I’ve spent around the cost of a P3 just on bar tape in recent months thanks to incessant “playing with my front end” on my road bikes.
In doing so, it’s struck me what a massive impact brake hood positioning (fairly obvious) and design (less obvious) seems to have on my fit, despite the fact that it’s not afforded much attention in any fit guides - they often suggest that the tip of the lever be in line with the bottom edge of the bar and that’s that.
Moving towards a Lance-like hood position (ie pointing skywards) on the bars seems to be the near-equivalent of a 1cm+ stem change, and dramatically alters how my hands lie on the bars - with most weight on the heel of my hand on the bar, rather than using the hood as the main object to grab onto.
More interesting is contrasting my 2 road bikes - a C’dale CAAD3 set up as a singlespeed commuter and a CAAD5 road bike, identically sized with identical seats, posts etc. The only difference for fit is hood design - beefy STI’s on one, skinny “brake only” hoods on the s/s. Once again, the way my hands lie on each is very different, and again drives me towards differing stems.
Made me wonder if Shimano vs Campag hoods might cause any subtle fit differences due to natural hand positioning?