Hand numbness, Noodle bar drops, and Riv geometry

[Galen Gruman]

(tl;dr? Just to the bottom for the questions.)

I've been experiencing numbness in my outside fingers on my 61cm Roadini with 54cm Noodle bars on an 8cm Tallux stem. Particularly after 30 or so miles of on-road riding. It's become clear that most of the numbness comes from gripping the bottom curve of the drops so I can keep my index fingers on the brakes when riding curvy roads, downhill, and in areas with traffic and driveways/intersections where quick brake access is needed. I get much less numbness when I'm riding the flats of the drops near the bar end, and that numbness is not focused on the outside fingers. 

I ride the drops nearly exclusively; I find the tops give me less control and the hoods feel too far away. Back in the 1990s, I routinely rode my Nishiki's tops with safety brakes, but I've never liked riding so far forward as to favor the hoods. That hasn't changed now that I'm riding a road bike again. I rode a 58cm Trek Domane last fall for a month and found that riding the hoods was uncomfortable and quick to numb my hands, and the whole far-forward geometry made me feel unstable and the 44cm handlebars reduced my range of motion. (I have wide shoulders, and so I previously rode an XL Trek FX3 hybrid for the width and stability; the L size that the Trek bike shop recommended was again too small.) 

Riding the wide drops on the Roadini and reaching the brakes from the drops not the hoods took care of all that.

Still, with the hand numbness on longer Roadini rides, I thought maybe I should get gloves with greater padding than my current ones, especially as I am riding longer distances (I've done a couple metric centuries and a true century planned for summer). When I went to the LBS to check out the Specialized Body Geometry Dual Pad gloves, they suggested I get a quick fit check in case the issue was about fit not gloves.

The bike fitter absolutely hated the Roadini: too big, too wide, quill stems are bad, handlebar not ergonomic, and I shouldn't be riding the drops routinely. I know from test-riding a buddy's 57cm Roadini and from my month on the 58cm Domane that my 61cm Roadini is not too big. Yes, the reach to the hoods is further than on the Domane, but it's fine to the tops and drops, where I ride. I had seen the Riv posts about their thoughts on handlebar width and geometry being so different from the major manufacturers, but I didn't get how diametrically opposed they are until the bike fitter's clear disgust. Wow!

Anyhow, the Roadini is an incredibly comfortable bike, and I can go a good pace on the road and feel fully stable on turns and stops, unlike with the Domane. 

Still, I wonder two things, and would live to get people's comments:

• What are your thoughts on reducing or preventing hand numbness, especially in my riding position of my hand at the base of the curve with my index finger on the brake levers ("trigger finger" position) That bike fitter thought the resulting hand angle was causing undue pressure, but I can figure out any adjustment to address that.
  
• Should I be trying to find a way to ride the tops more? (That is, how concerning is it that I am so drops-oriented?)

Thanks!

[Dan]

I’ve seen a few people around my area with grips on the drops on their gravel bikes. Like, ones that flare out and offer an ergonomic position kind of like Ergon grips on a flat bar. Each time was on a bike that gets ridden a lot. Could be worth looking in to?

[Guy Jett]

I had this problem years ago and it is easily solved.  

Take a look at the base of your hand near where it meets your wrist.  Between the muscle supporting your thumb and the "muscle" supporting your pinkie is a slight "dip" in the center.  The main nerve to your fingers runs through this area.  Putting pressure here will numb them starting with the pinkie.  It can also do long term damage! It also seems to be a "logical" place to put your hand on the handlebars. 

This problem went way once I trained myself to rotate my hand position slightly to move the pressure to the base of the thumb. 

It took awhile but this slight shift now feels natural. Anyone experiencing similar numbness should do this as well and -- problem solved. 

GAJett

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Guy

[Patrick Moore]

I’d guess that if your reach to the hoods, the usual cruising position on drop bars, at least on road bikes, is too long, then you need to adjust your bike setup. And the numb palms in the hooks might also indicate poor setup.

