This is excellent advice. On Mon, Sep 8, 2025 at 3:35 PM Elisabeth Sherwood < [email protected]> wrote:
> … I encourage you to, as you’re riding, trying to imagine where your hands > *would like to be*. If you're riding along, and your back is at an angle > that you're comfortable at, where would your hands be if you just let your > arms extend gently out at about an 80-degree angle from your torso? Would > they be higher? Lower? Closer? Further? > > And, if you can identify that spot, what would it take to get the > handlebars into that position? A different stem? A different handlebar? > A different stem/handlebar combination? > On Mon, Sep 8, 2025 at 3:35 PM Elisabeth Sherwood < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Jamie, > > As with so many other things, unfortunately the answer is "it depends"! > > I think Will's advice re. type of bars and how to set them up is spot on. > I find modern shallow-drop, relatively-short-reach handlebars to be > enormously comfortable, and the best way to set up brake levers is to have > them "coming out" of the top of the bars pretty evenly -- the continuous > surface that Will mentioned. (Note that modern bars are really so > different from bars from even 15 years ago. And bars from 25-30-40 years > ago, with brake levers placed kind of on the middle of the drop portion of > the bars? I have no idea how anyone got comfortable on them!) > > The rest really depends on the source of your discomfort. If your bike is > actually appropriate for drop bars (and it seems that most "modern" > Rivendells are not), try to identify what's going on... Are you > uncomfortable because there is too much pressure on your hands? In my > experience maybe 15% of the time it's because the bars are too low, and > you're falling "onto" the bars. But I find that probably 80% of the time > (and this being a Riv forum I'll probably get lectured about this) it's > because the bars are too high, and what you're actually feeling is pressure > coming from the handlebars onto your hands/shoulders/neck, and/or too far > (in which case, while you're not falling onto the bars, you've got your > body weight falling forward in a way that you can't relieve through your > core or through your leg strength as you pedal). > > I encourage you to, as you're riding, trying to imagine where your hands > *would like to be*. If you're riding along, and your back is at an angle > that you're comfortable at, where would your hands be if you just let your > arms extend gently out at about an 80-degree angle from your torso? Would > they be higher? Lower? Closer? Further? > > And, if you can identify that spot, what would it take to get the > handlebars into that position? A different stem? A different handlebar? > A different stem/handlebar combination? > > Oh, also, handlebar positions depends a lot on body geometry. Pro racers > whose handlebars are so very low compared to their saddles? Their back > angles on the bike are not really all that different from most moderately > serious recreational riders. But they tend to have really long limbs, so > their bikes are set up in ways that mere mortals could never contemplate. > For those of us with *relatively* short arms, we'll need the handlebars > higher and closer than those with relatively longer arms. > > (How do you know if you have relatively short or long arms? When I sit on > the ground with my legs straight out and my back perpendicular, I can't > actually touch the ground with my palms. I know people that sit the same > way and their arms are bent at like a 120-degree angle. Even if we're the > same height, our handlebars will need to be set up completely differently > in order for us to be comfortable.) > > No idea if that helps... Good luck! > > Elisabeth Sherwood > Washington, DC > > > > On Monday, September 8, 2025 at 12:28:42 PM UTC-4 Jamie D. wrote: > >> I keep trying drop bars in various forms and fashions and can never seem >> to get comfortable. Obviously this is subjective but in your experience is >> higher bars with shorter reach the most comfortable? Is there a >> 'goldilocks' zone? 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