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Old 06-04-26 | 05:16 PM
  #8  
djb
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Joined: Jul 2010
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From: Montreal Canada
Originally Posted by Velonomad
thanks for the reply! I got a chance to try out a Sora setup this morning on a 6 year old bike at the weekly coffee and donut ride. .The shifting was both light and smooth. I immediately ordered a set of Sora brifters . I had thought about the 10 spd. If I was doing the more challenging touring I use to do I would probably make the change. But I’m not carrying that much gear anymore and doing more railtrails that hills.
well, there you go, done.
What bike do you have, and style/era/shape of dropbars?
Have you thought about slightly wider and or shallow drop bars with a bit of drops flare?
Now would be the time to do it, and heck while you're at it, put new housings on the bike too as you'll be mucking around with it all anyway.

If curious about the options of shallow dropbars, if you can, visit a bike store with actual models you can hold and see how they feel.
I did this when setting up my touring bike for a long trip, and it was useful to see how the one with a lot of drop flare out feel.
A wider drop stance is nicer for when on rough surfaces, more control, but some of the more extreme ones put the hoods at an inward leaning angle -- not my cup of tea but Ive never lived with them, only seen them on bikes, but my feeling was that I prefer my hoods more or less straight up and down. Mine might be very very slightly angled in with the Cowbells, but its fine.
The wider drop stance is nice on descents, I like it a lot, with a touring load (more leverage on downhills, even paved) or on dirt and single track when bikepacking, which I do with my bike also.

have fun with the changes you do.
I find the bars change kinda gives an old bike a new feel and look, fun to ride and as I've mentioned, has some real life benefits.
Also fun to do a different bar tape, again, makes the bike look and feel newer.
I really like how with wicked headwinds, shallower drops and slight flare makes the drops so much more realistic and helpful to use when battling a headwind.
cheers
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