I've been riding bikes my whole life, mostly flat bar MTB.
The biggest ride I've done on my gravel bike drop bars is 50 miles.
Most rides I'm doing 20-30 miles tho. After about 25 miles, everything starts to hurt. I've got a weekend warrior 50 mile out, camp, 50 mile back Bikepacking trip coming up in 2 weeks.
My neck, my wrists, my back, my ass…seriously, everything
Even after riding drop bars for 2 years pretty consistently I feel like I've never gotten used to it
I am riding the right sized bike, I tried swapping the OEM saddle for a decent saddle, the Bontrager Aelous Comp. It's comfier and makes my ass hurt less.
I was looking into two things: red shift sports top shelf handlebar vs a riser stem.
I'm basically just trying to make my gravel bike a more upright, less reachy riding position. Wider handlebars and higher handlebars.
What have others done to make their drop bars more comfortable? Do you ever get used to it or will your neck and wrists always hurt on longer rides?
by bringbackbainesy
6 Comments
The first thing I would try would definitely be to get a stem with some rise. What is your current setup?
A riser stem is cheaper to try, but unless you are making your reach longer too, it can be hard to get a short stem with enough rise in it to make a difference. I did put a set of the top shelf bars on a La Cruz cyclocross bike to make it more gravel/touring friendly after having a silly looking riser stem on it for a long time – it is a good option, looks great (a little BMXy even) and was a good way to add meaningful stack without increasing reach.
Get a damn bike fit.
Always the same answer. Don’t chase things without knowledge, just go see a pro and figure out how your body wants to interact with your bike and THEN buy the right parts.
Anything else you do is just guessing and throwing money away.
wider will give the effect of a longer reach. How do you know you are on the right size bike? Most times people are often they aren’t
Neck and wrist can be caused by other things than reach though. If you are used to flat bar mtb positioning, there’s a fair amount to learn about drop/gravel fitting and posture. back could be a function of posture, or of saddle placement, or even insufficient reach. Ass is often saddle.
For example, raising your bars won’t help your ass, it would likely shift more weight to your butt and maybe make things worse.
“Gravel bike” really doesn’t tell much re: fitting as the bike could be anything from a wide tired road bike to a something upright like a fargo.
Fitting bike properly involves a process moving from feet to hands and unless the earlier steps are done right the later ones won’t solve issues.
I’m not saying raising your bars won’t help, just it’s better to do this in an organized fashion. It’s better for you to get your bike as you own it as good as that can be before wildly replacing things
this vid can help explain- provide a start
If the stem is too steep then some stem feed bags will start hanging awkwardly because they’re intended to be on a flatter angle.
If you’re not comfortable, you don’t know if you’re on the right size bike. Fit is lots of things.
A riser stem is quicker and cheaper to try, so maybe try that first. Flip your current stem if it has negative rise. Then try something higher and perhaps shorter.
I ride with the top shelf bars but I tried lots of other things first.