Lman

Good day~night....whatever this finds you in .
i have a Co Op cty1.3 with flat bars.im just returning to biking and doing 25 mile rides. My hands are not liking the longer rides and I was thinking Butterfly handlebars might help raise me up and give me more options for hand placement. I've raised the bar as much as I can due to my hydro brake line is at its maximum strech. Hate to have to put a new line in.
Good people what say you ?

Steve B.

They make riser bars to gain more height, but it sounds like a new brake line as well. A bar can run $30 or so. Maybe ask the nice folks at REI for some help.

DaveSSS 

If you have too much weight on your hands, it may mean that the saddle is too far forward. A lot of people raise the bars when what they really need is more saddle setback. Bars that only offer one hand position also pose a problem. It's best to move the hands around to different positions.

bruce19

I would have thought that moving the saddle back would make the reach to the bars longer thus requiring more upper body lean and more pressure on the hands and wrists. What am I missing? I should mention this is hypothetical since I claim no expertise in this area.

delbiker1 

Drop style bars are what works best for me. More hand positions, better weight distribution. Flat bar upright and my hands go numb way too quuckly.

DaveSSS 

Moving the saddle back may also require a shorter stem. The only way to know is to try it. I have two road bikes with a slightly different reach. Reach is defined as the horizontal distance from a vertical line through the center of the BB to the top-center of the head tube. Most frame brands list both reach and stack dimensions, for easier comparison of two frames. The bike with the longer reach requires a 100mm stem and the other uses a 110mm to make the saddle to bar reach the same, with the saddles in the same position, relative to the bottom bracket. I rode the bike with the longer reach with a 110mm stem and the saddle further forward, but kept having some hand discomfort, so I moved it back 10mm and bought a shorter stem.

When setting up a new bike, I use the same saddle model and position the tip of the saddle in the same position, by dropping a plumb bob from the tip of the saddle and measuring the distance behind the BB. The bike needs to rest on a level floor and tilted to the side a bit, so the plumb bob hangs just in front of the crank. I position the crank with the arm pointing backward, in the horizontal position.

The too forward position often results from a fitter using the knee over pedal position (KOP) to set the saddle fore/aft location. They drop a plumb bob from the front of the knee and adjust the saddle, so the plumb line aligns with center of the pedal spindle. Its persistent myth that this is some sort of ideal position. I always have my saddle about 2cm further back and never use a zero setback seat post.

I'm 66 years old, but I still use a 10cm (4 inch) saddle to bar drop.

daoswald

Get a professional bike fitting. That's the best solution. A professional fitter will help you get dialed in. It may be that raising the handlebar feels great in the first five miles but in the last five it may be even worse.

I don't want to second-guess a professional fitting. But there are some thoughts:

Moving the saddle back a little will reduce pressure on the hands. Getting your reach a little further will also reduce downward pressure on the hands. You may like some Ergon GP3, GP4 or even GP5 grips to allow you to select different hand positions, but to also allow you to stretch out a little more on the bike. They are not cheap, but as someone who has owned GP1 and GP2 grips, I know they're pretty nice to have.

Neither of these suggestions have anything to do with going to the extreme of putting a butterfly bar on the bike. A bike that fits well will be comfortable on longer rides (as you get your body accustomed to the longer rides).

Keep in mind that a 25 mile ride probably takes you between 90 minutes and two hours. Are you comfortable sitting in your car with your hands at 10:00 and 2:00 and your foot in the same position on the gas pedal for two hours without a break? It's actually quite amazing that we're able to dial in our bikes to the point that a 3 hour or 5 hour ride can still be relatively comfortable.

bruce19

I didn't realize you were including the variable of a shorter stem since you hadn't mentioned it. My two road bikes are a CAAD12 and a Guru Sidero (steel). Both are 54 frames with a 100 mm stem. The saddle to bar drop on both is about 3 1/2". That seems to work well for me. FWIW, I'm 74 and started riding about 45 years ago. I began by setting up my bikes, roughly, using the LeMond-Guimard method. That's always worked well for me. As for KOPS, I will start there and then adjust to my needs.

DeadGrandpa

I have butterfly bars and like them very much, though I recently made some adjustments to the set up for the same hand numbness issue. First, I inverted the bars from the "wings down" position to "wings up", which raised the hand grips about 2 +1/2 inches. If you want to get a height in between those positions, you can invert the stem. You probably will have to replace the brake lines.

Next, I found that my saddle nose was inclined ever so slightly down, putting more pressure on my hands. Someone also recommended that I use the knee over pedal spindle method to determine the saddle position front/rear
so I am trying to find the perfect position and angle.

I also have installed on the handlebar, a full set of "Grab-On Grips", closed cell foam, as a foundation layer, and wrapped it with gel infused handlebar tape. The thicker grip area means less pressure per square inch of contact.
The beauty of the butterfly bars is that you not only have multiple hand positions, but you can rotate the bar to get the perfect angle to your shoulders.

Btw, I'm 67 and currently riding 35-55 miles per ride, 200 miles per week the last two weeks. I don't like drop bars anymore.

