Will I ever get used to it.....

[caiss4]

Following on from the 'Goals for 2015' thread http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... I went out yesterday on my first road bike ride since....ever!

It was about 32kms and I coped reasonably well (whole bunch of PR's compared to my MTB on common tarmac segments) but what I thought might cause issues (gear changing-coming from a MTB) was not a problem but braking... WTF!

Why oh why are road bike brake levers placed where you are least likely to have your hands?

I thought the problem would be brake efficiency (rim v discs) but actually I find it's all down to trying to find the b****y brake levers.

Is it me? Will I eventually develop the skill? Any tips or advice (icluding stick to a MTB!)?

[Jimbo.]

caiss4 said:

Following on from the 'Goals for 2015' thread http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... I went out yesterday on my first road bike ride since....ever!

It was about 32kms and I coped reasonably well (whole bunch of PR's compared to my MTB on common tarmac segments) but what I thought might cause issues (gear changing-coming from a MTB) was not a problem but braking... WTF!

Why oh why are road bike brake levers placed where you are least likely to have your hands?

I thought the problem would be brake efficiency (rim v discs) but actually I find it's all down to trying to find the b****y brake levers.

Is it me? Will I eventually develop the skill? Any tips or advice (icluding stick to a MTB!)?

It's you. Try riding with your hands on what are known as the hoods - the top of the shifters. This drapes your fingers over the brake levers. Or ride with your hand "in" (for want of a better word) the front of the drops (the current name escapes me at the moment), fingers over the brake levers.

EDIT: Where are you currently holding the bars?

Edited by Jimbo. on Thursday 1st January 20:37

[uncinqsix]

Jimbo. said:

It's you. Try riding with your hands on what are known as the hoods - the top of the shifters. This drapes your fingers over the brake levers. Or ride with your hand "in" (for want of a better word) the front of the drops (the current name escapes me at the moment), fingers over the brake levers.

EDIT: Where are you currently holding the bars?

Edited by Jimbo. on Thursday 1st January 20:37

I still don't feel particularly comfortable braking from the hoods - I find it more difficult to apply significant force to the lever. If I'm doing any sort of serious descent, I get into the drops so I can use the ends of the levers and thus less force.

[caiss4]

Jimbo. said:

It's you. Try riding with your hands on what are known as the hoods - the top of the shifters. This drapes your fingers over the brake levers. Or ride with your hand "in" (for want of a better word) the front of the drops (the current name escapes me at the moment), fingers over the brake levers.

EDIT: Where are you currently holding the bars?

Edited by Jimbo. on Thursday 1st January 20:37

Generally I was riding with my hands on the hoods but I found it difficult to get enough leverage on the brake levers so ended up slowing early before junctions (on my MTB I'd just pedal at full tilt within a few metres and then hit the brakes).

[Mr Gear]

caiss4 said:

Jimbo. said:

It's you. Try riding with your hands on what are known as the hoods - the top of the shifters. This drapes your fingers over the brake levers. Or ride with your hand "in" (for want of a better word) the front of the drops (the current name escapes me at the moment), fingers over the brake levers.

EDIT: Where are you currently holding the bars?

Edited by Jimbo. on Thursday 1st January 20:37

Generally I was riding with my hands on the hoods but I found it difficult to get enough leverage on the brake levers so ended up slowing early before junctions (on my MTB I'd just pedal at full tilt within a few metres and then hit the brakes).

This is why I tell people who want a commuter bike or just something for cruising on the road to get a flat-bar bike.

Drop-bars are pointless if you spend the whole time on the hoods. They are good if you want to go fast and prepared to get into a good aero position though.

[caiss4]

Mr Gear said:

This is why I tell people who want a commuter bike or just something for cruising on the road to get a flat-bar bike.

Drop-bars are pointless if you spend the whole time on the hoods. They are good if you want to go fast and prepared to get into a good aero position though.

Thanks. I'm going to work on it then and see if I can spend more time on the drops (after the Christmas excess has disappeared)

[Daveyraveygravey]

Mr Gear said:

This is why I tell people who want a commuter bike or just something for cruising on the road to get a flat-bar bike.

