Difference between drops and flat bars?

[KateK]

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but ...it is nice on a longer ride being able to move your hands into 3 different positions on drop handlebars, it's quite a lot kinder on your wrists and hands if they are tiddly and unfit like mine. I'm only just starting to actually use the drops as my old saddle made it impossible and it's great on a long stretch of road or into the wind (as I am sure you remember) I love it.

 

[lulubel]

On the Xcheck I ran butterfly bars, drops, flared drops, flat bars, North roads, big sweep risers and titec H-bars. My favourites were the On-One Mary Bars and the butterfly bars, on my frame that replaced the Xcheck I use the Jones Loop H-bars(mainly because it gives me the handy front part for mounting extra lights). On my MTB I have the Mary bars with stubby bar ends inboard of the grips which give about the same setup as the Jones bars

Thanks for all that. I didn't realise there were so many different typres of bars. Butterfly bars look quite interesting, and I notice from the pictures I've seen that people are pretty creative in how they set them up, so that's given me some ideas. The ones I found on Wiggle aren't really as wide as I'd like, but I suspect they come in a variety of sizes.

Before I start messing around with changing bars, I might play around with some different tyres. The internal width of my rims is 15mm, so I know I can put 700x28 on them. Can I safely go wider? I don't really want to go building another set of wheels just yet.

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but ...it is nice on a longer ride being able to move your hands into 3 different positions on drop handlebars, it's quite a lot kinder on your wrists and hands if they are tiddly and unfit like mine. I'm only just starting to actually use the drops as my old saddle made it impossible and it's great on a long stretch of road or into the wind (as I am sure you remember) I love it.

I had about 10km into a strong headwind on Sunday, and I was on the drops for most of it. It's nice to be able to get on the drops, and I love riding on them (as I think I said earlier in the thread), but it doesn't make it any easier - you just go faster. In fact, I rode a lot harder on both Saturday and Sunday, as evidenced by my average heart rate, which seems to be another side effect of riding a road bike. I seem to find it very hard to just relax and take it easy, which I have no trouble doing on the MTB.

 

[MacB]

With internal 15mm rims then according to Sheldons chart, which is very conservative you have a range of 23 to 32mm tyres. However others will tell you that you can run much wider, could be a bit trial and error though. I know on my Giant I had 13mm rims and ran 700x35 tyres when I didn't 'know any better', to no ill effect.

If your rim has a sticker on it then it may give an lower to upper range, which is not necessarily what the manufacturers website will say. A lot of folks are happy to go up to 3x or more the internal so 45-48mm in your case but I've seen that most commonly on 19mm internal rims. I go up to 56mm on the ones I have and they ride fine, but with a narrower rim I may be tempted to limit myself to 2.5x or 37mm in your case.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I wonder why no one has ever managed to combine the advantages of both. Is it because they'd be called flops or drats?

 

[HLaB]

With internal 15mm rims then according to Sheldons chart, which is very conservative you have a range of 23 to 32mm tyres. However others will tell you that you can run much wider, could be a bit trial and error though. I know on my Giant I had 13mm rims and ran 700x35 tyres when I didn't 'know any better', to no ill effect.

If your rim has a sticker on it then it may give an lower to upper range, which is not necessarily what the manufacturers website will say. A lot of folks are happy to go up to 3x or more the internal so 45-48mm in your case but I've seen that most commonly on 19mm internal rims. I go up to 56mm on the ones I have and they ride fine, but with a narrower rim I may be tempted to limit myself to 2.5x or 37mm in your case.

It might just be coincidence, but when my 19mm rim with 37mm tyres blew, I borrowed a old 15mm wheel, but stuck with the 37mm tyres. The new (used) rim only lasted a few days before it too failed

 

[fossyant]

Just keep riding it, you will get used to it soon enough.