Originally Posted by
nickw
I’ll be honest, not really sure what you are saying.
Drops = anything below the hoods, be in bend, hooks, end of bar, etc.
The drop bar can be divided into several points of interest. Tops, ramps, hoods, hooks and drops. All of them are different and it's useful knowing them to allow for accuracy in discussion. The most commond descending position on drop bars is in the hooks where one can best reach the brake lever end = best brake modulation.
Comparing pro-cycling to touring is a slippery slope. Pro cycling is restricted by wind resistance more than ideal power output position. Drops should be comfortable….to my point….for extended periods of time if/as required.
I'm quite sure the pro riders are fitted so that their riding position allows for both maximum power output and aerodynamic performance. But I think the power output thing is not really and issue.
If they are not being utilized 95% of the time, it seems pointless to me but there are certainly a wide range of users and bodily issues to be sensitive too, I get it. Even when I’m not descending or riding into a headwind, I’ll drop down 10-15 min here and there to change up my hand position. While I use the hoods the majority of the time, I can use the drops for extended periods of time as well – which I suppose was my original point.
Personal choice. But still especially with brifters the hoods allows for most surface area for hands, which are not good for weight bearing. But really it's about what's comfortable.
Not sure I agree with the low bar and descending – it’s not a black/white statement like you indicate. Certainly for technical descents, wide flat bars raised higher are much more comfortable, offer better control and provide the re-ward bias one needs.
What do you mean by technical? MTB technical as in rock gardens? I totally agree that a wide bar is best there because of leverage. When I went down the local DH trails at 25mph I quite liked my wide bar MTB and would not have been able to do the same speeds with my CX.
Technical in tarmac as in lotsa cornering etc? Drop bar all the way as it's not about the bar anymore as much as much as it's about guts, speed tolerance, and stability of the platform for maximum grip. A wobble in a fast corner can mean a tire lifting from the ground = lost grip = bad situation.
50mph road descent on my 29er is positively twitchy while on my road bike it's so stable that I could almost fall asleep on the bike. I've honestly thought about what I could do to make my road bike more exciting on fast descents as those used to be the best thing in cycling, but now that I've gotten better at it it's gotten a bit boring. Where I live we don't have that many descents so I'm quite looking forward to the alps and doing fast descents fully loaded. That should show some challenge.