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Why do you guys like flat bars instead of drops?

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Singlespeed & Fixed Gear "I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer? We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear!"-- Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 - 16 August 1940)

Why do you guys like flat bars instead of drops?

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Old 05-12-11 | 08:03 AM
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Ride what you like, I have drops, risers, flats and bullhorns on my bikes. They all have their +/-'s.
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Old 05-12-11 | 08:16 AM
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Originally Posted by vw addict
Ride what you like, I have drops, risers, flats and bullhorns on my bikes. They all have their +/-'s.

what are some of the +/-'s to you tho....
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Old 05-12-11 | 08:16 AM
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Originally Posted by rogwilco
It's not just style. In city traffic drop bars are useless, you just don't need to get "aero" and being upright both makes you more visible and easier for yourself to look around. And bullhorns are good for climbing hills. In fact I would even say drop bars are mostly form over function for most people.
FWIW I have road drops on my commuter and love them for city riding. Sure, a lot of the time I'm just upright on the hoods but I love getting down in the drops and powering past cars or slow cyclists. And when I've got a nasty headwind (happens a lot on Chicago) it's nice to not feel like my body is a sail catching the wind.

My SS came with track drops which I don't like so much. Even with the stem flipped, the track drops are just pitched too low and forward. Am planning to switch to bullhorns ASAP.
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Old 05-12-11 | 08:27 AM
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Road drops are great in the city, that's all I ride. I have been meaning to give randos a shot, though, I think the shallow, flared drops might be especially nice.
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Old 05-12-11 | 10:15 AM
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I have homemade Moustache bars on my city bike. Upside-down North Roads with aero levers. Like them a lot.

Very comfortable for cruising, good control, good braking, enough forward reach to get some power in or out of the saddle.
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Old 05-12-11 | 10:18 AM
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Originally Posted by ac921ol
what are some of the +/-'s to you tho....
It's a matter of comfort/control/aero/looks.
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Old 05-12-11 | 10:19 AM
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I have drops on the Road and Cross bikes and risers on the fixed. I like risers on the fixed because it has a pretty steep saddle to bar drop. Having risers helps to negate some of it which saves to my neck.
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Old 05-12-11 | 10:27 AM
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After years commuting on MTBs with flat bars, riding drop-bars felt awkward at first - still is, on that bike, since that first set of bars was simply too wide for me. However, I soon got used to the idea of riding on the hoods and became quite comfortable with them, and a few months later, also started using the drops.

They soon became invaluable to my city-riding: Hard acceleration is so much easier when you're practically standing over the front wheel, and holding onto the hoods allows me to rock my torso back and forth to clear obstacles, or let my body slacken and soak up bumpy roads. With the vibration these roads and sidewalks transmit around here, having more than one position is quite important if you want to rest your palms.

My current bike - fixed-gear - has a small lever for the front brake near the stem, so no "hoods" - but I still have three (three-and-a-half, really) positions: Near the stem, I can utilize the brake and manoeuvre swiftly. Moving my hands to the forward curve allows me to rest the palms a bit, or lean forward for a skid or trackstand. The drops themselves offer two more positions: The regular, arms-parallel-to-the-ground aero position, and because they're quite long and uncut, I can rest on the straight parallel bit - more aerodynamic than upright riding, but not as demanding as the drops.

On my next bike, however, I'll look at bullhorns as an option.
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Old 05-12-11 | 10:42 AM
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i just put risers on my wabi for ****s and giggles.
worst idea evar
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Old 05-12-11 | 10:48 AM
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I don't care for risers/flat bars, they get tiring after a while and I try to do longer (20+) mile rides pretty regularly. I like bullhorns because I feel like they make acceleration from stops a bit easier, which when riding in the city is pretty frequently necessary.

My bike came with road drops, but I didn't ride them for long. I suppose I just didn't like that particular style of bars, but I may try some others in the future.
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Old 05-12-11 | 10:49 AM
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Originally Posted by jdgesus
i just put risers on my wabi for ****s and giggles.
worst idea evar
thats blasphemy.

