dabac

Hi all,
Most of my riding is commuting, on an old rigid roadified MTB. And some XC on the weekends. Try to push fairly hard, have about an 18 mph average on the commuter through the suburbs. A few mph higher on the open road, a few lower when I hit downtown traffic. Bar is maybe 2" lower than the saddle.

Now, I've been tinkering with a drop bar bike.
And both the calculator at wrenchscience and at bikefit insists that whether it's a drop bar or a flat bar, the bar clamp should be at the same point front/rear. But given that a drop bar curves forward, and then the levers jut out even further. This means that when I'm on the hoods, my hands are easily 4" further ahead than on my flat bar. And I'm not really comfortable with that.

So what's wrong? Should I simply try to man up and adapt o what currently feels like excessive reach? Run a really dinky stem? Or try to find a smaller frame for my drop bar bike build?
What consequences on handling and ride quality can I expect from riding a supposedly too small/short drop bar bike? Assuming correct saddle height of course.

Igualmente

A lot of how this will work out depends on flexibility and your ability to increase your flexibility over time. I was inflexible, so I could not just jump from an mtb right onto an aggressive race bike and start piling on the miles. Also, I was starting with mtb handlebars that had a rise and were therefore closer to level with the saddle.

I ended up buying an endurance model road bike. With the stem flipped up, I still have handlebar tops only slightly below the saddle. This allows me use the drops when the speed gets up or the wind gets out of hand. I also have an 80mm stem instead of the 100mm that came on the bike. This means the bar clamp on the road bike is about 3 cm closer to the saddle than on the mtb. If my flexibility improves, I will make stem changes to increase reach and drop from saddle to handlebars.

The online calculators are helpful guides, but you have to use your judgment. They will not feel your pain or buy you ibuprofen.

fietsbob

1. Your frame may have a longer top tube. If so,

2. you probably should have bought a shorter stem .

That would be... HTFU .. I measured saddle nose to bar clamp on my road & 2 trekking bar bikes and My Brompton and they are darn near the same.

you wanted drop bars , bend over into the drops and Hammer Harder..

maybe you put the levers too far forward on the Bars. and turned them down too far.. like I can see anything

headloss 

This has been my experience as well. Of course, if your flatbar was out too far to begin with that would result in a stretch on the drops... I find that with flat bars and really long bar ends, my hand placement is close to my hand placement on dropbars with hoods. Going back and forth between two bikes, I actually have the fit close to exact. So, you either 1. need to adapt to the longer reach or 2. consider a shorter reach on your flat bars... I mean, it's *feel* and that's a personal thing, just have to find a happy medium that works for you. It helps to have a few extra stems available until you find the right feel.

LesterOfPuppets

I like 130 stem on my mongoose with risers. 100 with sgort reach drops.

I think the fit calcs are assuming flat bar riders would like a slightly more upright position.

LesterOfPuppets

Dug up some pics. Roadie one is before I got the road cranks on and got the fit dialed, but that's the stem I use for drops on there.

dabac

Thanks for the replies.
I have this idea that I'd like to be about as stretched out when on the hoods as when on the bar ends. Seemed like it'd be "cruising speed"/effort for both a speed oriented flat bar and for a drop bar bike. And the point to get the benefit of the multiple hand positions. "Casual" closest to the stem, "cruising" on the hoods, and in the drops for headwinds and descents.
Flexibility isn't a problem as such, I've got a good range of motion. It's primarily the hands that object to the extra stretch. And my back gets tired faster than on the flat bar.