Originally Posted by
livedarklions
I think the brifters are perfectly positioned for riding the hoods unless they have that stupid Sora little trigger.
It is not a big deal for shifting, I’ll grant that.
As far as the brakes..... you know best what you like, but nobody would design a brake lever like that if it did not need to be used in the drops as well. The lever design is a huge compromise made to accommodate two very different hand positions. Perhaps compromise is not the right word, because it works great for the drops (which makes sense since it is what they were actually designed for).
How many other applications do you see a lever (that you need to pull hard) on a bar set practically perpendicular to the bar your hand is holding onto? If not for the drops, the levers would be rotated much farther down and back to be more parallel to the tops of the hoods where you are holding them. Actually, you would not even need "hoods" you'd just use a bullhorn bar, and look how bullhorn bar end brakes are set up. The levers are close to parallel with (and much closer to) the part of the bar you are gripping. Because that makes a lever much easier to squeeze while keeping a grip on the bar.
Sure, it works OK, and we can get used to just about anything (and hood ergonomics have come a long way), but it is not at all the best design for braking from that position. Its just a compromise that needs to be made in order to work from drops as well.