riderx

Here's mine, not sure how great the picture is to see the setup. Kelly 29er, H-bars.

trackstar10

bullhorns

WoodsterSS

Again I thank all of you for some very considered responses. Mihlbach asked for more info about my ride. At present most of my riding has been offroad on a 2 to 1 rigid single speed using clipless pedals and I can't remember the last time I sat down for anything other than the bit of road that leads to my local trail and an occasional smooth part of the trail. Standing has become my suspension system as well as the only means I have of climbing the big hills on the trail. Since I began desiring the Capo, I started riding my C'dale T2000 touring bike a bit more (also with clipless pedals). Before all the single speeding I rarely got out of the saddle to climb anything, I just used my gears and with touring gears there is nothing you can't climb fully loaded. Recently though I have put it into a 2 to 1 type gear and began using it like a single speed to get the feel. I haven't paid close attention to how I have climbed exactly, but I would never call it mashing--much more rythmic than that and usually using the hoods for support. The hills around the Puget Sound are plenty and big though and when I test rode a Capo with its 17:48 gearing and hit one of the big hills just outside the LBS, I was doing all I could to make those cranks go around. I suppose that means it is too tall a gear and of course that can be changed, but the bars were uncomfortable for me and left me with a feeling of poor control when I was standing. BTW I intend to run the Capo as an SS intially and mostly for shorter training rides.

iridetitus

from what i can see it looks nice. sounds sweet.

you riding it anywhere or staying on somewhat more smooth trails? i ask because i ride everything from smooth, fast singletrack to rocky and rooty singletrack in the mtns to, when the trails are wet, fs roads. some places have very little elevation gain, others are big climbing/descending days. creeks, drops, jumps, etc.

i've got an older 26" mtnbike i wouldn't mind converting. all info gathering and wishful thinking at this point.

mihlbach

Check your seat height and bike setup..you should be sitting down for the most part, unless is is extremely rough or you are clearing obstacles. Sustained power can only be achieved by seated pedaling..there is actually a lot of technique to this that you pick up with time.


Give the drop bars a chance...roadies use them for a reason. They don't handle the same as, say, risers, but you'll get used to them and you begin to learn how to effectively utilize the different hand positions. Also..if you keep it up with SSing, don't give in to the temptation to gear too low, because you will get stronger. I'd say 48:17 is a little high for a starter gear, especially if you have big hills. You might want to drop to 48-18, but eventually you will probably want to go back to 48/17. One gear WILL make you stronger and teach you how to pedal...promise.

riderx

That photo was taken at the 24 Hours of Seven Springs. Most of the course was extremely rocky (western PA/Appalacian Mtns.) with plenty of climbing. If I recall, that fire road the picture was taken on was pretty much the only dirt road type of riding on the course.

Most of what I ride is either rocky or rocky/rooty singletrack and I ride pretty much like you describe above. Long downhills are tougher than technical stuff in my opinion and jumping is a blast, just remember to pedal in the air!

iridetitus

very cool. bike lust, the never-ending feeling...

bfloyd

Profile Design makes their Stoker bullhorn in a 47 cm. It's a zero drop and has the same size diameter throughout the entire bar so clamping on add-ons can be done any place on the bar.

sivat

To the OP, keep in mind that the geometry on a road bike is quite a bit different than a MTB. The shorter stays and steeper st angle will already put you over the pedals more than a MTB will, so comparing the 2 styles isn't really fair. Plus, road bikes make up for the lack of bar width by putting the grip further out over the front axle. I like wide bars, but anything wider than 46cm on a road bike seems excessive to me.

philipw

I like my WTB dirt drops for climbing. Similar to the Midge, but (I think) with more drop, longer ends and a shorter top.
Mine have hoods, and the bars are 2cm higher than the saddle. I like climbing in the drops, even out of the saddle. I'm trying to do more seated climbing (scoot back and really work the big muscles), and I seem to go faster with less sweat and shallower breaths that way.

