Cycling UK Forum

I spent £140 at the weekend on a bicycle fitting, as after all, I cycle a lot and better to get it out of the way now so I can benefit later.

Anyway, the big thing to come out of this was that apparently my handlebars on my Dawes tourer were angled too far down. To date, I have always cycled with my hands on the drops but apparently it's normal to ride with hands on top of the bars!

The bike fitter rotated my handlebars up and moved the brake levers up the drops. But now, when I have my hands on the drops, I can barely reach the brakes with my fingers, and when I cycle with my hands on top of the bars, I get very little leverage and my braking ability is massively reduced.

As anyone cycling in London knows, you need really good brakes! Please see photo here showing the pivot of the brakes (green) and the amount of leverage I get depending on where I have my hands.



What is going wrong here? Any help appreciated.

Ive always found the same. It makes sense really ~ you can apply much more force on a squeeze from the drops than the hoods because fingers are staying more or less equidistant to the pivot rather than moving in more of a radial motion and trying to compress the lever along its length.

Ive found that if you use more of a pivoting motion, pushing back, with fingers as far down the lever as you can, rather than squeezing, it will create more force. Also, some brake levers have a better shape for using from the hoods, like the teckros ive just fitted.

The shape of your bars do not help. They are the modern shallow drop compact bars with an ergo shape. This means it is a long way from the drops to the brake lever. Also there is very little curve to the lever. Any one of these would probably not cause you a problem, but all conditions combined to make life awkward for you.

Also, the comparatively modern idea that brakes have to contact the rim after only a very small lever movement means you cannot exert much pressure from the hoods. I like a lot of lever movement so that my fingers wrap around the curve of the lever (all my levers are much more shapely than the ones shown) and I can brake hard enough from the hoods that I can easily lock up all wheels should I be silly enough to chose to do so. I brake from the drops less than 1% of the time - much less in fact.

Like your bike fitter, I find it odd that modern riders seem to think they have to ride the drops all the time, and often with their arms straight. Perhaps this is aided by having such shallow bars.

To help fix the problem - use more rounded bars, or - I believe that Shimano (I am not a Shimano user) have shims that can bring the blade of the brake lever nearer to the bars.

Go back to the fitter, those I know of offer follow ups. Hopefully next time they'll fit it according to your preferences rather than whatever they think the norm, it isn't common to see people on the drops all the time, but it isn't unheard of either.

Are you going to go back to the shop? Part of the fitting should be whether or not you can still brake effectively. How is the fit otherwise? Did they change much else?

Do them yourself. Seriously. It's like getting the temperature of bath water just as you want it. Ten minutes with an allen key, short ride to make sure it is as you like it.

I agree with the premise that most riders brake from the tops most of the time. You should be able to get powerful braking from there (and, obviously, from the drops). I also agree that the shape of your bars is a factor; if your hands are significantly below the middle of the bend, they will quickly get further from the levers.

However, those levers look well placed on the bar to me. A factor in doing that is getting a decent, fairly horizontal, top surface for riding with hands on top, gripping the levers, which as above is a typical position.

I'd look first to leave the levers where they are and adjust the reach. I think tatanab is right in the spirit of what he's saying; your hands are at their most powerful when your fingers are approaching, but not at, 90 degrees of bend. Try squeezing fingers on the other hand to test that; for many people, four fingers will be a stretch, and one or two will mean curling your fingers quite a lot. Therefore, you'll be able to "hurt" yourself more (masochism or what!) if it's three fingers you are squeezing.

So, you want your brake pads gripping the rims (or discs or whatever) when your fingers are at that point - then the brakes, which are inanimate things that can't get more or less powerful by themselves, will suddenly seem more powerful.

That, and not how close the pads are to the rims when the brakes are off, is what matters.

pwa wrote:Do them yourself. Seriously. It's like getting the temperature of bath water just as you want it. Ten minutes with an allen key, short ride to make sure it is as you like it.

And use a felt-tip to mark the position when you've got it right.

I had STIs on handlebars that shape, and I found exactly the same thing as you.

I could have them so they were fine from the drops, and I could make them into a position to make them work fine from the hoods. I found that I couldn't have both.

Best thing I did was to sell the handlebars and buy rounder ones.

When I first got my road bike, I had some trouble with this. I rotated my bars a bit up from horizontal, which helped a bit, and improved alot with practice. It's now my normal riding position, and I find it very comfortable.

I have to admit that I don't quite get as much braking power on the tops as the drops, but I get 80% of it. In an emergency, I'd use the drops.

On my tourer, I have cross levers, and I quite like those. I might add them to my road bike.

I never, ever use the drops on my bike but cannot abide straight bars .. so the drop lowers never see my hands, i ride on the hoods and the inner upper bar sections only ...... am i alone in this ......

I don't understand how a rounder bar is going to help. Surely if you are braking from the hood, the leverage - the red line in the OP - is not going to change in relation to the pivot point?

LollyKat wrote:I don't understand how a rounder bar is going to help.

It would help with braking from the drops by bringing the hand closer to the lever blade. This is a problem the OP has at present

landsurfer wrote:I never, ever use the drops on my bike but cannot abide straight bars .. so the drop lowers never see my hands, i ride on the hoods and the inner upper bar sections only ...... am i alone in this ......

I use the drops when "getting down to it" into headwind perhaps, so considerably less than 1% of my riding.

No, the pivot will be the same, but the handlebar above and below it will be different.

Personally, I don't like the STI shape and the pivot point, and I have big hands. I found them very inefficient.

I have a thread on here somewhere about my issue with STIs. I didn't get much sympathy or agreement ............ Here's the photo from it.

I agree with Si's comment upthread; the muscles used and action required are completely different between braking on the drops and on the tops. If you are not used to the latter then give it a chance, taking note of the different action required (it is certainly not 'a squeeze' per se) you may get used to it.

cheers