Wow this thread has alot of valid arguments. We have been looking over this thread and deciding what to do.

First thing is first- fitment. Her bike is actually a little big for her. She is riding a 50cm tomasso augusta ninja track bike at the moment. However, her seatpost is all the way down, and her stem is pretty high already. With that said, the drop to seat height is pretty funny and she has to tippy toe to clear over the top tube. We are actually going to pick up a new frame for her- found some great deals on a mercier kilo tt deluxe in a 47cm.

As for the bars, shes going to try out syntace stratos bars as well as mustache bars.

I think her bike being too big is probaby the biggest problem. If it was a bike that fit then she might not be resting so much weight on her wrists.

I still say she needs a bar with good amount of rise to it. Moving your hands around really do not help much when you have pain from carpal tunnel. Getting your hands in the right position and height even if they stay there seems to help the most for me.

Riding in the drops represents a mechanically inefficient body organization.

Track and time trial riders who ride over known distances and for whom aerodynamics matters more than mechanical efficiency work very hard to overcome the inelegance of this position.

Successful riders in this position have unique hip muscle development that an observer can easily see.

For riding on the street, a rider interested in maximizing his or her performance should ride in a more upright position.

This will also have the effect of taking weight off the hands and wrists.

In order to find the correct torso angle for you, on the street, consider the following methodology:

1. sit barefoot in a hard chair on a hard floor.

2. move your sit bones as far forward on the chair as comfortably possible.

3. place your heels as far back as you comfortably can with your feet flat on the floor.

4. with your hands lightly closed, thumbs up, reach forward as if for bullhorns or horns, and begin to slowly stand up...very slowly.

5. At the very moment your bottom breaks contact with the chair, note the angle of your torso and the placement of your hands in front of you.

6. If you adjust your saddle and handle bar to match this positon (with hands on horns), you will note that the adjustment places your handlebars level-with to one inch below the nose of your perfectly level saddle.

7. Adjust your saddle fore and aft in accordance with knee over pedal guidelines, and adjust your saddle height so that you have a slight bend in your knee with your heel fully dropped at the six o'clock positon.

8. Adjust your handlebar height by raising and lowering your stem on your steering tube, and move your handlebar fore and aft by experimenting with different length stems (borrow them from your lbs and then buy a stem from him when you find the right length).

9. Adjust the tilt of your horns, not for fashion, but to give your self a perfectly straight wrist (you can find your straight wriist by looking at your hand with your fingers together and straight in line with your forearm; and, as a result of a straight wrist, your horns may tilt up a little...the homeless look).

10. When properly adjusted, you will find yourself able to briefly lift your hands off your horns with little effort or discomfort, while maintaining your torso angle.

11. Road racers ride with a torso angle very close to this when they have their hands on the horns.

12. If you can't briefly lift your hands off the horns while pedaling, you have too much weight on your hands, and too acute a hip/thigh angle for maximum efficiency and power.

If you ride in a track or time trial position on the street, you may look cool, but you do yourself no favors in terms of comfort, control, acceleration and speed.

/thread

Crusier bars! (:

The Syntace bars would be a great choice... if you get the rest of it worked out, too. If the frame's too big, you'll more than likely need a shorter stem to go along with the bars, also one that will get the bars level with the seat at the handlebar clamp on the stem. That will put the bars where Cox suggests. Use interruptor levers close to the stem rather than TT style bar end brakes.

Or sell it now and start with a bike that fits her better to begin with...

A frame with a TT that is that big on her will not fit regardless of the stem length. The saddle will probably be shifted forward as well, which will put a lot of weight on her forearms.