Going Fast with Swept Bars

[Jay]

I realize this is a silly question in a way, but hear me out.

For those who have switched from drops to swept bars, did you find it hard keeping the same speed as before (without more effort)?  Did your upper body change in such a way that it was harder to keep pace into a headwind, or to get the leverage you maybe had with the drop bars?

I have drop bars on my Roadini.  I've been having one-and-off hand issues.  Seeing an Osteopath and making progress.   I was thinking of trying swept bars with this bike.  I have some Albatross bars and VO Granola Bars on hand.

I ride this bike with a friend who is much faster than me.  He slows down to make it a nice ride, conversational pace, I push to keep up, but in a good way.  No complaints.  My drop bars are close to level with the saddle, and my back angle is 70ish if I had to guess.  I don't want to use swept bars that put me more upright, I just want my arms/wrists/hands in a more comfortable position.  I like the Jones bars I have on another bike, the 45 degree angle tucks my shoulders back naturally.  Completely different bike but I feel fast enough with those bars on that bike.

Just tossing this out there before I go down another rabbit hole!

[Bernard Duhon]

Albatross are my favorite on 3 bikes.

I started out by turning them upside down to give it a mustache look. 

It worked great and was the next "best " to drop bars.

Looks sharp also.

Then a back injury and I turned em right side up.

Still good 

They aren't as "fast " as my drops even tho my drops are 2" above the seat.  

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

 

 

 

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From: rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jay <jason....@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 1, 2026 6:31 PM
To: RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [RBW] Going Fast with Swept Bars

 

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[Patrick Moore]

This isn't a silly question at all. You want non-drop replacement bars that keep more or less the same saddle-to-bar relationship, and you don't want a much higher bar in relation to the saddle; you only concern is different, and better, hand positions for the sake of hand comfort.

I'm interested in what this thread brings up. I have the opposite problem: my hands aren't really comfortable except with drop bars; this after 4 decades of trying alt bars. But I've tried the Moustache bar on five or six bikes because in many ways it seems to be the best bar for a relatively aggressive riding posture that gives good control on rough and twisty surfaces; I've not yet found a way to make it comfortable for my left palm for more than a couple of miles.

This observation relates to bar height and thus to relative saddle-to-bar position, but I recently rode an extended hilly route on my Matthews dirt road drop bar bike with bar about level with saddle accompanied by two friends on bikes with upright bars; one friend in particular had an Albatross or somesuch a good 6" or so above saddle. I noticed repeatedly that going downhill behind them on the hoods I had to repeatedly brake to avoid overrunning them; when I sat bolt upright I slowed down to their speed. 

I'd be interested to learn of a bar and related bar setup that would give me the following positions: (1) sufficient hip angle at cruising speeds to generate sufficient torque on hills for my low-cadence "mashing" pedaling style; (2) a comfortable (for back and hands) position for flatland cruising; (3) a comfortable low-back downhill position; (4) good control on rutted and rocky dirt.

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[Jonathan Carmack]

I really like the choco bars upside down, if you wish to lean back and get that good wrist angle perfect for that, more tucked in? The bars have perfect placement for that as well.

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[J G]

While swept back bars will not give the aero of a drop bar, I have found that bars with a Jones sweep (45 degrees) or similar (like the Nitto Forest Ambler), are the best balance of performance and handling for my needs, which is everything except catching big air.  I use this bar type for anything not drop for city, gravel and endurance MTB.  40-45 sweep, Ergon grips and a saddle setback that allows me to float my hands on my bars without heavily engaging my core for the win, every time.  Aggressive but balanced and comfortable.  I do run my bars pretty level with saddle.  YMMV.

-Justus

Mpls, MN 

[aeroperf]

After straight bars on a hybrid for years, where my hands would go numb, I went over to the Albatross bars on my Sam.  They’re great.
But for my touring bike I use Soma Osprey bars, slightly swept, cut down a couple of centimeters, with Ergon biokork grips.  This set up works for me mile after mile.

[Jay]

I looked up the Soma Osprey bars...

I have the Jones bars, sometimes feel like I want a little less sweep, Soma bars are 40 degrees, nice.  And minimal rise (13mm).  I found some in Silver and they have been ordered.  It will be interesting trying them on my Roadini!  I'll report back here (need a few other things first, so it may be a while).

Thanks all

[Touriste-Routier]

I've been using Albatross style bars for >25 years due to a neck injury.  

To answer your question, yes, at a given effort, speed has been noticeably reduced.  Not only do I sit higher (which was required to accommodate my injury), but the bars are significantly wider than the 40cm drop bars I used prior, which probably creates additional resistance.

In addition to this, the whole way how I sit on the bike was altered, which not only changed the biomechanics, but also the handling of the bike due to change of weight distribution (shifts it more to the rear), and raising the center of gravity.  I adapted to this overtime, but I definitely corner and descend slower, and sprinting is quite difficult.  Nonetheless I was still able to enter some actual road races, and perform reasonably well, albeit at a huge disadvantage.  

But without the upright bars, I wouldn't be able to ride at all.

Brian Ignatin
Pineville, PA  USA

[Jason Noonievut]

Thanks, Brian, that’s a really good summary and logical perspective.  

