Sunday, May 24, 2009

Getting the drop on Blue

After trying two arrangements with the time trial bars I really missed having the positions a drop bar offers. I had a set of 46 cm Salsa Bell Lap cyclocross bars left over from a project based on a Cross Check complete bike. The drops flare to a whopping 50 centimeters, which feels pretty weird, but the other proportions of the bar feel pretty good. The weird, wide drops aren't that bad. They actually ease some shoulder strain I get from holding my hands in perfect alignment with my more normal drop bars.

Open-face stems allow for experiments like this. The brake lever clamp is hinged. The whole change took minutes

One drawback to the drop bar: on every other drop bar bike I own I have regular road levers. In any urgent situation I reach automatically for the front brake. With the TT bar the whole setup was strange so I had no automatic response to a crisis. With the drop bar, but no road brake lever, I have been reaching to where the brake lever isn't. One way or another I will get trained out of that.

1 comment:

  1. Hey, I have those same bell lap bars, with the flare at the bottom. I found it odd at first, but now I really like the wide "stance" of my arms when in the drops.

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