bluefoxicy

Well I got the bike and it's better and it's light and easy to ride, but I have no idea how to ride it. Drop bars, weird brifters, the like. I think the seat needs to go back some, and definitely down since I'm ankling some and it's making my feet hurt. Can't figure out the brakes--where I'm holding the handlebars it sucks, and I get poor braking force... I think I'm supposed to just reach for the brakes and grab them in an emergency. The way the bike's set up, I won't have the reflexes to not endo; I'm pretty sure I can keep it on the ground, and the geometry's a lot better and resists endoing, but I'm leaning up and over and forward when I reach to brake and I need to react to that.

So... do I go commute? Or do I go ride around in the church parking lot for a while and figure out how this thing works?

hubcap

I suggest you become more comfortable with operating the bike before mixing it up with traffic.

bluefoxicy

Valid concern. I was thinking more the 13 miles between me and the office, but notably the last route I had was not a very traffic-intensive route and this route is very traffic-intensive. Don't want the bike to get damaged.

WonderMonkey

If it is the distance that is your concern drive your vehicle (with your bike) to within about 5 miles of where you work and park. Then ride into work and then back to your vehicle at the end of the day. Not only are you practicing your setup you are getting used to commuting and testing "things". As you feel ready park further and further away.

MichaelW

Check that the bike is a correct size and for for you.

ThermionicScott 

On the road, in traffic, is no place to figure out how to use a road bike.

bluefoxicy

The light rail follows the commute path roughly. Who needs to drive?

Telly

First take the bike to your LBS and have the technician look it over and adjust the bike to your dimension before even starting to think of riding it on public roads. You should feel safe on it before you can feel confident to ride it with other vehicles around.

RaleighSport

Looks like the good advice crew has been here, so I shall simply wish you the best on your new bike commute venture.

hubcap

Where are your hand situated on the bars? Here is a layman's article on hand positions that I recommend you read over.

https://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2012/...roduction.html

Popeyecahn

1100+ posts here? HTFU.

WonderMonkey

There you go then. Find the stop that makes sense for you and start and end there.

RaleighSport

1100+ posts on not a road bike...

Popeyecahn

Please. Seriously, is the OP joking or what? Because that how it sounds.

tjspiel

The first thing to do is make sure everything is adjusted properly. The brifter/drop bar combination is definitely different from other types of bars and will take some getting used to.

FWIW I have calipers on my road bike and discs on my winter bike. They feel very differently from each other. No matter which bike I get on, if I've been using the other bike for awhile the brakes will feel "wrong" to me.

It's not clear from your post where you're putting your hands on the bars. Most of the time you'll want them on the hoods of the brifters or on the drops. You should have finger tip access to shift and brake levers from those positions. If not there's some adjusting to be done.

Bars can be rotated up or down. Different stems can be used to move the bars forward or backwards and higher or lower. The brifters themselves can be repositioned on the bars. Additionally with some brifters you can use an adjustment screw to move the levers towards the bars.

Even with all the adjustments above, on one bike I could never quite get things where I wanted them so I ended up replacing the bars with another set of drop bars that had flatter ramps and flared out a bit.

Leisesturm

Have you ever seen a parent naked? Especially an opposite sex parent? Made you feel pretty creepy right? That is exactly how it feels to people who recognize your userid and see it posting reasoned, cogent and helpful responses to a *cough* troll *cough*. Ok... I get that there just might not be that much shame in your game... there is also this: everytime someone posts in a troll thread, God kills a kitten. True. God does not like ugly. Think of the kittens if you can't be bothered to think of your own self-respect.

H

WonderMonkey

I have 1,042 posts and I've never been on a road bike.

Or I'm missing something.

MarkvW

5:30 on a Sunday morning in a residential neighborhood is a magical time. You'll have the roads to yourself. Great time to practice.

dscheidt

Impressive death grip on those bars...

alexaschwanden

Double face palm!

bluefoxicy

This was extremely helpful. I've got like a hundred different things I can do with this bike, but this boils it down to putting my hand in 5 places, and recommends the most useful positions and why. Makes things clearer, now I think I have enough information to work this out.

/Saddest part: I have enough information to draw a WBS for learning to ride a road bike. (Or any bike)

PatrickGSR94

What is the point of this post? I see nothing that would indicate the OP is a troll. I know *many* people who ONLY ride MTB's on off-road trails. I myself had never used drop bars before I purchased my first road bike last fall. But having been a member here and perusing the road and commuting forums, I had a pretty good idea of how they worked, and the LBS helped me out, also. But if my wife were to try to ride my bike, there's no way she would know what to do with those bars and brifters.

Popeyecahn

I dunno, this comment: "I think I'm supposed to just reach for the brakes and grab them in an emergency."

Granted we should be easy on newbs and the like, and yes there's not much to go on here to completely understand the OP's situation i.e. cycle comprehension and training but after spending enough time here to generate over 1100 posts, you'd think a person would have figured a thing or two out by now.

PatrickGSR94

Consider that pretty much everyone learns to ride a bike that has more or less flat handlebars with lever brakes near the grips. Almost everyone continues using this setup until such time as they decide to get a road bike in adult-hood. I've seen or heard of very, very few teens and younger children using any sort of drop bar road bike. It makes perfect sense to me that the OP probably doesn't have full grasp on how to use them at first. Now whether or not the OP should have gotten that style of bike/handlebar without prior knowledge is beside the point. The bike has already been purchased and now OP want to learn how to use it properly.

Looking through OP's started threads, there's tons of them in the off-topic forums, and some here in commuting and others from when he was commuting ~7 miles, presumably either on the GT Tachyon or on a folding bike.

tjspiel

To me it sounds like he was ridding on the tops. It does seem strange that someone who has posted that much really doesn't know where to put his hands when it comes to drop bars. On the other hand, I got my first road bike when I around 12 or 13. A decade later, kids went from BMX bikes to mountain bikes. Depending on where one lives they may have never really gotten a good look at how people position their hands on a drop bar.