DaveSSS 

A common issue with road bikes is using handlebars with too much reach, I see new bikes with 100mm reach bars and 80mm stems, in the smaller sizes. It should be the other way around. Use short reach bars and then adjust the stem length, as needed,

philbob57

If your problem stems fromm putting too much weight on your hands/wrists/elbows/shoulders, the cure might be more core strength to enable you to hold yourself up more effectively.

But that 'just returning' phrase may mean that you just have to ride more to acclimate your body to riding.

shelbyfv

Certainly will give you more hand placement options. Butterfly bars are not expensive and should be an easy swap. You can fiddle with your contact points forever but your flat bars will still leave you with only one hand position.

AlmostTrick

Bike fit is a very personal issue, and can even change over time. Go ahead and move your saddle and bars around. Make one change at a time and roll with it for a while. I found tipping the front of the saddle up a tad helps quite a bit in reducing weight on my hands. Also, one well thought out good fitting position really can be all one needs in my experience. If you need to move your hands around to many different positions because of pain that to me is a sign that none of those positions are all that great.

Lman

Dave I just installed a 2" kicked back seat post along with a Brooks 133 saddle. I went ahead and ordered a set of butterfly bars that I should be able give me a more upright riding position. I'm still going to have to search for the sweet spot with the seat, i.e. how much nose up do I feels right. I really don't want to have to lengthen the front brake line.
Thank you every one for your insight !
Bruce that is what I was thinking, but on long rides when i can just raise my hand a couple of inches
I'm more upright and comfortable......we'll see

Lman

Dead grandpa, at 62 I'm right behind you ! Lol, but not yet in the shape your in , lol.
thanxs

BobbyG

In my 40s I started having issues with my straight-bar MTB-based commuter. I added in-board bar-ends to give me more hand positions. Then I added a "clip-on" aero bar. But after 10-years of that I converted it to drop bars. (I did it myself with some used parts from the co-op for under $70).

However, the right butterfly or trek bars may not require a hydraulic brake line change. The big question would be how comfortable are you riding with your hands away from the brake levers.

HerrKaLeun

+1 on the better adjustment of saddle etc.

Consider a Jones Handlebar to get multiple hand positions.

twowheeledthomp

Drop Style bars work well for me

freeranger

You could try adding bar ends or maybe some Ergon grips which are available with integrated bar ends, which would offer more hand positions. You state you are returning to cycling, so your core not be in "biking condition", causing you to put more weight on your hands. Lots of ways that your situation may be improved-hoping you may find what works for you soon.

pdlamb

It's not clear how long it's been since OP "returned to biking." If it's been less than 6 months or so, the best recommendation is probably to get used to riding for a couple hours at a time. Bar ends to give you multiple hand locations might be a very good idea, even at the beginning of this process.

I was going to discount a professional bike fit, given the cost, but by the time you start changing out bars, stems, saddles, and possibly hydraulic brake lines -- well, getting it right could be a break-even expense. (And then you add in the mechanics' charges to do all that!)

Lman

Pdlamb , it's been about 43 years....once I obtained my drivers license, peddling bikes went by the way side.
Now that I'm more mature....(lol), I would like to get more in shape and return to my youthful days of a bicycle being my form of transportation.

canklecat

Saddle adjustment is for optimal ergonomic pedaling -- knees, hips, lower back, etc. -- not for issues with the hands or upper body.

Flat bars, arced and slight riser bars are great for handling. That's why they're on almost every mountain bike. Narrow flat bars are great for city bikes for quick handling in tight spaces. But on longer rides my wrists and bases of my palms would ache.

I'm not sure what the advantage is for those ultra-wide flat bars but some of my friends who ride fixies use 'em. They also ride distances up to 50 miles, but they're also very experienced and worked up to those long sessions in the saddle. Wide flat bars seem less aero but there's something for everyone out there. I prefer narrow drops on my road bikes, while most folks seem to prefer wider drop bars nowadays. I like 'em 38-40cm wide at most.

The most comfortable and versatile handlebars I've found for hybrids and other-than-road bikes. are swept bars like the Nitto albatross, North Roads style and similar traditional bars. There's a reason those have persisted for decades. They work. I switched one hybrid to albatross bars after a neck and shoulder injury. At the time I thought I'd switch back to riser or flat bars after I recovered. Nope. The swept bars offer enough hand positions to be more versatile and still offer reasonably quick handling. And the default position feels better on my wrists.

Swept bars can change handling quite a bit, especially when standing to pedal, or slow speed maneuvers. So some folks trim the ends a bit if the grips knock their knees or top tube. Depends on the bike. My hybrid with albatross bars has a long top tube so there's no problem and I even installed a longer stem. With a quill stem I can adjust the height easily to suit myself, handy on days when my neck is stiffer than usual. Can't do that so easily with threadless.

Ergo grips with soft rubber and wide palm shelf help too. There are many choices but those with locking collars tend to stay put better. I've used friction fit grips and they tended to shift around on my arced bars with black enamel finish. No problems on chromed or aluminum bars.

PDKL45

Northroad type bars is a great suggestion. I had a back injury and have moved from drop bars to an Ergotec High Charisma stem with 660 Jones-type loop bars.

I have a set of Ergotec Moon Cruiser 31.8 (they're significantly different to the 25.4 version, confusingly enough) bars from Ergotec as well that are patiently waiting for a new bike.

https://www.ergotec.de/en/products/l...ng-lenker.html