jefnvk

Yep, but it never ceases to amuse me how set people get in their ideas. I actually tried to get my wife to just take her flat bar hybrid when it turned out that the old mixte conversion was not going well, for most of the reasons @Stadjer mentioned. She regularly rides that thing 40 miles on organized rides, but just had it in her head that drop bars were what one needed for touring. At least she came to the realization on her own after seeing all the flat bars this trip.

Stadjer

Maybe that misconception is part of the explanation. Probably most tourers here have already decided against dropbars because they only know them from road bikes, if you buy a 2500 euro touring bike in specialized bike shop they will surely put a drop bar on it for you to try, but you'll have to ask. That's something that surprised on this forum in general: in America there seems to be hardly a division between cyclists for the sport of it and cyclists for transportation, also in the kinds of bikes and bars used. Here there's a clear division a drop bar usually means switching from cycling to sports. Commuter bikes with drop bars are usually vintage.

Comfort has a lot to do with what you're use to. If I was buying a bike to tour a drop bar would mean that I'd have to train before the vacation to have my back and bum get used to the whole new riding position and the legs will be used in another way too, with a flat bar the difference would be much smaller and the view over traffic from a more upright position would be nice in unknown traffic. If I'd plan on crossing the windy uplands of Mongolia it might be different and I'd probably train for it anyway, but I've no plans in that direction. On the contrary, one of the things that appeals to me about touring is making travelling itself the main part of vacation again, for me that would be instead of getting to a vacation destination first. And I will probably end up with a swept bar touring bike anyway, I'm quite set in my ideas too.

djb

Stad, and throughout all this conversation, remains the fact that people do long trips on all kinds of bars, and if they are comfortable on x, y or z, who cares.

DropBarFan

Germany & Netherlands are big markets for touring bikes--their disdain for drop bars means there's much less incentive for Shimano/Rohloff etc to produce drop-bar touring components. Now with 10/11-speed drivetrains MTB/trekking stuff doesn't work with road/drop-bar levers. I'd like to try a wide-range 3X9/10 drivetrain with hydro brifters but that's not even in the picture.

jefnvk

Not levers, but I have a 3x10 Deore setup on drop bars with bar ends, if those aren't objectionable to you. I've given half a thought to putting hydro brakes on it.

And isn't the 9 speed road and MTB stuff still indexed the same?

Stadjer

I don't. Drop bar riders offer a disappointing draft, but that's my only stake in the matter.

djb

hi stad, not sure of there was a misunderstanding. All I meant was despite what I had written, I realize that lots of people ride comfortably on many types of non drop bars, which is great.
cheers

DropBarFan

I use bar-ends & like them well enough & yes, they allow one to use a wider range of options. However if the idea is for flat-bar riders to try drop-bars it seems they would want to keep the advantage of having brake levers & shifters within quick easy reach. Shimano discontinued the Tiagra wide-range 3x9 drivetrain/brifters, new 4700 10-sp Tiagra has higher gearing. Shimano still has Sora 3x9 brifters but I'm not sure how good they are.

I wouldn't even go on about the flat-bar thing but IMO the German bikes are overall quite ahead in adopting sensible technology like lightweight aluminum frames, front shocks & hydraulic brakes.

jefnvk

Ah ok, l don't pay much attention to system availability. I do understand the logic, after having an old bike with friction shifters, my wife refuses to even consider bar ends over brifters. On the flip side, I find brifters to be completely different than triggers, other than both have all controls right where the hands often are there isn't much similarity, and never got comfortable with brifters despite liking my triggers.

djb

ten speed tiagra chainsets of 50/39/30 have a diff bolt pattern, so you cannot physically put a smaller granny than 30 on it.

the sora 9 speed brifters are well made, my wife had a pair of the old sora ones, with the thumb trigger shifter thing (Like Campy ) and they always felt kinda cheap, and one ended up breaking. I tried relubing the internals to fix it, but I think a part just wore out, so I bought a new pair of the newer 9 sp Sora's, with the paddle shifter, and having ridden on 9 sp Tiagra a lot, I have to say that the 9 sp Sora's feel just like the Tiagra. Smooth, easy action, and has a build quality feel like the Tiagras. I have ridden my Tiagra shifters for a good 8 seasons and they work and feel fine, and I suspect the newer Soras would be just as good.

and yes , you could easily use a deore 9 sp rear derailleur with sora shifters and easily have a 34t cassette with a long cage rd, and teh shift ratio thingee would match up.

Stadjer

I believe we agree about everything except our personal preference in bars, but I spent too much words on making sure there was no misunderstanding,almost creating one in the process.

fietsbob

Will there be enough Cell Towers for you, there?

jefnvk

For me, or whom

I will say their mobile network left much lacking, there weren't enough towers for my liking. But, that's how life goes, I did just fine. It wasn't difficult to get a SIM, as this was a question that came up a month or two back in another thread, just took a bit because of us landing on Bastille Day and nothing being open til Monday afternoon, by which time I was away from bigger towns until I hit Orleans on Wednesday.

DropBarFan

That's a bit surprising, I would have thought a fairly populous & mostly flat region would have had pretty reliable coverage. OTOH I have a tower 1 mile from my house & reception is marginal.

jefnvk

I mean, foot thick brick walls from the 17th century probably doesn't help reception much either

But yeah, a lot of where we were was nothing but small farming villages and not densly habitated areas, made sense the more I thought about it. Field land in Michigan isn't all that much better.

Stadjer

In Europe the coverage often varies with the provider, the cheap ones will often have some regions lacking. And it's France of course, probably a number of civil servants in Paris will have to make sure the tower doesn't affect the farm animals and therefore the taste of the cheese before a permit for a tower is given.