brake from both places and my hands are average size to slightly small and I never found a compromise position where I felt in control 100%. As I liked the drops the best I lowered them down to where I had exceptional control in the drops both stopping and shifting. The other advantage to that location for me I kind of knew or felt but this thread made it clear to me and that is when stopping fast Like the OP I’m a bigger guy and I have more inertia to stop moving. Thus more brake effort it also means that Newton law applies and a body in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an outside force. I’m not attached to the bike so that reaction proportioned between my weight and the weight of the bike has to be acted on thru my arm strength. What better position can I be in than solidly in the drop position with my center of gravity lowered and my arms reacting the force rather than my arms acting as pole-vaulting poles to lift my body forward and upward. The notion of a front wheel stand stopping I think is flawed as its assuming the rider attached to the bike and not moving as an independent body and the G force of deceleration due to body position causing a partly weightless or in the case of an end over total weightless condition of the rider. The heavier rider is at a disadvantage in terms of moving mass but has an advantage in tractive effort for braking if he keeps his weight aligned such that it is applied thru the bike to the tire road interface. Sheldon points out that most end overs are a case of the rider leaving the bike first and then the bike following. I believe this to be the case also and what may be flawing the math.

I do know that going into the deep drop location is a position I’m better suited body wise to coast in than ride in, also provides me the best control and it does exactly as mentioned it forces my CG back in the saddle putting more weight over the rear wheel reacting the lever effect. It gets me more straight armed into the blocking my forward travel in relation to the bike and has me more aero in the process assuming I want to go fast down the hill.

With my STI’s lowered I know I have easily twice the stopping power in my hands just due to ergonomics and shifting is also greatly improved as is handling. What the down side was is I didn’t have anything on the top and no hoods. That’s when I added the mtn brake and I later added a homemade stoker hood made from some old school ten speed brake parts. This setup is 90% of the way there for me and I don’t see myself going back to the compromise location of the hoods. I do wish there was something invented that hasn’t been and as far as I know isn’t on the market. If anyone has seen stoker hoods used on tandem bikes they have a fake lever built into them. I have never ridden a tandem and know little of the usage of the lever. But for me the perfect system would be a stoker hood setup where that little lever could be set up like a cross brake. Seeing as how I’m the only person that would buy such a thing I don’t see anyone making one and I might have to build my own.

Here is my Fred setup as it is today.



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