Can you guys post pictures of how you have your anatomical bars set up? Just a side view of the drop bars, and a side view of the bike so I can see how it's angled.

I moved the shimano shifters on my bars and changed the angle of the bars. Now I'm more than comfortable on the hoods, but being in the drops hurts my hands and I feel like I won't be able to sprint out of the saddle as well. I'm guessing that I should probably get new unanatomical bars, but I want to see if I can get these to make do for a bit till I decide what to get.

Thanks!

The drops (the bottom flat part) should be near parallel with the ground or top tube (if it's not a sloping tube). A slight upward tilt (front part of bend higher than drops) is OK and preferred by some.

I have anatomical drops, and they weren't comfortable until I rotated the hoods slightly 'up', so the lower part of the bars slopes down a few degrees. Maybe 3 degrees at most. They didn't work so well when I had a steeper slope.

Hm.

I read that you should rotate them till the ends point to the rear hub.

get some classic bend bars. its hard to get comfortable in anotomic drop bars.

That's what I plan to do in a bit. I need narrower bars. Maybe 40's or 42's. It's going to have to wait for a bit though.

I feel very comfy on the hoods, but my hands feel funny in the drops. I moved the shifters down the bar a bit so I had less reach to the brakes in the drops. If I moved the brakes up and tried to get the hoods flat, I wouldn't be able to touch the brakes in the drops haha.

Is there a chart somewhere that points out the drops, hoods, and whatever else is on a bar? When I ride, I put my hands in 4 different positions depending on how I/they feel. No idea whatsoever what they're called.

Bam! Now there is (and it's really nice!):

Bump.

Can anyone post pictures of their setups please?

Thanks!

Check my sig for the angle of the drops on the aluminum falcon.

I angled it so that the main part of the brake levers were perpendicular to the ground!

Ritchey Pro bars.


Specialized S-Works SL Aero, short drop

Mine are set up pretty similar to Paul's above.

Slight slope from the top to the hoods.

The ham gazer's rule: the longer the ride the less "anatomic" there is in anatomic bars.

i wasn't comfortable with my cinelli classic drops. i normally don't like anatomic dropbars but these ones seems less radical/more classic looking, so i gave them a try. i am way more comfortable now that i did. i ride in the drops a lot and it feels perfect. the hoods are fine, too.

Your hoods aren't flat though right? They're slightly downsloping right?

My anatomic bars are far more comfortable than any 'regular' bar has ever been.

Also, "the ends of the drops pointing towards the back axle"? Way too steep for me. Mine are aiming at my rear brake bridge.

Yeah, I agree that the pointing to the rear axle is really intense, but the comfy spot I found for the hoods involves having my bars jacked to that extreme position. If I set it up so that the hoods are flat-ish in the other position, the bars are pointed so high that there's no flat-ish part of the drops for me to use so the hoods are really comfy but the drops suck...

They're just about flat until the pistol grip area turns up. So the contour will go down slightly onto the hoods, which are almost flat, then up. If that makes sense.
Anyway, I guess it looks a little odd because the back end is a little elevated on the trainer.

I guess the only real issues I was having was numbness on my right hand and too much weight on my hands.
I'm going to see if tilting my seat back a little and moving it back a hair will make a difference.

I have my bars pointing about midway between the rear brake and rear hub. It feels a little funny right now, and I feel weird sprinting out of the saddle without having a flat part parallel to the ground, but I'm going to see if this works out at all. If not, I'll angle the bars to have the drops a little more horizontal and move the shifters so the hoods are close to horizontal. I just think that doing that will make the brake levers a little hard to reach from the drops.

Bleh.

Thanks for the pics so far.

What position are you having the numbness problem in? That might tell you a little.

My entire setup is based on the ability to comfortably reach the upshift lever while sprinting. Maybe that will give you some ideas.
I don't spend a lot of time in the drops, so my need for comfort in that area is limited to a few seconds at a time. Sprinting to close gaps, and over short rollers, etc. Other than that, the closest I get to being in the drops for most of a race is with my hands on the pistol grips and wrists pretty-much flat along the portion that leads to the hoods.

My hands hurt in the drops, and the hoods feel great. I still feel like I'm putting too much weight on my hands.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to point the ends of the bars to the rear brake area and move the shifters so the hoods are flat and see how that feels. The rotation of the bars caused the problem I think.