On Nov 4, 2026, at 7:41 AM, Touriste-Routier <touriste...@gmail.com> wrote:

I've been using Albatross style bars for >25 years due to a neck injury.  

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[Will Boericke]

I might try an in-between - an aggressively flared drop bar, mounted higher and with less reach.  That would give you a wider, different hand placement (in the drops), and put less weight on your hands, without giving up the drops.  I personally don't get along with any bars other than drops on bikes that go fast at all.

[Jason Noonievut]

That’s next on my list, radically different drop bar (vs my whisky 12 flair).  That said, this bar is already short reach, and the hoods are 40cm, and in going wider, I thought that extends the reach.  This is why I haven’t tried them yet, but I may still go down that path in the future.

Thanks!

Jason

On Nov 5, 2026, at 7:49 AM, Will Boericke <wboe...@gmail.com> wrote:

I might try an in-between - an aggressively flared drop bar, mounted higher and with less reach.  That would give you a wider, different hand placement (in the drops), and put less weight on your hands, without giving up the drops.  I personally don't get along with any bars other than drops on bikes that go fast at all.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/af1577eb-246c-4ec0-9a7e-659000afdf84n%40googlegroups.com.

[Spencer Robinson]

I have a cost effective solution that allows you to use the components from your old drop bar setup. I was in the upside down albatross camp till I got a Ritchey Comp Beacon Bar from analog cycles. It is the best of both worlds. In the drops, it puts me exactly like upside down albatross, I can come up and be on the hoods and I can hang on the top. I have the top of the bar about an inch above the saddle and I am using a short stem…it is VERY comfortable for a 67 year old guy (everything hurts) 
The Ritchey bar is not expensive, the cost was replacing the stem

On Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 7:31:27 PM UTC-5 Jay wrote:

[J G]

Sounds like a dirt drop setup.  I have long been a champion of properly setup dirt drops, meaning the drops are pretty high and absolutely the primary position.  

Woodchippers have long been my preferred dirt drop setup and offer great control, front to back movement with the long ramps and allow for an open grip in the hooks, which aligns to your thoughts of less weight on hands and wrists, which I am very sensitive to.  If you can get the drops high enough to where you are comfortable (I tend to need LD stems) with drops as primary, it can be a great setup.  There are probably other bars these days with similar outsweep and flare but less drop as well.

[Garth]

The current Ritchey drop bars are some of the best designs around. I ride the Skylines which are 31.8mm all the way to where the tape starts, then it's still large diameter but ovalized and swept back 4.5 degrees with a groove for the cables. For XL hands they are a dream to ride becasue I can have my hands anywhere from hood to hood across the top of the bars and have the same fat grip. The drops are flared 5 degree. Next widest is the Butano at 18 degree sweep. 

Ritchey gives detail specs with multiple perspective drawings of the bars.

 

https://ritcheylogic.com/bike/handlebars/comp-skyline-handlebar

https://ritcheylogic.com/bike/handlebars/comp-butano-internal-routing-handlebar

All that said, bars are no substitute for a proper bike fit and active core strength. By proper I mean what works for you, and that is only known by experimenting with different positions and riding it for a good while. Everything matters, from saddle fore-aft, to crank length, shoes, pedals and where you place the feet on those pedals. Then the bars and stem and height of it all. A inactive/lazy core though can make it seem like something doesn't work, when it will, but the inactive/lazy core make it seem like it doesn't because the body weight isn't supported from the core. Resorting to riding swept back bars doesn't fix an inactive core, it just confirms and goes along with its inactivity. Like a pot calling a kettle black. Well no kidding, Sherlock ! 

[Jason Fuller]

Apologies if this was covered already, and it's a bit too obvious, but before swapping bars, have you tried raising them up as much as you can first?  My thought is if you can get the ramps / hoods up to a very hand-friendly position, you can still reserve the drops for headwinds and pushing a little harder on climbs where a short period in a less 'ergonomic' position is OK; the extra power through the legs tends to lift your upper body off your hands in this case anyway.  Also worth considering a shorter stem which can help get weight off your hands, if it works OK with your biodynamic fit. 

[Jay]

Good point about core strength, Garth.  I've done workouts off-and-on, but in the last month I've been better at doing them.  Some I do 4-5x a week.  That takes a while to build though, and maintain, so I do have work to do there.

Jason - I actually raised my cars 2cm a week ago.  So far so good, including 25km on trails this morning (with Snoqualmie pass tires, which was fun, they did better than I thought).  I would raise them higher, but this seems right.

I do think I've figured out where the pain is coming from; Jason, you said "extra power through the legs tends to lift your upper body off your hands", well in my case, how about due to fatigue/exhaustion, virtually no power through the legs, you know what that does, puts all the weight on your upper body/hands.  And no amount of core strength can support you on a 2hr+ ride when from the first pedal strokes, your gas tank is empty.  I can't say exactly why this has been the trend as of late, but I do believe it's why I'm getting pain.  That pain would happen in the past, on occasion, now it's more frequent.  More fatigued/stressed/exhausted/less sleep as of late, for a bunch of reasons.  It's a rut, I'm sure I'll work my way out of it :-)