WTB has reissued these as "Mountain Road" bars. They don't have a matching riser stem, but Dimension makes one that'll work with them.

Philip

loaf

Most bars around here won't let me ride my bike inside, nevermind climb anything.

Retem

bullhorns or moustache bars with their wide position excellent for climbing

WoodsterSS

I appreciate your posts and I have been trying out some seated climbs since your last post and I can go further than I thought (on the road-the trail is pretty rough). Fortunately I still have some time to build up to the 48/17 while I save up for the overpriced Capo. I am certainly not against drop bars--though I have an issue with them on my touring bike. Within 15-30 min. of riding, I start getting intense pain in my right triceps (or somewhere in there) and for the rest of the ride, I am trying to fool around with my hand position to make it go away. So actually I use many hand positions, because I can't stay in one for long. Curiously, I have never felt this on my MTB. My road bars are large, deep drop and I have a significant rise on the quill stem. This is one reason I was considering a radically different drop bar like the midge. When you say I should stick with drops, do you include the midge? Or are you thinking along the lines of the Cinelli Crit posted earlier?

Gyeswho

me lyky bulls cuz of positions. i say tho risers are also good for climbing to. i went from drops to bullhorns to riser back to bulls. the bulls i have really feel nice now that im back but risers are also something to consider if you don't mind a lil numbing of the hands. risers are awesome for steering and control and leverage but on the long hauls they show their flaw. these are some of my transformations
DSC00488.JPG

DSC00486.JPG

DSC00490.JPG
this is the one i have now and i dont think i wanna go back to anything now

August Spies

I really love drops on my roadies...I had been a mad fan of narrow ones, but getting into newer bikes I got really used to the wide bars and the additional ballance/leverage they provide. Since I first build up my fixie with narrow drops (old school ones, where the bottoms are wider than the top bar), but have since switched to 420mm bullhorns because of the added width, and am now totally hooked. It's not just the width, it's the length...there's just more room to grab onto, a good inch or more than I had on my drops, plus those nifty upswing-parts at the end. Probably also comes from hanging onto ultegra/105 STIs for the last while, old-school hoods just aren't all that comfortable.

The one suggestion I might have would be a straight bar or risers with bar-ends. Easiest way I've seen to create wider bullhorns than you'll find elsewhere. There's lots out there that'll set you up in whatever setup you want, might even want 2 pairs, an inner one and an outer one. I rode a 52-17 SS all summer in Vancouver (hilly as frack) and would have died without the bar-ends I scavanged from an abandoned bike.

mihlbach

drop bars simply offer the most hand positions...so in that respect I think they are the best bars to have on there, at last for road riding and relatively smooth offroad situtations. If you are developing arm pain, I suspect you need to consider the setup of your whole bike. Moving to a non-drop bar with less hand options doesn't seem likely to solve your problem. How about experiment with bar height and stem length. As to what style of drops you have?...frankly thats a matter of personal taste and comfort. On the road, I prefer a bar thats 42-44 cm wide with a fairly shallow drop. With deep drops, its too hard to use the drop position effectively. As far as bar width goes...a lot of people think that having a wide bar helps you climb by giving you more leverage. It does give your arm more leverate to swing the bike back and forth...but thats inneficient and doesn't really translate into giving you legs more leverage, although it may make the bike easier to handle when standing. At any rate, with seated climbing, I don't think bar width matters as much because you tend to pull back on the bar, not side to side.

WoodsterSS

Very useful analysis. I believe I will stick with the drops, though I haven't decided whether to go with standard width or midge type width. Either way I think the shallower drops may be better for my purposes. Hopefully I can figure out the arm pain thing. It is very strange as it has only occurred in the last few years (I have had the bike for about 12 years now) and it is only on the right side so it may be due to some specific connective tissue nerve adhesion thing--though I don't recall an injury that would have precipitated it. It least with the threadless steerer on the Capo, it will be easier to experiment with bar height. Maybe I will even get an adjustable stem for awhile to get things dialed. Again thanks for your informative posts.