I have a very sensitive left palm (which is uncomfortable except on a drop bar after a few miles) but even with this, I can ride my bikes comfortably without gloves for 40 miles, and, I daresay, this would also be true for 50, mostly I ride mostly on the hoods, tho' often in the hooks and somtimes on the ramps; I rarely use the flats, as my bars are narrow. I do have a pair of gloves but I keep forgetting to put them on for longer rides. I use various kinds of bar tape, choosing it more for feel and grip on bare palms than for thick cushioning.

I’ve always found that if you get the saddle in the right place, and this in particular: if it has enough setback to make your torso muscles support the weight of your torso, there is the least weight on your shoulders, arms, and hands; this even with bar top below saddle (mine are 2-3 cm below saddle). Tilt is also important for keeping pressure off your arms and hands; very much so on leather saddles, IME.

Once the saddle is setup up, I get my bar and hoods where I comfortabley “fall onto them,” with elbows comfortably bent and hands “draped” over the hoods, all without much hand pressure; the “piano playing” test Grant wrote about years ago.

I used to get a numb left palm on the hood, and in the hook, with drop bars, and thought that more thickly padded gloves would help, but despite trying heavily padded gloves and gloves of different designs, nothing helped and, in fact, some of the thicker gloves actually made the numbness worse. So I ended up addressing the saddle position / bar-to-saddle-position issue and that seems to have worked.

Even now, my left palm tends to get numb in the hook, but I find I can ride 10 miles at a stretch if I move my left hand around in the hook frequently. My right palm could probably ride 30 miles or who knows how many in the hook without any discomfort, but my neck would tell me to stop before that happened.

I wonder if bar shape and width affects your hand comfort. I feel most comfortable on narrow, traditional bend drop bars (38 to 42 max) and have done for decades,  but I have never tested bar width against palm comfort. I do find anatomic drop bars uncomfortable in the hooks, preferring the long ends of the Maes Parallel and such that let you move around.

I too have seen at least one long-distance tourer put Ergo type grips on the ends of his hooks, but me, I’d prefer to address fit if indeed this is the cause of your discomfort.

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Patrick Moore

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[Patrick Moore]

I’m glad this works for most people. But for the record, this method does not work for everyone; it doesn’t work for my sensitive left palm, which gets numb if left on one position in the hook no matter how it rests on the bar — and I move it around frequently to keep numbness at bay for as long as possible, which on a good day is about 40 - 45 minutes. My right palm as I said is perfectly comfortable in the hook, tho’ yes, I avoid that dip.

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[larson....@gmail.com]

Have you tried raising your bars slightly? The last time I had this issue raising the bars to take a little pressure off my hands solved the problem. I do wear gel gloves for longer rides, and do think they help. Interesting that your bike fitter hated the Roadini.

Randy in WI

[Galen Gruman]

Thanks for the suggestions. Keep them coming!

I’ll be trying adjustments as the advice rolls in. Today, I’m moving my seat forward a few cm to see if the shortened reach helps. 

Then I’ll try adjusting the handlebar height, which currently has the tops at slightly below seat level (top of bar just above bottom of saddle). (Maybe I’m too low for sustained drops use and too high for sustained tops.)

After that, we’ll see

[Patrick Moore]

To the original poster: Please show us a photo of your Roadini in profile. It would be interesting to see the position of the bar. I expect it’s already quite high, since you ride mostly in the hooks.

For the record: I recently once again experienced how raising the saddle slightly, thus increasing height difference between saddle and bar, can reduce pressure on hands and arms, leaving the bar in the same place. I did this on a geometrical clone of a Riv road custom, which felt just a wee bit too stretched out, and as leaving to my hands the task of holding up my torso; just a wee bit, mind. I raised the saddle about 5 mm; and low and bihowld, yes, it did seem to pass the task back to the proper torso muscles. I rode this bike the other day after this very small change, and it did feel much close to the feel of that benchmark 1999 Riv road custom that I often bore everyone about.

On Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 8:19 AM larson....@gmail.com <larson....@gmail.com> wrote:

Have you tried raising your bars slightly? The last time I had this issue raising the bars to take a little pressure off my hands solved the problem. I do wear gel gloves for longer rides, and do think they help. Interesting that your bike fitter hated the Roadini.

Randy in WI

 

Patrick Moore

[Galen Gruman]

[Patrick Moore]

!!! Don’t adjust bar reach by saddle adjustment! The saddle position is the anchor and lodestar of bike fit. Get it in the right place and leave it there. Then get all the rest adjusted in reference to the saddle.

Sorry for the exhuberance; I learned this the hard way over many years. 

Once again, Peter White on fitting: https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.php

In particular:

The Fore-Aft Saddle Position

Now we get to what I think is the most important part of fitting a bicycle, the fore-aft position of the saddle. Once you get this right, everything else is easy. This position is determined more by how you intend to use your bike than by anything else. If you look at a typical bike, the saddle is behind the crank center, or bottom bracket. There's a frame tube (the seat tube) running from the cranks to the saddle, and it's at an angle. That angle partly determines the fore-aft position of the saddle relative to the cranks and pedals. That fore-aft position determines how your body is balanced on the bicycle. Your balance determines how comfortable you are, and how efficiently you can pedal the bike.

Stand up straight in front of a mirror and turn to the side. Look at yourself in the mirror. When standing straight your head, hands, seat and feet are all fairly close to being in line with each other. Now bend over at the waist. Notice that not only has your head moved to a position ahead of your feet, but your rear end has moved behind your feet. If this were not the case, you would fall forward. Your seat moves back when you bend at the waist to keep you in balance.

Your torso needs to be leaning forward for two reasons; power output and aerodynamics. With an upright torso, you can't use the gluteus muscles to good effect. Also, you can't effectively pull up on the handlebar from an upright position. An upright torso is also very poor aerodynamically. When cycling on level ground, the majority of your effort goes against wind resistance. The easier it is for your body to move through the air, the less work you'll have to do. With your torso closer to horizontal, you present less frontal surface to the air and don't have to work as hard to maintain a given speed.

Obviously, the most aerodynamically efficient position may not be the most pleasant position to be in for several hours on a cross country tour. So there's a tradeoff. As you move to a more horizontal position, the saddle needs to be positioned further to the rear to maintain your body's balance, just as your rear end moves to the rear as you bend over while standing. It so happens that racers are more inclined to use a horizontal torso position than tourers, and racers are more concerned with having the handlebars further forward to make climbing and sprinting out of the saddle more effective.

If a bicycle had the saddle directly over the cranks, you wouldn't be able to lean your body forward without supporting the weight of your torso with your arms. Because the saddle on a typical bicycle is behind the cranks, your seat is positioned behind your feet and your body can be in balance. Try this test. You'll need a friend to hold the bike up, or set it on a wind trainer. Sit on your bike with your hands on the handlebars and the crank arms horizontal. If you have a drop bar, hold the bar out on the brake hoods. Try taking your hands off the bar without moving your torso. If it's a strain to hold your torso in that same position, that's an indication of the work your arms are doing to hold you up.

For starters, I like to put the saddle in the forward most position that allows the rider to lift his hands off of the handlebar and maintain the torso position without strain, while pedaling. You should not feel like you're about to fall forward when you lift off the handlebar. If it makes no difference to your back muscles whether you have your hands on the bars or not, you know that you aren't using your arms to support your upper body. If you are, your arms and shoulders will surely get tired on a long ride. But this is a starting position. Remember that bicycle fit is a series of compromises.

