furiousferret

Normally she does that, her main role is accident prevention, but people still find ways to get hurt.

Apparently, this accident involved a hammer, broken machinery, and an ill positioned finger. Factory workers tend to think more about finishing a job and sometimes don't think through the consequences, this seems to be one of those cases.

waterrockets 

Sucks.

jmikami

I really hope that furiousferret gets to crater lake today.

However I find the hoods my default position in the pack during typical racing. I like the hoods for three reasons, I can more comfortably hold the brakes, more quickly shift and am slightly more comfortable with my back position, so resting a bit. I like a low aggressive position so in the drops I am ok, but it is touch of work. I would agree that for most riders, the drops are a bit safer, and something I would be in more often during a crit with tight corners, bad roads or around obviously bad riders.

I think that how you hold your hoods or drops is much more important that where you hold. Anyone with a death grip anywhere is at a much greater risk. Anyone just not paying attention is at a great risk. However a decent rider with a good loose (drops) to solid (hoods) hand position is going to be just fine in 99% of the issues either way. Another thing I like better about the hoods is that I can feather my speed on the brakes much better than I can in the drops. I am much more likely to over brake when in the drops. But I agree with CDR that overall the hoods are much easier to slip off of, but you need to pay equal attention regardless of where your hands are.

You also can't use the same grip in both positions, so you need to do drill work in both to practice bumping, bad lines and bad roads to get use to not falling off the hoods to ensure you hold a bit firmer than the drops. And I guess since I have been racing for 27 years I can disagree with CDR good to know there is a forum rule that benefits me.

MDcatV

revised to reflect my experience as an ehs professional for about 20 years. this includes my own firm.

shovelhd

It's really not anything unusual. Much less bar drop than most of my peers with the same height. Absolutely nothing like Fudgy or your average pro with a bike two sizes too small. I do use a -17 stem because I work hard at getting aero. Regular core workouts are key. Exercises like side planks really help.

happybday29475

+1.

An anecdote: if bike control is so superior in the drops, then why do Sven Nys et al spend technical moments on the hoods?

I believe that the obvious but unsaid reason is aeroness: the drops may or may not be superior to hoods strictly from a control perspective, but when you add to control to aeroness at crits/road race speeds, then drops are clearly superior, and by a large margin.

Lastly, another obvious point: practice practice practice. If you train on the hoods, perhaps you corner/shift better on the hoods. (And this may be more prevalent in novice racers).

shovelhd

Well this assumes that nothing else changed, but that wasn't the case. I had an optimized position on my F5. It was a little higher up overall than I am now but it worked very well for riding and racing. Then some MF baggage handler with United somehow mangled the NDS chainstay on that frame when I was on my way out to Nats. Felt would not warranty it because they deemed it impact damage. They did give me a pro deal on an Fc frame. Most of the geometry is the same as the F5 except for the seat tube angle which is steeper. That one difference changed everything, although I'm one of those guys that notices a 1mm change anywhere. It took me about a year to dial the fit in to where it is now. I would tune it on the trainer and verify it on the road. Sometimes the road work would nullify changes made on the trainer. Having a power meter was instrumental in dialing it all in.

Compared to the F5, I am stretched out more and lower overall in any bar position.

Homebrew01

Bonehead moves happen in every category.

shovelhd

I also hope mrs. Ferret gets to enjoy Crater Lake.

Homebrew01

Why do you hate Scotland

carpediemracing 

Cross and mtb favor a higher position. This is why I specifically said crits (I suppose any hard corner in a road race also, but since the White Plains crit thing brought it up…). In crits you don't regularly hit things that can flip you over the bars, where your wheel drops a foot or whatever, so having weight up front isn't bad. Also you want to have massive steering inputs at times, like when you're sliding in sand or mud, and it's easier, at least for me, to make those movements when I'm not in the drops, because nothing hits my forearm when I steer a lot from the hoods.

I've never ridden a cross bike but I have raced mtb. I had to relearn stuff when I rode/raced the mtb because my first inclination (long/low) doesn't work well in technical single track typically found in CT. I ended up with a slightly shorter, slightly higher bar position and a slightly lower saddle position. On the wide fast trails I preferred a more road like position.

carpediemracing 

There's also another factor that I forgot about. On the road it's normal to be able to use 100% of your available braking power, like if there's a stack up in front of you (or the car in front of you stops short and there's a barrier/cliff next to the road, etc). From the drops you have indisputably better braking power relative to the hoods.

(For off road you rarely need that kind of braking force, plus the tires lack the traction necessary to back up really hard braking moves, so braking force is less significant. Well except in maybe muddy races, where you might need 100% lever force to exert 10% braking power due to mud/whatever).

How to Brake on a Bicycle | Off The Beaten Path

picture from that post:

Ygduf

I wish you'd tell this to my wife.





*waka waka

TMonk

^
you know, it's times like this where I really second-guess myself before posting what I really want to.

not that what I wanted to say was offensive, insulting or degrading (im not an *******), just nasty.

misterwaterfall

His Fatness has been missing for a couple of days, you might as well take his place

waterrockets 

He's been swallowing ******* after *******. Wishing his *** would shoot.

TMonk

wr's got it.

misterwaterfall

It's like a choose your own adventure of waki's and WR's fantasies.

ShutUpLegs

So Tour of Mount Joy (4 races over 3 days) is supposed to take place next weekend over Memorial Day. It is 1/2 mile from my house and really the only stage race set up locally. Went to register today and only see the one road race available. Do some research and seems like they made the decision today to cancel the stage race and only hold 1 road race due to low registrants. I don't know about others, but most racers around here don't sign up for races until the week of. Typically entrants double 1-2 days before registration closes. Just a little annoyed considering I built my first peak around this race and now 3 races removed and none the following week. Need to figure something out since I don't want things to go to waste.

Ygduf

I can't believe you all let that languish for over a page! Over a page!!

shovelhd

That's happened up here a few times lately. There really is no wiggle room for promoters these days. Sponsorship is getting scarce so race fees are making up a bigger piece of the payout. Everyone has their threshold, and some cannot take the risk.

So what about Chesco? Is it going to happen this year?

gsteinb

I haven't seen it listed. I wrote to ask, but never got a response. Iron Hill announced a date, but I haven't seen it listed.

waterrockets 

I didn't think that had been made public yet.

ridethecliche

This thread just took a hard right onto cards against humanity street.

Homebrew01

Well, daughter's off to the senior prom. I hope she feels well enough to last the night.