mjrLV

Are the tops/hood areas of dropbars all the same?

I'm asking because I got my first road bike, have done about 100 miles on it, and my riding style has been: hoods (80%), tops (10%), and hooks/drops (5% each).

Mostly fitness riding/short touring. I have a short enough stem (80mm). Back injury from last year, so I need to stay more upright for a few more months.

I have a dropbar now with a 76mm reach, and I still feel a just a little stretched out. I was thinking a bar with a 70mm reach would help.

The compact dropbars I've been looking at all pretty much look the same - 70mm reach and 125mm drop.

The Cinelli's are $100+, while take-offs from the big brands can be had for ~$20 on ebay. I'm thinking the ebay route.

Am I missing something here? It seems the position or shape of the drops are irrelavant for my style of riding.

LesterOfPuppets

Ramps can vary. If you like them roughly parallel with the ground, some bars' drops will be totally unusable at that setting, mostly seen on some anatomic bends.

caloso

And they can vary depending on the levers you have. Campy doesn't fit like SRAM which doesn't fit like Shimano. The differences are small but real.

mjrLV

Yes, prefer the ramps parallel to the ground.

Using Shimano 105 levers.

rpenmanparker 

Ramps parallel to the ground is so 1980. Modern bars have more usable positions than the old super deep drop bars did. If you rotate a modern bar for the ramps to be parallel to the ground, you will screw up the other positions, especially the hoods and the hooks. Ideal for most people is to mount the levers high enough so that there is a straight line from the tops to the hoods. But you have to be able to flex your wrist to use the levers when in the hooks. It is essentially rocket science.

Caliper

If the ramp is the lower flat part, I preferr that to have a slight slope upwards. Just enough so that my hands rest nearly flat on it but bumps and such will still tend to push my hand forward deeper onto the bar. Too much angle and your hand will tend to slide down and off the end of the bar

From there, adjust brake lever position to the best compromise of flat hoods and good brake lever position. I like to take a few rides without bar tape to tweak the fit first. Good bar position will be comfortable with bare bars and gloves and then the tape is just icing on the cake.

I also really like a bar with some flare to it. Salsa Cowbell on my road bike, Woodchipper on my MTB/Monstercross bike. It fits my hand/wrist much better. The brake levers get angled inward to match the flare and that further improves comfort on the hoods.

Of course, my riding is something like >70% drops, 15% hoods (mostly climbing), 10% ramps, <5% tops.