Hey so I normally ride drop bars. However my bike broke recently and I have been borrowing a friends for work (I cycle 10 hrs/day as a corrier). This bike has cruiser bars that mean I sit completely straight which helps when carrying this bag.

Now what I was thinking is putting a really high stem, iv seen a 40mm dutch quill stem. Would this work? Has anyone tried it? I dont wanna swap my bars to flats as that is a huge amount of work but was thinking maybe if I can have a completely flat back when im on the tops, I would still have the hoods and drops for more aero positions.

My gut reaction is that if you raise the stem by a lot, then you probably have to replace your cables, in which case you've signed up for the work anyway. At that point you might as well figure out what setup would really be the most comfortable and do the whole job at once. I personally have swept bars on all of my bikes, so I'm biased towards that solution.

Thing is I like going fast when im not working, but dont feel comfortable riding aero for these 12 hour shifts. How high should I put them to have a comfortable position on the tops.

I realize that we're probably not swimming in money here, but it might be a situation where owning two bikes is a practical compromise. I can tell you what's comfortable for me, but I'm ready to admit that I've never worked a 12 hour shift on my bike. Probably my longest time in the cockpit with no relief was being a bike escort for the Madison Marathon.

My most comfy bike has its hand grips about 2 inches above seat level. With the swept bars, my hands are also about 2 inches behind the axis of the steering tube. In contrast, an old drop bar bike in my garage has its brake hoods some 7 inches fore of the steering axis, though I think some newer drop bars are more compact. Still, it means, I'm 2 inches up and full 9 inches back from e.g., a typical touring bike. Both of those things add to a more upright posture. My hands are also further apart.

On the other hand, I'm not sitting bolt upright, like in the pictures of Dutch cyclists. That's painful too, especially on hills.

If you like the cruiser, then get a cruiser. We won't tell.

It’s Your body.
We are very limited in how well We can judge what’ll work for you.
I’ve done a fair bit of MTB credit card touring. Fairly long days, with a backpack.
Flat bar, bar ends. Bar set even, or maybe 2” below saddle. Works for me.
I’d assume riding as a Courier means frequent chances of getting off the bike for a few moments.
IME that makes position less critical than when doing long uninterrupted sessions.

If you have a 1” threaded fork, there are some quite tall quill stems available.
However, I’ve only ever seen those with wraparound clamps. And you’re very unlikely to be able to fit a modern drop bar into one of those. It’d have to be one with the traditional big radius bends.
I wouldn’t worry about the forward protrusion though.
The bike will still remain rideable.

Just get an adjustable stem by SATORI.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sa...w=1252&bih=632

I don;t know what to call these bars:
but they're like an "H" that are like swept back bars and bull bars. You could approximate them by butting bar-ends, inboard by where the upper portion of your drop bar sweeps forward. I've seen inexpensive bar-ends that clamp on at Wal-Mart.