Road Bike Drop Bars Position

The bend creates two distinct hand positions in the drops and with an 86mm reach and 142mm drop they create an aggressive position on the bike.

Road bike drop bars position. The standard position to brake from should be the hoods and if that s hard to do then something is wrong. The bend of your drops affects your grip on the bar as well as your body position. View of the front wheel axle over the bars. The bars slope upwards on either side of the stem clamp area before levelling out.

A deep drop will put you in an aero stance but too much drop can make it hard to keep your head up. Most road bikes use drop bars while most mountain bikes use flat bars. Triathletes use the odd looking but very effective aerobar. In the hoods or drops you can tuck your elbows in and reduce your body s frontal area.

All the positions should be comfortable when the bars are set up correctly. In the picture up is the front side of the bike. Sit on the bike hold the bars in the drops with hands slightly bent at the elbows. The whole point of drop bars is the drop bar specific positions not the tops.

Given you don t move that fast on a touring bike this feature is most useful for whenever you re riding into headwinds. What you choose depends on the type of bike you ride and how you ride it. The tops of most drop bars sit level with the stem clamp but riser drop bars do exist. There s an aero advantage to fitting drop bars to your bike.

But in between there are wide deviations. This post explains what kinds of road bicycle drop bar hand positions exist. Whereas on my road bike i have a little bit of a flatter position. But generally if you re sitting up a little more and you re reaching down into your drops you choose the 80mm bar according.

This enables easy transition during riding for more comfort more control. Commuters for example tend to like riser bars.