Re: Do they make drop handlebars with a very short drop?

Michael Press said:

In article
<[email hidden]>,
"[email hidden]"

Quoted message said:

I know, odd question. Let me clarify. My wife is a triathlete who
usually rides a time trial bike. She's taking some time off, though,
and doing some recreational cycling on her old road bike. One things
she's encountering, though, is that even with a new fit her knees seem
to bump the drops sometimes.

Now obviously one solution would be to go with straight bars. Another
solution would be a totally different bike. But she loves the brake
levers on a road bike (the hand positioning feels more ergonomic), even
if she never gets into the drops. So my question, before we go the
route of trying to find her a new bike or something like that, is if
they make handlebars with a very short drop. Basically enough to grip
and attach a brake lever. I'm envisioning handlebars where the drop
ends shortly after the bottom of the brake/shifter lever.

Anyone ever seen anything like this before?

No, I have not, and am not a fit expert. Seek one out. Is
the interference in the saddle position? Why are her knees
that far out board? What is the distance between the top
of the saddle and the top of the bars? Ask around in
rec.bicycles.tech. (I added it to the Newsgroups: header)

My opinion: hacking the bars will not help you get to the
bottom of this.

Dear Preston,

You might browse around Sheldon's handlebar page and its links:

http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/handlebars/index.html

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/deakins/handlebars.html

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Michael Press said:

In article
<[email hidden]>,
"[email hidden]"

Quoted message said:

I know, odd question. Let me clarify. My wife is a triathlete who
usually rides a time trial bike. She's taking some time off, though,
and doing some recreational cycling on her old road bike. One things
she's encountering, though, is that even with a new fit her knees seem
to bump the drops sometimes.

Now obviously one solution would be to go with straight bars. Another
solution would be a totally different bike. But she loves the brake
levers on a road bike (the hand positioning feels more ergonomic), even
if she never gets into the drops. So my question, before we go the
route of trying to find her a new bike or something like that, is if
they make handlebars with a very short drop. Basically enough to grip
and attach a brake lever. I'm envisioning handlebars where the drop
ends shortly after the bottom of the brake/shifter lever.

Anyone ever seen anything like this before?

Snipped.

In my experience riders whose knees hit the drops are using bars which
are too narrow. The rule-of-thumb for drop-bar width is the width of
the bar equals the width of your shoulders. This allows the knees to
come up BETWEEN the drops without hitting them.

I have seen posts heare in the past refering others to links where
shallow drop bars are featured. Perhaps a search of the archives will
unearth them.

Good luck.

Peter

(excuse the double quote characters; propagation delay has left me without
the original post)

Quoted message said:

Michael Press said:

In article
<[email hidden]>,
"[email hidden]"

Quoted message said:

I know, odd question. Let me clarify. My wife is a triathlete who
usually rides a time trial bike. She's taking some time off, though,
and doing some recreational cycling on her old road bike. One things
she's encountering, though, is that even with a new fit her knees seem
to bump the drops sometimes.

Now obviously one solution would be to go with straight bars. Another
solution would be a totally different bike. But she loves the brake
levers on a road bike (the hand positioning feels more ergonomic),

even

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

if she never gets into the drops. So my question, before we go the
route of trying to find her a new bike or something like that, is if
they make handlebars with a very short drop. Basically enough to grip
and attach a brake lever. I'm envisioning handlebars where the drop
ends shortly after the bottom of the brake/shifter lever.

Some decades ago I realised that I also never used the drops, but MTB-style
handle bars (for that matter, even Cinelli "Cowhorn" bars) were not around
then.

Hacksaw; drops dropped.

Then I put bar-end shifters in the ends - took a bit of machining of the
expanding plug to get it to fit as there was a bit of curve in the (new) end
of the bars.

I thought these were wonderful, always braked from the hoods anyway.

Go for it; handlebars are cheap.