"Simon Brooke" <
[email protected]> wrote
> in message <[email protected]>, DavidR
>> "Chris Eilbeck" <[email protected]> wrote
>>> John Hearns <[email protected]> writes:
>>
>>>> To explain to Maurice - if you have dropped bars, most of the time
>>>> spent riding is with the hands on top of the brake hoods.
>>>> Notice
>>>> these are made of rubber, and the forefinger and thumb wrap easily
>>>> round them.
>>
>> But that puts the thrust on the soft bits between the
>> forefingers and thumbs; hoods give little support for the palms.
>
> That's true of older designs, certainly; and a significant cause of
> cyclists' palsies certainly used to be pressure on the nerve that crosses
> this web. However the modern Campagnolo Ergo and Shimano STI levers have
> much broader hoods which give much better support. This may simply be a
> side effect of being big enough to accommodate the gear wire spool, but
> it
> still works; I find on Ergo hoods that the heel of my hand is well
> supported.
In this picture
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~anatomy/wrist-hand/bones/bones4.html
the hoods position requires that the bar runs down the thumb to the left of
the pisiform. This part contains the nerves, blood vessels and tendons. I
contact the bar above the pisiform.
The pisiform provides a very effective notch in all positions on straight
bar/bar ends and reaction point for braking on straight bars. It comes into
play on the transverse and drop parts of
drop bars. It is not used on the corner, on the hoods (at least,
conventionally) and completely impossible to bring into play for braking
from the hoods.
Interestingly I had a comment from a rider with integrated controls (Campag
if I recall) that downtube shifters were more convenient. And he uses the
hoods in the "conventional" position.
>> I suggest it is much easier to get to the controls from an off the
>> control position on flat bars than it is on drops.
>
> That's possibly true, but one rides on the drops relatively rarely (high
> speed sprinting, primarily) whereas on a flat bar bike on non-technical
> routes one will often be on the bar-ends 50% of the time.
I agree about the use of the actual drop as you describe. I didn't agree
with the OP that braking from the hoods is a recommendation over straight
bars. If bar ends are used 50% of the time, so a rider will similarly not
be on the hoods 50% of the time.
The question is which 50% is more critical in unexpected stuations?
From observation and experience, riders with drop bars are far more likely
to get caught out.
>> I usually brake from the drop anyway because my hands are not on the
>> controls in the first place and the leverage from the drop is greater.
>
> Then fix your brakes. You ought to be able to lift the rear wheel with
> two
> finger pressure from the hoods.
Then many riders I know must have broken brakes too. By experiment
my braking distance roughly doubles from the hoods compared to the
drop.
As an aside, why is it so difficult to get decent brake blocks? Apart from
Koolstops it seems to me that manufacturers go out of their way to avoid
providing strong braking. Astecs are ok but some blocks are just hard and
ineffective - as in offering little more than 0.3g.
That's "number"
