Do they make drop handlebars with a very short drop?

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?

Preston

1. get on old bullhorn bar from 80's/90's tt bike.
2. just cut the drops off regular bars.
3. look at a set of cross bars, or mustache bars. Salsa maybe? google
mustache bar

Dear Preston:
On One makes a handlebar called the "Midge" that features a very
short drop. Your LBS should be able to order them through Quality
Bicycle Parts or other distributors, or you can try on line vendors.

Robert Leone [email hidden]

jerry in vermont said:

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?

Preston

SNIP

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[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?

Preston

The old Cinelli Giro d'Italia (Art. 64?) bar had a very short drop. There
must be thousands in the back rooms of older bicycle shops. If you pay more
than $20 you're being taken.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

In article <[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?

_ Salsa makes a bunch of different bars with very short drop(
Poco ). You could also get wider bars, or just hacksaw off the
bits you don't want. Many newer bars come with annoyingly short
flat sections to save weight (Ritchey BioMax ).

- - Booker C. Bense

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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?

I don't think this is totally unusual. One partial solution is to
rotate the bars upward, which moves the ends forward a little.
Old practice was to have the drop section of the bar be parallel
to the ground, but a lot of people like to have the bar end pointing
roughly at the rear brake. Another thing to do is to cut an inch
or so off the end of the bar, leaving enough space to grip -
especially works for someone with small hands.

email hidden said:

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?

I don't think this is totally unusual. One partial solution is to
rotate the bars upward, which moves the ends forward a little.
Old practice was to have the drop section of the bar be parallel
to the ground, but a lot of people like to have the bar end pointing
roughly at the rear brake. Another thing to do is to cut an inch
or so off the end of the bar, leaving enough space to grip -
especially works for someone with small hands.

Well, in the old days you could bend both the bar and brake handle
with the cutouts in the wrenches used for hanging them on the bench.
Used to be a welder at Proteus Bikes in College Park, MD that could
damn near 'custom build' a smaller set, then cut off the ends
appropriately. Don't have a clue how well the current stock of bars
would hold up to the double wrench curve process.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

Thanks for all the tips. We'll look into those. In the meantime I did a
really horrible photoshop job of kind of what I'm envisioning in case
people are having trouble picturing it.

http://static.flickr.com/65/200492572_6a6fdf8204.jpg?v=0

Thanks again!

Preston

jerry in vermont said:

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?

Preston

1. get on old bullhorn bar from 80's/90's tt bike.

Ooh. That's not a bad idea. So take a bullhorn bar and flip it the
other way, then?

Quoted message said:

2. just cut the drops off regular bars.
3. look at a set of cross bars, or mustache bars. Salsa maybe? google
mustache bar

I'll look at those. Obviously one consideration is that if possible I
think she wants to keep the same shifting set (cheap Sora). Otherwise
she could just go to a straight bar, which defeats the purpose. She
wants her hands turned such that she's riding in the hoods.

Preston

Preston:

As Jerry in vermont suggested, you can just chop off the ends of the
regular bar. In fact, some triathletes install the brake levers and
then chop the bars just below the levers. In the 70s and 80s the
aerobars where regular road bars with the ends chopped off and then
installed w the ends pointing up.

Andres

Quoted message said:

Thanks for all the tips. We'll look into those. In the meantime I did a
really horrible photoshop job of kind of what I'm envisioning in case
people are having trouble picturing it.

http://static.flickr.com/65/200492572_6a6fdf8204.jpg?v=0

Thanks again!

Preston

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.

--
Michael Press

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

email hidden 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?

I'd just cut the drops back if they are over long and just be mindful to not
knee them. No different from how I live with toe / wheel overlap.

Ron

RonSonic said:

I'd just cut the drops back if they are over long and just be mindful to not
knee them. No different from how I live with toe / wheel overlap.

You cut your toes off?

Eric S said:

RonSonic said:

I'd just cut the drops back if they are over long and just be mindful to not
knee them. No different from how I live with toe / wheel overlap.

You cut your toes off?

Just the toe clips. Lost those years ago. I do avoid sticking my feet into the
front wheel, just as I'm suggesting she not knee the bars.

Ron

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.