So what's being compromised? Power. There's a limit to how far you can comfortably reach to the handlebar while seated. If the saddle is well back for balance, the handlebars will need to be back as well. But to get power to the pedals while out of the saddle, it helps to have the handlebars well forward of the cranks. Particularly when climbing out of the saddle, the best position tends to be had with a long forward reach to the bars. You can tell this is so by climbing a hill out of the saddle with your hands as far forward on the brake lever tops as you can hold them, then climbing the same hill with your hands as far to the rear as you can on the bars. Chances are you can climb faster with your hands further forward. So you need to find the best compromise between a comfortable seated position and reach to the handlebar, and a forward handlebar position for those times when you need to stand. Only an inch or two in handlebar placement fore-aft can make a big difference while climbing. That same inch or two in saddle position can mean the difference between a comfortable 50 mile ride and a stiff neck and sore shoulders!

As you move the saddle forward from that balanced position, you'll have more and more weight supported by your arms, but you'll be able to position the handlebars further forward for more power. The track sprinter has the frame built with a rather steep seat tube angle, which positions the saddle further forward from where the tourer would want it. But again, the track sprinter spends very little time in the saddle.

If you can't move your saddle forward enough or backward enough for the fit you want, don't despair. Different saddles position the rails further ahead than others, giving more or less saddle offset. Seatposts are available with the clamps in different positions relative to the centerline of the post.

So, how do YOU want to balance on YOUR bike? Do you want to emphasize speed and acceleration? Do you care mostly about comfort and enjoying the scenery? The answers to these questions determine how you position the saddle, not some computer program or someone's system of charts and graphs. How your best friend fits his bike should have no bearing on what you do even if he has exactly the same body proportions as you. YOU know why you ride a bike. Only YOU know what compromises you are willing to make in order to achieve your purposes on a bicycle.

You may have a bicycle for short fast rides, and another for long tours. Just as the two bikes will have different components so as to be well suited for their purposes, so might the fit be different. The rider hasn't changed. You are still you. But your purpose has changed. The light, fast bike for short rides will likely have a more forward and lower handlebar position than the tourer. And so the saddle may well be further forward too.

As you move the saddle forward or rearward, you are also changing the effective saddle height, relative to the cranks, since the saddle rails are usually not perpendicular to the seat tube. So be prepared to change the seat post extension as you adjust the fore-aft saddle position; lowering the saddle as you move it back to maintain the same leg extension, and raising it as you move the saddle forward. 

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[Patrick Moore]

Yeah, I expect your problem is not that your bar is too low.

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[Patrick Moore]

Peter misses one big reason for the “butt behind” position of good bike fit: again, that this makes the torso hold itself up instead of shrugging the task off to the shoulders, arms, and hands.

[R Olson]

I agree with Patrick in that you should look at your bike setup and that riding on the hoods on drop bars should be the default position.  The Trek Domane actually has very similar geometery principles as the Roadini in that it has flatter angles and higher stack and shorter reach than other mainsteream road bikes.  I rode a 62cm Domane recently and it felt very comfortable.  The difference is in the chainstay (and overall wheelbase) length, which is probably why you feel the handling is better on the Roadini.  

That's a great article from Peter White.  Hand numbness is a tricky one because it seems like a small thing, but it really is a result of overall bike fit and the way you balance on the bike.  Hand numbness comes from too much pressure on your hands.  Too much pressure on your hands comes from a bike fit that results in your weight too far forward.  No amount of padding will help if you're using the bars to support your weight when riding.  You should be balanced on the bike such that you're only putting enough pressure on the bars to steer.

