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Old 08-26-08 | 10:15 PM
  #12  
chaadster
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From: Ann Arbor, MI

Bikes: 15 Kinesis Racelight 4S, 76 Motebecane Gran Jubilée, 17 Dedacciai Gladiatore2, 12 Breezer Venturi, 09 Dahon Mariner, 12 Mercier Nano, 95 DeKerf Team SL, 19 Tern Rally, 21 Breezer Doppler Cafe+, 19 T-Lab X3, 91 Serotta CII, 23 3T Strada

Originally Posted by DoB
The transfer looks OK to me, but it depends a lot on how you ride and how long your commute is. For me the flat bars are a non-starter. I run 25 miles round trip and flat bars have me too much up into the wind and make my wrists hurt too much.

I generally want a bike with a moderate forward lean when I'm on the hoods that becomes a fairly agressive lean on the drops so I can manage headwinds.
DoB,

This is a setup issue, not a bar issue.

If you have the right frame geometry, the right fork, the right stem, and the right size frame, you can achieve any riding position you want with any type of bar.

My posture on my commuter is forward leaning and gives me a good aero position. Bar extensions give me the extra stretch and rotated wrists similar to being on the hoods on drops. If I had drop bars on this bike, I probably couldn't even reach the drops! Okay, a bit of hyperbole, but hopefully you get my point:



Furthermore, the extra width of of your hand stance on flatbars, compared to the narrow one while on the flats of drops, slows down the steering reaction and makes the bike more stable, a benefit, I feel, for the rough and tumble world of the urban commuter. Big guys, like me, will also feel it's easier to breathe while putting the power down on a flatbar (compared to dropbar flats) because their chest is more open and breathing unrestricted.
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