Originally Posted by
stephtu
Well, like you said, you have to define negligible. I plugged some numbers into an online bike power calculator, it suggests that drop vs. tops is still worth ~1 mph at that low speed, 11 mph vs. 10 at same power. Is that big enough to matter? Probably depends on the person.
For me, road bike bars vs. hybrid is mainly about multiple hand position options, and my preference for neutral hand position vs. pronated. Extra speed from being able to get down lower is secondary.
I think it matters... I just don't think it would be noticeable unless the rider was actually keeping track of all the diagnostic stuff. The fact that I don't use a computer, don't keep track of cadence or speed, etc. probably has a lot to do with what I call negligible. Obviously, there's a clear line between people who use computers (for training) vs. those that don't, in which constantly improving on a time matters to the individual. I don't tend to think that a beginner on a hybrid pays attention to that stuff so much, nor did I think that the context in the OP was suggesting that we were talking about any type of serious training, just perceived change in speed due to a different platform. Of course, I could be wrong.
Either way, it was a good tangent for this thread. Certainly not off topic or irrelevant... just trending way more in depth than I was looking to go.
I think the key is whether or not someone is riding for max speed to begin with, and assuming that while riding a road bike said person would be in the drops and trying to make the best possible time... both things that I wasn't assuming in my earlier posts. (in which case, they'd be riding much faster than 10 or 15mph).