It's hard to tell just from your picture of the bike how it fits you specifically.  You might want to consider going to a reputable bike fitter to get set up properly.  It's money well spent.  I have a 61cm Malocchio that has aggressive geometry.  I was trying to fiddle with my fit, adjusting things incrimentally here and there.  I did finally go to a fitter because I couldn't get comfortable.  He immedialey was able to provide several suggestions (he hated the quill stem too!, lol) - some of which I used and greatly increased my comfort and some suggestions I didn't end up using.  I now feel very comfortable on the Malocchio and am experincing less hand numbness than ever after making some decidedly non-Riv changes.  The net effect of these changes was actually to move my weight more forward to "get my legs under me" and better balance on the bike.  The changes I made were: went with narrower bars with a shorter reach and drop (V-O Grand Cru's), adjusted my seat forward, lowered the bars to saddle-height, and went to SPD pedals (a game changer!).   I'm not saying all these things apply to you, but just some things that helped me in my particular situation.  I've ridden a lot of Rivs - I also had a 61cm Roadini.  I'm 6'2" with a PBH of 91cm and 6'4" wingspan.  My Roadini with 48cm noodles felt too stretched out; for the short time I had it, I ended up switching to Albatross bars and that felt better.  Knowing what I know now, I would have moved the seat forward on my Roadini.

Ryan 

[Galen Gruman]

Thanks, Ryan. The reputable bike fitter in town told me to ger a different, modern bike. He says the old style geometry is just bad. So, that’s why I queried this group.

I had a 58cm Domane, fitted, and I rode the hoods because brifters require that. My hands got numb very quickly and it was tough on my arms and shoulders. Too narrow and not good handholds. It was also a very twitchy bike. Maybe a 60cm would have worked better but none for 200 miles of here to test.

Anyhow, fwiw my PBH is 89, my height 6’1”, my wingspan 6’7”, and weight 170lb. 

[Bernard Duhon]

 

 

One vote for theErgons Purchased as a fluke at Mellow Johnny’s in Austin .  They are on my Albatros bars.  Occasionly think about putting em on my Noodle’s .  Not sure thy will fit

 

 

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[Will Boericke]

On bikes where I ride the drops frequently, especially if I'm on trails, I find flared bars to be significantly more comfortable.  That might be something to try short of an entire cockpit change.  My favorites are Ritchey Venturemax, but the Salsa Cowchipper is also good.  Of course, to work with a quill stem, you'll need Velo Orange's 31.8 stem, or an equivalent.  Alternatively, you could try flaring your noodles yourself.  I just did this with a set of ancient GB Maes bars and they're great now.  There may also be some flared 26mm bars in the world, I just haven't been in that market.

[Galen Gruman]

Only photo I have of me riding is from a metric century two weeks ago. In case helpful, here it is

On Saturday, March 21, 2026 at 7:50:27 AM UTC-7 bert...@gmail.com wrote:

[Zachary Cannon]

Apologies if this is a repeat. I got a delivery failure... so without pictures.

I too have struggled with this a bit. I don't want to entirely dismiss bike fitters, but they seem to struggle with the idea the classic bikes can be wonderfully comfortable.
I've found many of Dave Moulton's blog posts on fit quite useful:

https://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/different-thought-on-frame-sizing.html 

He will help clarify why moving your saddle forward might make things worse. In order to keep your hips open, most people need more saddle set back with the bars higher. As the bars come down, you'll generally slide your saddle forward. High bars and a forward saddle often don't play nice. 

Your bars don't look categorically too low, though that's entirely depends on your body, core strength, flexibility, power output. I do wonder if you could be too stretched out. I'm amazed what a few mm let alone a couple centimeters can mean in terms of fit. You have a fairly short stem, but many including me and my wife have found the shorter reach and drop of the Soma Highway One bar comfortable. It also is available in 26.0 and will likely fit with some effort in your current stem. The widest is 46cm I believe, so a fair bit narrower. By reducing the drop, you could still favor the drops while enjoying the other positions more. As Patrick said, move positions helps many.

I like my bars closer to me and bit lower, since I find it encourages me to ride with elbows bent. Straight arms seem to lead to problems, with in a high or low position. Try to find a position that encourages a comfortable fit with your elbows bent, if that's not true already. It also takes a lot of mental retraining if you've spent many hours with straight arms. 