btw, how do you like the wabi?
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Old 05-12-11 | 10:51 AM
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Originally Posted by 1fluffhead
I have drops on the Road and Cross bikes and risers on the fixed. I like risers on the fixed because it has a pretty steep saddle to bar drop. Having risers helps to negate some of it which saves to my neck.
+1
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Old 05-12-11 | 10:53 AM
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I'm surprised we havent seen a fixed gear with a steering wheel yet
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Old 05-12-11 | 10:55 AM
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I ride risers on my Earl and drops on my roadie (duh). 50% of the time I am in the drops.
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Old 05-12-11 | 11:18 AM
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Originally Posted by nuhtowel
I'm surprised we havent seen a fixed gear with a steering wheel yet
i have. A video re-posted here a long time ago. it was actually a pretty good video if i remember right.
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Old 05-12-11 | 11:23 AM
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Originally Posted by avner
thats blasphemy.

btw, how do you like the wabi?
i know.. LOL
the bike is great! feels like a fixed gear road bike, not a trak bik
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Old 05-12-11 | 12:02 PM
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road drops.
if you don't see the benefit of riding road drops on the road then you must be doing less than 20mph.
i have greater control during cornering in the drops.
i even climb in the drops. when i stand up i can get good leverage from them.
flat/riser bars are for kids trying to bring back flat land who don't actually ride, but instead pop wheelies and bar spin at 5mph.
if you ride flat bars or risers on a track bike, you're a good *****.
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Old 05-12-11 | 12:13 PM
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Originally Posted by x514
i have greater control during cornering in the drops.
i even climb in the drops. when i stand up i can get good leverage from them.
Wowee!

Originally Posted by x514
flat/riser bars are for kids trying to bring back flat land who don't actually ride, but instead pop wheelies and bar spin at 5mph.
if you ride flat bars or risers on a track bike, you're a good *****.
That description of me is spot-on! I've got risers and never ride my bike at all. Well...except for when I'm "popping wheelies and barspinning at 5mph".

Jackass.

Last edited by Scrodzilla; 05-12-11 at 12:51 PM.
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Old 05-12-11 | 12:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Scrodzilla
That description of me is spot-on! I've got risers and never ride my bike at all. Well...except for when I'm "popping wheelies and barspinning at 5mph".
we know. you're site nick named it's frame "rum runner" and you offer as many scene kid styled shirts as you do components.
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Old 05-12-11 | 12:21 PM
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What makes you think I have anything to do with what Pake names their products?

If you read my post on the first page, you'll see that I say how road drops are very functional. I guess instead of having different setups for different types of riding, I should put road drops on all my bikes to make them all the same so I can live outside of your foolish generalizations.

Last edited by Scrodzilla; 05-12-11 at 12:28 PM.
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Old 05-12-11 | 01:04 PM
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Man this place gets worse than most VW forums I'm on...
I bought flats for, to me, what feels like more control when I'm city riding. I do miss the drops when I'm cruising down a super steep hill pedaling against my friends with drops but still prefer the flats for comfort.
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Old 05-12-11 | 01:14 PM
  #47  
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Meh, I love the look of drops, but have bullhorns on my bike. Love the hand positions and they work well for climbing hills for me. Want to try out some risers...
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Old 05-12-11 | 01:35 PM
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Been running drops. Still have the stock bars on the Langster. I tend to spend some time on the bike, so I stick with a bar that has many hand positions. I must say though, the stock Langster bars are going to be replaced. I need a good road bar that offers a bit more than the stockers do. Need a bit more surface area to rest my hands on when I'm on the top bar.
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Old 05-12-11 | 01:37 PM
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I've tried risers, drops and bullhorns...as I've said RB-021 seem to offer almost every hand position I need, the aero I desire and I can climb like a beast on them. Did my first roadie ride in a minute and a homie on an SS was running the same setup. I bounced off half way through to go interrupt another roadie ride with a bunch of fixie kids and my music bike

As for scrodzilla I do believe he is a trick kiddie. I heard he's sponsored by leader
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Old 05-12-11 | 01:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Butthash
What do you mean, YOU GUYS? Are we the spokespeople(apparently all male) of Singlespeed/Fixedgear? A good majority of us don't rock flat-bars anyways.
Nice catch. I guess with the recent passing of Kate Swift I should be even more mindful of gender biased words simply out of respect

@avner I'm totally digging that RB-021

I honestly don't see me ever doing rides longer than 3-5 miles in this urban area. And not feeling slippery when cutting across construction zones and parking garages is a number one priority for me. I guess if I was doing longer rides I might decide to take the time to get used to drops, but so far it looks like bullhorns or similar might be the happy medium I'm looking for.

Originally Posted by nuhtowel
I'm surprised we havent seen a fixed gear with a steering wheel yet
Haha +1

Last edited by willpower101; 05-12-11 at 02:09 PM.
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