do roadies put their shifter “hoods” up really high so they don’t have to lean over as far? to put it another way, it seems like they loosen the handlebar and rotate it back towards them resulting in the hoods coming closer to them. I was noticing this on several close-up shots during the tour. Am i imagining this?
I noticed that too and have been wondering about it a bit…
No this is true. They don’t want to rotate the bars because I imagine that would compromise aerodynamics when you are down in the drops. But Lance especially rides with the hoods very high up–I imagine it is for comfort so he just slides them up higher–I have done this myself and it is more comfortable.
I moved mine up ala Lance since last season and do find it more comfortable not having to reach as far for the brakes/shifters. But it is a compromise since they are harder to reach when on the drops.
Did you just rotate your handlebars back? A hectic work schedule hasn’t left much time for tri training, so i’m trying some road races for the hell of it and i’m pretty stretched out going down to the hoods. i have small hands anyway, so reaching the brakes/shifters in the drops isn’t much of an issue anyway.
how about a shorter stem?
also the DA 10s STI and brake levers are longer so allows you to move them up and yet get to the brakes in the drops. If you simply move the bar up you might have problem with reach in the drops. Note also the shape of you base bar will affect reach. Check out cyclingnews article on LA’s new Trek. Very clear picture of the bar and shifters
“Did you just rotate your handlebars back?”
No I actually moved the STI’s a little higher without touching the bar position. It’s quite easy to do if you know which screw to loose off but you’ll likely have to unwrap/rewrap your bar tape.
It’s easy to move your levers, just loosen the bolt with an allen wrench and slide them where you want them. The only remotely hard part is dealing with the tape but you don’t even have to take it all the way off.
I was all set to spend some time making sure the two levers ended up level but when I untaped my bars, there were these nice little white lines on the bars for lining up the levers.
On some ergo road bars, you can’t move the hoods too high because of the shape of the bars. There was an article on this in Bicycling or some other mag last year. I’d like to move my hoods up to change the angle to match the angle of my arms better. It’s not a question of how far away the hoods are, just the angle.
DA 10s STI and brake levers are longer
Although the ergonomics of the DA 10 STI shifters/brake levers is much improved and requires less pressure form the fingers to achive a shift, but the levers are still on the long side for many riders (men and women). To make it easier to activate the lever with one finger, although it may look like many of the pro-tour riders have the bars turned upwards, they actually have the levers mounted further up the bend in the drops of the handlebars. My road bike is about average but I do have the shifters on my crit bike a bit higher so that I can use finger tips to moderate the brakes without taking my hands out of the drops.