For my gravel/drop bar mountain bike, I've set it up for a lot of time in the drops. I had double wraps the bars. Now I use a bar with a very un-riv flat top to distribute weight and a oury grip slip over the bottom of the drops. I find this better than double wrapping bars. Double wrapping isn't a bad place to start if you have large hands and it increased the diameter. I wrap with a cork/gel tape on the bottom and something that strikes my fancy on top. A 3.5-4.5mm tape could also work. I find gel inserts feel bad for me because that poke into the cup of my hand rather than distribute my weight over some distance. 

Finally, I recommend trying road togs. They feel a bit expensive for what they are, but they let you hook your thumb in the drops with helps open up the ulnar nerve. I also have those on my gravel bike. 

These two bars work well for me but are 31.8. The Zipp was made in silver so those sometimes pop up. They don't look too out of place on a classic steel bike (and if something is comfortable, I come to find it beautiful). I used the Spank?oury/Togs in December doing the White Rim trail in 2 day with drop bars and no suspension. My hands weren't numb with makes me think I did something right. 

https://www.sram.com/en/zipp/models/hb-dbsc-sl7x-a2

https://spank-ind.com/products/spank-wing-12-vibrocore%E2%84%A2-drop-bar

Togs:

https://togs.com/products/road-togs?srsltid=AfmBOopYI6610Q2-1I5VAAN6fOPOssQeowSv79VaXUcdQ7y4WQnf_7QI

Oury Grips.

https://crustbikes.com/products/oury-v2-grips?variant=39508047429722

For the Oury grips, I used a road bar to punch a hole in the end because I use bar end. No need if not. They slid over the tape and were snug an stable. A bit of rubbing alcohol could help if it's close.

Too many thoughts. Hopefully, some help. 
Zach in Albuquerque (who likes long rides on drop bars on chunky gravel occasionally resulting in angry ulnar nerves). 

[Galen Gruman]

Thanks, Zach. I’ll check these out. 

I did move my seat forward a few cm before a 35mi ride today. To be clear, the seat was still in the previous owner’s position, not fit to me specifically. It felt fine, so I had left it for the three months I’ve had the bike. New position feels fine, too.

My thought was that this seat position change would both reduce my reach a little and, more important, make me a tad more upright so as to reduce arm/hand pressure and make the core take on a bit more. Maybe a shorter-reach stem (5cm vs 8cm) is worth trying, if the nearer seat and perhaps higher stem don’t do the trick to make the full cockpit easily used.

The change helped a little—I definitely felt a bit more stable when riding one-handed on the drops for hand-signals. Numbness seemed less and later, but I need to see if that carries forward for a few more rides. I do 100-110 miles a week, so I figure I’ll let each adjustment play out for a week before trying the next thing.  

My arms are bent slightly at the elbows in all positions, so I think that’s not an issue. But hard for me to judge. My core, legs, neck, wrists, and arms don’t get sore, and my shoulder (mostly triceps) and mid-back experience just minor strain that goes away very quickly. My 60-something cycling buddies experience that too. 

I also felt a bit more confident on the hoods, so I’ll use those a bit more as well. (I have never favored hoods, not even in my 20s, when I last rode drops. So there’s some mental retraining needed!) But I’ll have to find a new mounting location for my Ortlieb mirror; maybe just under the hood in the curve. It’s now where the ramp meets the hood, which is perfect if I don’t use the hood but interferes with the brake reach if I do. 

Fwiw the noodle bar and the Tallux stem are 25.4cm diameter. 

Regardless of solution, what I want to avoid is the instability of being over the front wheel that I experienced with the Domane, which is among the less-aggressive modern bikes (and popular for good reason) but still too forward for me. Turning and stopping were wobbly and became scarier each ride. Toe-clip overlap was also a big issue. That bike fitter wants me on a compact, forward geometry because that’s his high bias. Already been there! The Roadini feels just right for stability and balance, and it’s really comfortable for my whole body, save the finger numbness. 

[Ted Durant]

Galen - This is a very opinion-oriented topic with lots of well-meaning people offering their opinions based on their experience plus a few appeals to expert advice. I can only weigh in with my experience as someone who has gone with Noodle bars on every bike, who has done brevets up to 600km, and also as someone who frequently is asked by other cyclists to give fit advice. 

