Hello,

I'm just curious, what is the recommended angle to have drop handlebars at or if there is no recommendation what sort of angle do you have yours set at?

At the moment I have mine just about level with the hoods pointing up. This i find comfortable when on the hoods but not so easy to use the breaks when on the drops. Should the bars be angles down more?

No recommended angle. Just whatever is comfortable for you. Hard to tell exactly what you are trying to describe without a picture, but you could possibly move the shifters down on the bar to get a better reach to the brakes when in the drops.

Whatever feels best, and for whatever position you in which usually have your hands. That's the simple answer. Riders who ride on the hoods a lot will probably have theirs set differently than riders who use the drops a lot -- or maybe not.

If you're having trouble reaching the brakes while in the drops, you might simply be expecting the wrong thing from the position you're using. When your hands are more, I guess, "straight down", and near the ends of the tubing, the expectation is that you're just cruising quickly, and not necessarily descending or sprinting for top speed -- so it's not a priority to have the brake levers at your fingertips. But if you crouch a little lower, get that flat back, and reach your hands deeper into the handlebar's hooks, you should be able to brake and shift quite easily -- which is more of what you need when you're really cranking.

When you really want to get into handlebar positioning, take off the bartape and ride around for a while with a wrench or two in your pocket -- one to adjust the bar and the other to adjust the placement of the shifters. Experiment with that until you find a combination that you like, then tape up the bars again.

no hard-and-fast rule.

Here's my CAAD9:


My CG1:

I will be interested to see the answers to this post. Looking at the posted bikes, you will see a variety of styles and angles. I spend about 50% of my riding in the drops. So, when setting up bars, I use the drops as my base from which to make adjustments. For me, the best is with the drops (both classic and ergo) parallel or almost parallel to the ground. This requires me to move the brifters/brake levers down the bar a bit, so I don't get that long, flat top bar that incorporates the hoods. Even so, the hoods are comfortable, even with a bit more reach. Let's see what the cool kids say.

I ride classic drops and find that I'm most comfortable with the drops rotated back about 5 deg from parallel. Any more than that and it makes it hard to get deep into the hooks.