Am I likely to have trouble with a 'proper' road bike?

[Illaveago]

I prefer riding a road bike to a bike with straight bars . I have used bikes with flat bars but find that after a while my wrists and elbows hurt. Riding on drop handlebars offers you more variation in where to place your hands. Just with your hands on the top of the bars you have 3 options , hoods , bends and tops. You can drop down lower when going down hill or heading into a headwind .
If you are near me you could contact me to try one out , I have several in different sizes .

 

[icowden]

Pop to your local bike shop and take one for a test cycle.

 

[mjr]

I also hardly ever use the drops. I might go into them for a few minutes just to get a different position, but I probably have more rides where I don't go into the drops at all than ones where I spend even a couple of minutes in them.

There's no point spending the extra on a road bike over a lightweight roadster (a road/path or a cafe racer, basically a hybrid stripped of most of the MTB features that make it a hybrid) if you're not going to use drops or maybe the full gear range.

Even fitting a hybrid with better handlebars with rise and sweep allow most of the benefits of multiple hand placements and a more streamlined riding position.

 

[Alex321]

There's no point spending the extra on a road bike over a lightweight roadster (a road/path or a cafe racer, basically a hybrid stripped of most of the MTB features that make it a hybrid) if you're not going to use drops or maybe the full gear range.

I disagree. The riding position even on the hoods is very different to that on flat bars, and so is the type of pressure through the hands.

I would be getting numb hands after about an hour or so on the hybrid, I hardly ever do even after more than 2 hours on the road bike.

I do use the full gear range on my road bike, BTW.

And from what I have seen, a large majority of road cyclists spend most of their time riding on the hoods - even the professionals in races.

Even fitting a hybrid with better handlebars with rise and sweep allow most of the benefits of multiple hand placements and a more streamlined riding position.

Possibly, but my hybrid was a much heavier bike than the road bike is, and a very different general feel to riding the bike.

 

[mjr]

I disagree. The riding position even on the hoods is very different to that on flat bars, and so is the type of pressure through the hands.

I would be getting numb hands after about an hour or so on the hybrid, I hardly ever do even after more than 2 hours on the road bike.

Then your hybrid is not set up correctly IMO. There should be almost no weight on the hands, plus swept bars exist. I really don't understand how awful unergonomic straight bars persist. But please do not advise people against hybrids based on a dodgy riding position.

Wanting the gear range is a fine reason for a road bike, though.

 

[mjr]

And from what I have seen, a large majority of road cyclists spend most of their time riding on the hoods - even the professionals in races.

Missed this. Pro racing has different needs. There's aero benefit being in the bunch which reduces the need for very streamlined positions and seeing over or around the bottom in front is desirable. When they know they'll be riding alone, in a time trial, flat ski bars and central aero rests are almost always used. This is all about as relevant to our riding as the latest F1 bodywork styling is to my car.

 

[Alex321]

Then your hybrid is not set up correctly IMO. There should be almost no weight on the hands, plus swept bars exist. I really don't understand how awful unergonomic straight bars persist. But please do not advise people against hybrids based on a dodgy riding position.

Wanting the gear range is a fine reason for a road bike, though.

I wouldn't advise anybody against hybrids, unless they are asking specific questions where hybrids would not be a good answer.

For my personal riding, I strongly prefer my road bike over my hybrid for most of what I do. But I am sure that at least part of that is down to the fact it is just a better quality and much lighter bike (over 4Kg difference in weight). And another part is probably down to the difference between a carbon frame and an aluminium one.

Oddly, I never felt I was putting more weight overall on the hands on my hybrid, it was I think more about the part of the hand the pressure was being exerted on.

 

[Alex321]

Missed this. Pro racing has different needs. There's aero benefit being in the bunch which reduces the need for very streamlined positions and seeing over or around the bottom in front is desirable. When they know they'll be riding alone, in a time trial, flat ski bars and central aero rests are almost always used. This is all about as relevant to our riding as the latest F1 bodywork styling is to my car.

True, but I wasn't suggesting only the pros do it. Almost everybody I have seen riding does it.

Time trialling is different - in that situation you are going for maximum speed, usually over a relatively short period, so comfort is of little importance.

 

[mjr]

True, but I wasn't suggesting only the pros do it. Almost everybody I have seen riding does it.

I feel that's partly imitation/fashion/cool among people who would probably be better off with a more relaxed bike, partly it's that the drops on many modern handlebars vary from uncomfortable to unusable (such as shallow drop areas with the tops tilted back and in). I'll happily ride miles in the drops of a bar such as Sakae World Champion.

 

[cyberknight]

Riding on the hoods arms bent is more aero than riding on the drops
https://road.cc/content/news/133598-want-ride-faster-hunker-down-hoods

 

[Jameshow]

Missed this. Pro racing has different needs. There's aero benefit being in the bunch which reduces the need for very streamlined positions and seeing over or around the bottom in front is desirable. When they know they'll be riding alone, in a time trial, flat ski bars and central aero rests are almost always used. This is all about as relevant to our riding as the latest F1 bodywork styling is to my car.

Not at all if your are doing a century then body position and aero gains are important imho.

Why waste energy acting like a windsock!

 

[cyberknight]

another thing to consider with "modern" bikes with brifters is the actual body position is very similar to old school bikes with down tube shifters when riding on the drops
https://bikeretrogrouch.blogspot.com/2013/10/changing-positions.html

 

[figbat]

Riding on the hoods arms bent is more aero than riding on the drops
https://road.cc/content/news/133598-want-ride-faster-hunker-down-hoods

I’m glad you’ve posted that - I had intuitively thought that this would be the case and often crouch low from the hoods on fast descents; when I do it I usually wonder to myself if it is actually more aerodynamic.

 

[cyberknight]

I’m glad you’ve posted that - I had intuitively thought that this would be the case and often crouch low from the hoods on fast descents; when I do it I usually wonder to myself if it is actually more aerodynamic.

descents are a whole different ball game i think, you need control and get better leverage on the brakes , for short ones i just stay on the hoods but on descents where i can see clear road i will have my hands on the tops with my chin practically on the bars or on the drops arems bent and back as flat as i can aka nibali 3 and 6
https://www.velonews.com/training/a...2ZysDo0yFojXyB0wqI3zhGJ3umYgYhTsHjbP1XnoU_WOA
https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/wind-tunnel-test-what-is-the-fastest-descending-position

 

[mjr]

Riding on the hoods arms bent is more aero than riding on the drops
https://road.cc/content/news/133598-want-ride-faster-hunker-down-hoods

That article seems inaccurate, claiming that "Moving from the hoods to a traditional drops racing posture resulted in quite a small saving" when the experiment used the same modern drop bars throughout and did not test traditional drops.