Lance's high brake lever positioning

LOL, i forgot to post the link! :p

velonews.com6632.0.htmlOpen ↗

con Brio said:

If you look closely at Lance's road bike in the '04 TdF, you will see just how high he has his brake levers, and thus also the brake hoods, positioned. Does anybody here also ride like that, and if so, why?

I like to ride like that. Not because I'm any good or am emulating Lance, but rather because it's more comfortable and I'm seldom in the drops.

Doctor Morbius said:

I like to ride like that. Not because I'm any good or am emulating Lance, but rather because it's more comfortable and I'm seldom in the drops.

Mine are a little high as well, for the same reason. I very rarely ride in the drops, just when I'm heading downhill. I ride mostly on the hoods, and keeping them a little high helps my lower back pain.

Robbie

Me too. It's just the way I set it up one day and found that my back felt better during long rides. And I'm like Doc. I don't ride in the drops very much.

con Brio said:

If you look closely at Lance's road bike in the '04 TdF, you will see just how high he has his brake levers, and thus also the brake hoods, positioned. Does anybody here also ride like that, and if so, why?

Here's a small Q&A article about what I'm taking about. Scroll down to the last question near the bottom of the page.

I think he does that because of the way Shimano hoods are shaped. They tend to have a big "dip" where the hood meets the bar. It is hard to get a flat top on the bar with Shimano... so many people simply raise their hoods until they're flat. Iban Mayo actually puts pieces of bike tire under his Shimano hoods to beef them up and remove the Shimano "dip".
Check it out.

One of the big reasons I prefer Campagnolo to Shimano is because I find their hoods much more comfortable. The transition from hood to bar is much more fluid.

I ride campy, but I also have my levers up pretty high... It is for comfort for me like the rest of the posts... I also have a 6 degree rise stem...

gregk said:

I think he does that because of the way Shimano hoods are shaped. They tend to have a big "dip" where the hood meets the bar. It is hard to get a flat top on the bar with Shimano... so many people simply raise their hoods until they're flat. Iban Mayo actually puts pieces of bike tire under his Shimano hoods to beef them up and remove the Shimano "dip".
Check it out.

One of the big reasons I prefer Campagnolo to Shimano is because I find their hoods much more comfortable. The transition from hood to bar is much more fluid.

You would not have this 'dip' issue with the new DA and Ultegra 10s' .

You can get a pretty flat bar top with them.