how do y'all hold them?
i set mine up to hold them like in the first pic where the weld is (mine are chinese carbon knock off but still). the bend in the drops make me think the second pic is the right way to hold them. never properly tried to set them up that way.
the one benefit i can think of to trying the second position is road chatter dampening. it's further away from the stem and from the weld, meaning bigger lever moment and more flex, meaning more dampening.
what do y'all think?
by SoberSamuel
7 Comments
Hold em how ever many ways you want. Thats the point of them.
There’s multiple ways to skin this cat.
Less thinking. More riding. equals ideal position finding.
As the other comments say you can position your hands all over the bars, that’s the idea behind them. You can even use the horns in an ascent or however you like it.
I would place the brakes lower on the horns, right by the “weld” so you can grab them easier from the first position in your pictures. If you have a gear selector on the drive side of the bars it should come from below, on the other side of the joint by the top of the drops, right where you put your hand (just add some spongy stuff and redo the tape). You can even tape the horns (and some people have even put extenders) so they are nicer to hold on to.
Cheers!
Nice bell end!
It affects body position too. All the way forward and I am in a more road bike position. All the way back and I’m sitting more upright like a cruiser.
I’ve had mine for several years and here’s what works for me. I am not sure what the difference between the original and imitation is, but hopefully this will help…
Before anything else, make sure your bar is a comfortable width. I started with the 54 and didn’t like it as much. I currently run the 46.
Set the height of the bar so that the grip area near the weld is at or slightly below where your drops would normally be on a flat bar. Once at that height, rotate the bar in the stem so that your wrists are at a neutral position.
Set the stem length so that you’re comfortable gripping the area near the weld.
Set the brake lever closer to the weld. This enables you some flexibility to grab the lever at various points. If you have a shifter, the i-spec or similar types that mount to the brake lever are a lot easier to set up.
Angle the brake lever so that your wrist is neutral. If you find they’re more comfortable when they’re pointing outward, you may want a narrower bar. Inward may mean better off with a wider bar. Note that stem length affects this a lot, so if the bar feels too wide, shorter stem may help. Experiment
Put extra padding on the entire drop area and especially near the weld, it’s much more comfortable.
Install some thumb grips above the brake lever. It gives another hand position that sort of mimics the drops. Just nice to have options.
Hope this helps. Keep tinkering and you’ll find what works best for you.