Transition from drop to flat bar tourers

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
resus1uk
Posts: 294
Joined: 12 Mar 2007, 9:28am

Re: Transition from drop to flat bar tourers

Post by resus1uk »

In old age, all my fleet of trikes & bikes now have North Road bars. I have experimented with butterfly bars, straights with bar ends. Never got on with drops, preferring a more upright position.
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RickH
Posts: 5832
Joined: 5 Mar 2012, 6:39pm
Location: Horwich, Lancs.

Re: Transition from drop to flat bar tourers

Post by RickH »

Greystoke wrote: 4 Apr 2021, 12:59pm As detailed up post I modified my flat bars because they were uncomfortable.
I fitted drops and a short stem. I never use the full drop position so I could fit bull horn bars but the drop bars provide me sufficient hand positions and are very comfortable

As has been suggested, try a shorter stem, lift the handle bars and rotate them a bit so the hoods are nearer.
With drops there are, these days, numerous permutations of reach & amount of drop, as well as multiple variations of overall shape.

On an older bike I found it much improved when I swapped a more tradional dimensioned drop bar for a short reach, compact drop one (FSA Vero) combined with a 10mm longer stem. The hoods & drops were closer but the tops were slightly further away, all of which suited me personally.

I've gone the other way to the OP & now have all drop bar bikes - tandem was flat bar (converted using drop bar shaped bar ends), old MTB (1986 no suspension) was (effectively) swapped for a gravel bike (which has ended up supplanting the road bike as well in practice to become "the bike").
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
cycle tramp
Posts: 3531
Joined: 5 Aug 2009, 7:22pm

Re: Transition from drop to flat bar tourers

Post by cycle tramp »

resus1uk wrote: 5 Apr 2021, 9:59pm In old age, all my fleet of trikes & bikes now have North Road bars. I have experimented with butterfly bars, straights with bar ends. Never got on with drops, preferring a more upright position.
Cool! I've always had a soft spot for north road 'bars, I used them for the first few years of touring, and I hope to fit my next bike with them- do you have any photos?
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goosegog
Posts: 43
Joined: 3 Mar 2009, 3:30pm

Re: Transition from drop to flat bar tourers

Post by goosegog »

I have a Cube pedelec trekking bike . It came with straight bars these only offer one position and found my shoulders ached so changed to butterflies which offered multi positions.
Q3 The Cube bike is well made I went through the various specs I picked a basic spec knowing I could upgrade the bike at a cheaper price. It has hydraulic brakes which are self-adjusting .The pads can be changed without bleeding. At first I made the mistake of opening the system and had to bleed them (the internet has plenty of advice to bleed without using expensive bleeding kit)
Also Cube offer a fixed rear rack there no rails for standard panniers. there are special Cube panniers that fit.
On the forum there is a post about removing a welded fixed rack and fitting a better rack.
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