First, on bike fitters - I have encountered dozens of cyclists who say they've been professionally fit, and only one time have I watched that person riding (and it was someone I had done a lot of miles with previously) and thought, "Wow, that fitter absolutely nailed it for her." Any fitter who says a Riv road bike can't be properly fit should be ignored, and I certainly wouldn't hand over any cash to that person.

Okay, regarding your fit. Everybody is different, so take this with a whole cellar of salt grains. Your handlebars are wider than your shoulders, by quite a bit, judging by the photo you posted. I would also observe that your handlebars could possibly be rotated up a tiny bit, so the bottoms are pointing at the rear brake or the midpoint of the seatstays. And, I would suggest bring the brake levers down the hood a bit, bringing the lever blades back a bit closer to the hooks, and making the tops of the hoods a bit closer to level (but definitely not all the way level). You definitely have tall brake lever bodies that extend well away from the bars, which in my experience makes fitting difficult. You might want to consider trying different brake levers. My goal with those adjustments is to get (as mentioned by other posters) my wrist angle as neutral as possible in the various positions. I'm obviously a lot smaller than you, but I have gone to the narrowest model of Noodles and it has taken away some shoulder and elbow issues. 

Now, regarding riding positions. As others point out, it's all about amount and location of pressure. I think a lot about the balance between hands, feet, and seat. My hand position is mostly dictated by how hard I am riding, because the harder you ride, the more of your weight is being carried by your feet and the greater the need for a low back to lessen wind resistance. At a "tempo" pace, just below anaerobic threshold, I have almost zero weight on my hands and, in fact, might be pulling slight upward on them. Riding on the drops or hooks at that pace is where I need to be and it's no problem for the hands to be there. Riding at that level of effort while climbing I would typically be on the hoods or ramps. At a "zone 2" pace, which would be a pretty good effort over long distances, I spend most of the time on the drops and on the brake hoods, but not in the hooks. On the drops, I'll move my hands around a bit but they're mostly positioned so that the pad below the base of the thumb is taking the small amount of pressure there. At the forward end of the drop, before the curve starts, it's a short reach to the brake lever. At less than moderate effort, I would never be lower than the brake levers unless I'm stretching. The exception to that would be on a descent, where I'm coasting or lightly pedaling and want to minimize air drag. There, as you described in your first post, I'd have my hands in the hooks and fingers covering the brake levers in case of emergency. Typically in that case the pressure on the bar is in the joint between my thumb and index finger, but I'm trying to keep that pressure very light so my grip is relaxed. I'm carrying most of my weight on my feet at that point, with my butt back on the saddle and only slightly weighted to allow the back wheel to float over bumps. Regarding saddle fore-aft, I think there's too much pearl-clutching about how that needs to be set EXACTLY and don't EVER use that to adjust reach. In my experience changing the reach by 1cm makes a giant difference to my upper body that my hips and legs don't notice at all. But, then, I ride flat pedals with no clips and I'll move my feet +/- 2cm on the pedals during a ride, so getting my knickers in a twist over 1cm of seat setback would be kinda silly.

Comfort position for me is upper arms pretty close to perpendicular to the ground, elbows bent (slightly when not working too hard, progressively more as the effort increases). Back angle anywhere from almost upright (lightly twirling the pedals, hands on the "piano keys" on the bar tops) to pretty close to flat (max sustained effort, hands in the hooks. My distance riding stance is typically between the ramps, brake levers, and drops, depending on the slope and level of effort, back somewhere around 45 degrees. My bar tops are just below my saddle height.

Last part - gloves and bar treatment. I only wear gloves in the winter to keep my hands warm. I like two layers of cotton tape to increase the bar diameter just a bit. 

Be your own scientist. Make changes one at a time, give them a fair test, and take notes.

