PepeM

One of my bicycles has traditional deep dropbars and 'aero' brake levers. How do you usually set those up? Is the conventional way to make sure the bottom part of the drops is parallel to the floor? How about the brake levers, where should those go? Lever perpendicular to the ground? My current setup feels ok but the barends are pointing downward slightly. If I rotate them a bit more it feels like the brake levers will be way up front and the angle of the tops a bit extreme. I realize that the best way is to try it and see how it feels, just wondering if there are traditional ways to do it. Thanks.

69chevy

Replace with aerodynamic carbon fiber drop bars and wireless shifters.


Way faster and way more better.

HTupolev

Bar ends point to rear brake.

If they're wide modern levers, somewhere that gives you a sufficiently smoothed-out interface with the handlebar ramps. If they're skinny vintage levers, line up the brake lever tips with the bar drops (i.e. a line should connect from the lever tips through the bar drops out to the rear brake).

joejack951

This is before I switched to a threadless stem and Ritchey Classic compact bars, but it was comfortable:

1984 Trek 660 by joe jackson, on Flickr

Lower section angled slightly down, roughly pointed at brake calipers. Levers vertical-ish. Not a great photo since it isn't straight on, but you get the idea hopefully.

PepeM

I'm scared of assplosions and electromagnetic waves so I'll pass.

Skinny vintage levers. So the centerline of the drops should be in-line with the bottom of the brake levers? Hmm, will need to check that out. Cheers.

PepeM

My bars looks roughly like that but I have skinny levers (non-STI) and I am not sure how the hoods should be set up since the shape is different to the newer ones.

joejack951

There was some variety even in the catalogs back in the day: https://www.vintage-trek.com/images/t...rek1Racing.pdf

PepeM

Lots of variety there, interesting. Guess I'll just go with whatever feels good.

79pmooney

Are you planning to ride this bike? I raced one of those bikes long before it was either classic or vintage. I rotated the bars until they felt best, then noted where the line of the drops landed on the seatstay so I could reproduce it later. Likewise brake lever location. I always had lever tips well below the drops. Still do. I like the brake hoods to be close to horizontal so my wrists aren't cokes when I am climbing.

Running the drops horizontal is putting the cart before the horse. The angle of the tops behind the hoods is important. For that same angle, TTT and Cinelli bars are going to give you rather different drop angles, classic TTTs being a lot m ore "V" shaped and Cinellis "U" shaped.

For some, an good off-the-shelf suit works well. For others of use, life is better when the suit is tailored to fit us. Bikes are no different. True now. True 40 years ago.

Ben

PepeM

The only one I've been riding lately. Don't really have any comfort issues so I should probably leave it as is, but I wonder if it could be better.

Care to expand? What angle should one look for?

fietsbob

All C&V... levers and bars, I lay a a straight edge on the straight, bottom, of the drops Ruler lines up with the brake lever tip..

Both are the same that way .. add 1/2" gap to each , if you like..

I spend most riding on tops so ramp is level, not the drops.




...

WhyFi

This is how I went about it. In the end, the bar ends are pointing a little above the rear hub, the levers are just a smidge off of perpendicular to the ground and the transition from the bars to the hoods is pretty straight and mostly parallel to the ground.

79pmooney

I used to do my first rides on a new setup w/ no handlebar tape, wrenches in my pocket to dial in lever location and bar rotation. In the garage right now is my old Mooney with bars and brake hoods very different from anything that has ever been on it. No bar tape now. Gotta do those rides.

Ben

mcours2006

I was struggling this one as well a coupe of years ago when I resurrected my old racer.

Gardin 02.jpg

This probably looks best, but probably feels best with bar ends pointing slightly down. I haven't tried it. Think of getting a set of shallow drop/reach bars for it actually.

goenrdoug

Looks like it would be pretty difficult to brake from the drops.

mcours2006

Yeah, I know. One of the reason it's not ridden often. Also contemplating on swapping to modern bar with threadless adapter and STI levers. Totally ruin the 'vintage' look, but probably ride it more.

joejack951

Looks pretty hard to brake at all. I am not sure what the intent was with that hood position but it looks, and likely functions, awful. If you want the flat transition into the hoods that modern bikes have you need to run modern handlebars. Classic bars simply don't work that way.

jfracer03

This is my dad's bike with its original setup from the 80s. It's pretty comfortable with a nice reach from the top or the drops, but no where near as comfortable as modern bars with sti shifters.

mcours2006

I can't disagree with you, but some sense of nostalgia is preventing me from doing it. I did it on my Bianchi commuter--threadless stem adapter, modern ergo handlebare, STI shifters, and the setup is very, very comfortable. Very happy with it. I'm reluctant to do it to this one, for sentimental reasons.

Darth Lefty 

I set the bars so my wrist is neutral in the drops and then set the hoods high enough I can lean on them. This looks fairly "nose-up" compared to what style dictates.

mcours2006

My solution is that I rarely ride in the drops on this bike...I mean I rarely ride this bike.

99Klein 

Back in the day the bar ends pointed at the rear axle. Made more more level bars and took pressure off the wrists. Also made for better braking/shifting in the drops. YMMV.

joejack951

If you rarely ride the bike, what's the point in even owning it? Might as well modernize it and ride it. I had a similar internal debate with my Trek 600. I bought it like this:

Trek 660 by joe jackson, on Flickr

I kept thinking it would be fun to ride it all 'old-school' but after ~5 years of hanging on my garage wall I had ridden it only a handful of times. The upgrade to modern shifting, wheels, and handlebars made it a bike that I look forward to riding.

joejack951

I think you mean rear brake. In the pic I posted of my Trek 660 as purchase, the bar ends point at the axle and they are anything but level looking. In the Trek catalog PDF I posted earlier, all of the bar ends point at the rear brake or are horizontal. I can't recall ever seeing a catalog page of a vintage bike with the bar ends angled so much that they point at the rear axle but if have pics I'd love to see them.

PepeM

Should have taken pictures, but it seems that the way I am currently set-up, the drops point towards the rear brake (or close to it) and the bottom of the brake levers is pretty darn close to being in-line with the bottom of the drops. Might just leave it as is. Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

I am really enjoying this bike btw, with its downtube shifters and box-section rims and 23mm tires and skinny levers and all that.