Did you change from Hybrid to Drop Bar Bike

[Lovacott]

Try riding on the hoods.

I do ride on the hoods when I can but I can't help staring at the road surface in front of me.

 

[TiffAching]

I bought a hybrid bike at the begining of the first lockdown having not really ridden since teens (50). The Hybrid bike lasted a couple of weeks then got traded up for an aluminium endurance bike which lasted all of a month till I got my hands of lovely carbon Liv Langma Advance. Just quickly developed a taste for whizzing along though I rarely actually use the drops.

 

[Retread]

Bought a road bike once I started increasing the mileage.
My hybrid was great to get back into cycling but caused sore wrists on longer rides.

 

[Baldy]

I have butterfly bars on my touring bike, their ok but do shorten your reach by about six inches. As I’m at the upper limit of my medium size frame that six inches is quite noticeable. I’m thinking if I swap the bars for a simple straight bar I would improve the reach without having to buy new gear shifters and cables. I can always swap back easily if I don't get on with the new setup.

 

[simongt]

In the last three years, I went from straight to butterfly to drops on the same bike. I'd had butterfly before, but just couldn't get on with the more recent application, so went back to drops. Maybe an age thing, but I now have drops on two of my three bikes, tho other being a Brommy so doesn't apply. Because of the multiple variability of hand positions which suit me on the longer non urban rides, , I'm a drops man.

 

[Lovacott]

Try riding on the hoods.

I took the roadbike out today for a 30 miler and spent about half of it on the hoods.

For some reason, I was getting cramping in my lower palms (in the thumb muscle)?

I could clear it pretty quickly by dropping my hand to my side for a few seconds but it would re-appear about a minute later.

Anyone else get this? Is there an adjustment I can make to negate it?

 

[vickster]

Bars the right width? Brifters correctly positioned to keep your wrists in a neutral position?

 

[Lovacott]

Bars the right width? Brifters correctly positioned to keep your wrists in a neutral position?

When I'm on the hoods, my wrists are tilted up so I guess that my brifters need to be rotated forwards a bit?

The problem didn't manifest itself until about an hour into the ride. I've ridden the hoods before, but never more than for a few minutes at a time.

I normally take the roadbike out for a speed fest and stay on the drops, but today was a bit of mix of speed and scenic leisure riding.

My last roadbike (1990's) didn't have brifters and had pull up brakes for when you were riding upright.

Is it best to rotate the brifters forwards or is it best to rotate the whole handlebar?

 

[vickster]

See what works for you

 

[Alex321]

I've been riding Hybrids for years - about 10 years commuting (14 miles each way) on a Ridgeback, then around 20 years only riding casually. I bought a Boaardman MX sport hybrid about 4 years ago to replace the Ridgeback, but still only rode casually until the start of the pandemic.
A week or so into working from home, my wife suggested I go out for a ride, to get some exercise, and that quickly developed into riding almost every evening after work, with some slightly longer rides at weekends.

So I decided I needed a road bike, and after a bit of persuasion, SWMBO agreed
On Thursday I took delivery of a Cube Attain GTC Race (At £2100 more than 4 times what I paid for the Boardman!).

Last time I rode a road bike, 5 gears was the norm, 10 gears was for serious racers or poncy showoffs

Already though, I can't honestly see me going back to the hybrid. First day I was thinking I might have bought more bike than I could handle, it seemed very twitchy. But adjusted the bars (I had set them angled far too far down), and the saddle slightly, and am already comfortable on it.

 

[simongt]

5 gears was the norm, 10 gears was for serious racers or poncy showoffs

Indeed. Back when I were lad, most of us had single speed or three speed SA bikes with straight bars. The lucky ones had five speed 'racers' as we called them then. But the VERY lucky few, had TEN SPEED 'racers' - ! How we envied and hated them in equal measure - !

 

[sasquath]

My only week with drop bars ended in a crash caused by drop bar brake lever positions.
It was old bike, and only way to get decent brake force was to drop down.
Car pulled out on me and I had to stand on anchors to stop, in dropped position I couldn't shift my weight back enough. Flipped over front wheel and kicked 2 side windows in said car. Got flat bars as soon as I could walk again and never looked back.

 

[sebinho]

But the VERY lucky few, had TEN SPEED 'racers' - ! How we envied and hated them in equal measure - !

I was one of the lucky few, in the late 70s and very early 80s :-) . After that, once I moved from home, I had a single speed bike with pedal-back brakes and with what we called in Australia, "dragster" handlebars. I remember feeling really comfortable on that bike but the hills were hell for the lack of gears and the bars, probably. Must have been interesting times because I don't remember how the bike came in to my possession nor whatever happened to it. Then, a long pause, after which I bought a GT Legacy hybrid. Loved that bike and I think the format is ideal for city riding. In the centre of Melbourne, it was faster getting around than by car. Moved countries and bought the nearest thing I could find to a hybrid, a Caloi mountain bike. We didn't get along, even after i put more road-friendly tyres on it, so I gave it to my son and bought a single speed collapsible Dahon. Was fun, and easy to get down in the lift, but hopeless for distances. Getting back to drop-bars: mid-pandemeic I thought I buy a hybrid. Decided upon a nice looking one and by Caloi again, but none were available because of supply shortages. So I wound up with a used road bike because everything else I could find was really overpriced and poor quality. The 20 year old Principia Rex was a bargain. Originally fitted out for triathlon for a 189cm rider, I put 44cm drop bars and a shorter 10cm stem (I'm 187cm). The praying-mantis bars were bizarre to me and precarious but the wide drops are really comfortable and stable. Not quite as upright as my GT but good enough on the hoods and I don't do any riding in heavy traffic any more and avoid fast roads unless there's a bike lane. I certainly wouldn't ride as I did in Melbourne here in Brazil. I just read a really frightening statistic this morning. In the last 10 years, 13.718 cyclists have been killed on Brazilian roads.

 

[T4tomo]

Is it best to rotate the brifters forwards or is it best to rotate the whole handlebar?

a starting point would be this on a modern drop bar bike. i.e stem, bar tops hoods all level-ish. But it could be so many different things wrong with your position that is putting too much pressure on your wrists / thumbs etc. and impossible to diagnose on a forum

 

[PatThompson]

So Doyler, have you decided what you're going to buy as your first true roadie? I'm still looking for ideas!!

Same here. Want one badly, but clueless. Figure I will hit a few shops, but feel like they might push me toward whatever they can get more quickly. I'd be willing to wait longer for the right bike.