Ted Durant

Milwaukee, WI USA

[Ted Durant]

On Sunday, March 22, 2026 at 12:02:02 PM UTC-5 Ted Durant wrote:

And, I would suggest bring the brake levers down the hood a bit, bringing the lever blades back a bit closer to the hooks, and making the tops of the hoods a bit closer to level (but definitely not all the way level). 

Ack, need to be a better editor before posting. Bring the brake levers down the HOOK a bit...

[Galen Gruman]

Thanks, Ted. And I knew what you meant about the brake position 🙂

The advice from you and others both here and on the road has been helpful. Ergonomics and fit are indeed idiosyncratic, but I’m seeing common themes about 1) reducing how far I extend forward, for which several adjustments are possible that I will try one at a time, such as reducing the distance to the handlebar (more forward seat position, bringing handlebar closer with shallower stem quill), and 2) adjusting geometry for better arm and hand positions (handlebar tilt, changed brake position) and as part of that to make riding the ramps more natural (previous plus moving the mirror and perhaps adjusting handlebar height). I’m thinking that reducing the gap to the handlebar will make the whole cockpit better suited, so I have more hand positions available to reduce sustained pressure on any given part of the hand, without pulling me forward over the wheel and getting unbalanced.

I know the 54cm handlebar is quite wide. But I know from previous, unrelated physical therapy that I need a wide stance whether on a bike or when using gym equipment to prevent shoulder impingement. That’s just the nature of my very wide wingspan and longer torso-to-leg ratio. Maybe a few cm narrower would help by changing the angle of my hand on the drops, but my suspicion is that using the ramps more would do the same. The 54cm width really feels right at any distance.

It’s great that bikes are adjustable! 

[Ted Durant]

On Mar 22, 2026, at 12:37 PM, Galen Gruman <galen....@gmail.com> wrote:

I know the 54cm handlebar is quite wide. But I know from previous, unrelated physical therapy that I need a wide stance whether on a bike or when using gym equipment to prevent shoulder impingement. That’s just the nature of my very wide wingspan and longer torso-to-leg ratio. Maybe a few cm narrower would help by changing the angle of my hand on the drops, but my suspicion is that using the ramps more would do the same. The 54cm width really feels right at any distance.

This is a great example of “every body’s different.” My shoulder issues crop up at a specific angle of rotation, and they are alleviated by a narrower stance and, especially, keeping my elbows close to my body. You definitely don’t want to sacrifice your shoulders to solve a hand pressure problem!

My personal trainer has me doing a lot of shoulder circles (along with lots of various shoulder strengthening exercises) and it has helped, but there are still times when a very specific motion will produce a strong twinge in there.

[Patrick Moore]

Ted’s is the best response in this thread, I think. 

Ted: curious: you refer to both “drops” and “hooks.” What do you mean by “drops”? (I assume by “hooks” you mean the lower curves of a drop handlebar, where your hand position is lowest. If I’m wrong, please correct.)

[Ted Durant]

> On Mar 22, 2026, at 2:18 PM, Patrick Moore <bert...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ted: curious: you refer to both “drops” and “hooks.” What do you mean by “drops”? (I assume by “hooks” you mean the lower curves of a drop handlebar, where your hand position is lowest. If I’m wrong, please correct.)
>

Thanks, Patrick. Yeah, there was some discussion of drop bars previously and I think it was you that tried to clarify the nomenclature. I didn’t go back to that and hope I used terms that are generally accepted. Here are my hand positions, from top inner to bottom outer:
Tops - inner
Tops - outer
Curves
Ramps
Brake Hoods
Hooks
Drops - forward
Drops - aft (including the bar end shifter bodies, if present)

One of the defining features of Noodle bars are the generous Curves and Ramps sections, which are their own hand positions (for me).

[Galen Gruman]

https://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2012/06/drop-bar-hand-positions-introduction.html

When I was trying to make sure I was using “standard” nomenclature, I found this post and its photos really useful. It jibes with Ted’s definitions as well.