New purchase angst

[531colin]

In the Dales there are plenty of tracks which more-or-less contour round hills, with lots of places where surface water crosses the track in a peaty depression. To cross these you need to let the front wheel drop down into the peat, and judge the right moment to lift it back up. If you sit on the bike like a sack of spuds you won't do very well in these places, and even skillful riders will eventually find a spot where the front wheel fits the depression exactly and the bike chucks you over the bars and lands on top.
When I was much younger, I used to play a game which involved trying to make as many "perfect" crossings of these peaty depressions as I could in the day, and the "worst" thing I remember happening was when I mis-judged one and hit the bottom with my weight still on the brake hoods and the bars pivoted round a bit.......single pinch bolt on a quill stem in those days, and it wasn't properly tight!

What does all this have to do with this thread?
Well, a couple of posters have mentioned having their hands "jolted off the bars".....and in more than 60 years riding on and off road, I can't remember that happening to me.....ever......not once.
So I must be doing it wrong? I think its important to be in balance on the bike. If you are (for example) propping your torso up on your arms, then crashing through a pothole will put a lot of force through your hands. If you can maintain your position without putting significant weight on the bars I think you will do better on the bumpy stuff.

Incidentally, "doffcocker" doesn't mention anything about his hands being bounced off the bars......but it might be worth trying the bike with one or two spacers above the new high-rise stem, thats quite a big change you made to the bar height.

[Cugel]

..... a couple of posters have mentioned having their hands "jolted off the bars".....and in more than 60 years riding on and off road, I can't remember that happening to me.....ever......not once.
So I must be doing it wrong? I think its important to be in balance on the bike. If you are (for example) propping your torso up on your arms, then crashing through a pothole will put a lot of force through your hands. If you can maintain your position without putting significant weight on the bars I think you will do better on the bumpy stuff.

Yes, you must be doing it wrong.

Alternatively, your suggestion that anyone who's hit summick or other in the road hard enough to have it jolt their hands of the bars is dong it wrong is .... an alternative view. Perhaps those bars aren't necessary at all for "propping up the torso" and we can take them off to leave only the brake and gear graspers?

Cugel, keeping mine on.

[531colin]

Balanced position by 531colin, on Flickr

Its not necessary to set up your bikes so you are propping up your torso on your arms. (that picture has been on here very often)
If you haven't tried it I recommend doing the experiment, to borrow Jonathan's phrase.