Brifter/Lever Position on Drop Bars

[Jay]

I'm curious as to how much you've tried to adjust the rotation of your drop bars, to achieve different positions of the two relative to one another.

I have two bikes each with the same drop bar (Whisky 12 flare).  It is a short reach bar.  I can't recall how I had them previously configured, but on each bike, they've had updates recently.  

The Salsa Fargo has SRAM Apex 1 brifter.  In its latest iteration, I rotated the drop bars down so the drop is parallel to the ground (it's maybe even 1-2 degrees upward).  And I moved the brifter all the way up the hook, to the last adjustment line towards the ramp.  This is the most comfortable I've had this set up.  I like how the drops are less reach and I find myself using them often (lots of trail time other than winter).  And being short reach, there is virtually no transition from top to hood (maybe 5-7mm).  It works for me.

On my Roadini, I recently changed to 105 brifters (from Tektro RRL).  I left the bars unwrapped and rode around a lot, then had them wrapped and I've been on it 5 or so times.  When I compare them, the Salsa's cockpit setup is more comfortable.  The Roadini has the drops angled about 10 degrees down.  The hoods are at an angle I really like, but they're further down the drop (to get this angle, with bars rotated the way I did), and the ramp is longer than on the Fargo, but flat (I don't usually like it sloped down).  I'm now thinking of unwrapping to just below the brifter, moving the hoods up the hooks, and rotating the drops down to try and get same feel as the Fargo (but it's such a different bike, and the brifters are very different, so I'm not sure it's possible).

Welcome your experience if you've 'played' with a situation like above and how it went.

[Patrick Moore]

I use Maes Parallels, long 115 mm ramps, on 3 of my bikes, with Dura Ace BL 7402 levers, short hoods. I position bars and levers so that I have a pretty flat ramp transitioning into the hood while positioning the ends of the hooks almost if not exactly parallel to the ground, which means raising the brake levers pretty high up on the curves, tho' I still position them so that I can reach them from the hooks, tho' it's a bit of a finger-stretch. For my tastes, this gives the best compromise for hand comfort on ramps, hoods, and hooks with decent reach to the brake levers, and in particular makes the hooks/drops more accessible and comfortable, at the expense of shortening the ramps a bit; but at 115 mm they are still long enough to suit me.

If you found that you like this arrangement on the Fargo, then it's likely you might like it on the Roadini.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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