Drop-bars are pointless if you spend the whole time on the hoods. They are good if you want to go fast and prepared to get into a good aero position though.

That's bullst. Drop bars give you about 5 places to put your hands; flat bars give you two at most, and they are similar. If you ride for any time or distance, the more places to put your hands the better.
As to braking, the most efficient place and the one with most control is down on the drops. On a long scary descent or in busy traffic it is best to be on the drops to anticipate what may happen. Braking on the hoods is possible but you'll have less control and less force, but you can spend the majority of the time on the hoods or the flat part of the bars and still be safe.

[okgo]

Daveyraveygravey said:

That's bullst. Drop bars give you about 5 places to put your hands; flat bars give you two at most, and they are similar. If you ride for any time or distance, the more places to put your hands the better.
As to braking, the most efficient place and the one with most control is down on the drops. On a long scary descent or in busy traffic it is best to be on the drops to anticipate what may happen. Braking on the hoods is possible but you'll have less control and less force, but you can spend the majority of the time on the hoods or the flat part of the bars and still be safe.

+1

If you have big hands it helps with hod braking, I barely ever have hands in the drops when training, but I've not got any issues with leverage or braking from the hoods thanks to my shovel hands

Anyway, you do get used to it, I ride a flat bar bike now and it feels stupid and I wonder how anyone rides one for any period of time.

[mikees]

Decent pads? Try Swiss stop green, made the world of difference over my stock ultegra pads.

Mike

[j00pY]

You will get used to using the brakes from the hoods. I thought I wouldn't be able to get used to that at all and it was my small hands holding me back, but now I think I can give a decent amount of braking power on the hoods. Just give it time.

[Jimshorts]

If it continues to be a problem then you could fit additional cross levers which fit inline on the brake cable and fit onto the flat of the bar.

[Gizmoish]

Daveyraveygravey said:

Mr Gear said:

This is why I tell people who want a commuter bike or just something for cruising on the road to get a flat-bar bike.

Drop-bars are pointless if you spend the whole time on the hoods. They are good if you want to go fast and prepared to get into a good aero position though.

That's bullst. Drop bars give you about 5 places to put your hands; flat bars give you two at most, and they are similar. If you ride for any time or distance, the more places to put your hands the better.
As to braking, the most efficient place and the one with most control is down on the drops. On a long scary descent or in busy traffic it is best to be on the drops to anticipate what may happen. Braking on the hoods is possible but you'll have less control and less force, but you can spend the majority of the time on the hoods or the flat part of the bars and still be safe.

Agreed. Moreover it was recently down that the hoods can actually be more aero than the drops.

[Mr Gear]

Daveyraveygravey said:

That's bullst. Drop bars give you about 5 places to put your hands; flat bars give you two at most, and they are similar. If you ride for any time or distance, the more places to put your hands the better.
As to braking, the most efficient place and the one with most control is down on the drops. On a long scary descent or in busy traffic it is best to be on the drops to anticipate what may happen. Braking on the hoods is possible but you'll have less control and less force, but you can spend the majority of the time on the hoods or the flat part of the bars and still be safe.

You appear to be mostly in agreement with me.

[sjg]

mikees said:

Decent pads? Try Swiss stop green, made the world of difference over my stock ultegra pads.

Mike

Maybe not just pads, my first road bike was a EBC cheap one and the brakes were terrible - no confidence braking from the hoods at all.

When I replaced it with a bike with 105, there was a night and day difference. May be worth looking at replacing the calipers with some cheap dual pivot ones (eg. Tiagra ones are £15 on CRC) if the bike doesn't have them - I find brakes are one area that gets skimped with budget bikes.

[Berz]

As said above, you will get used to it. If you ride on the hoods with fingers covering the levers it's not that different to being on your MTB because the levers are just there. If you're sat more upright with hands near the stem you have a longer reaction time because you need to reach around to find the brakes; at first this can put you off but over time you become a lot more aware of danger which compensates for it and which helps your general road safety.

[caiss4]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll adopt the advice to use the drops in traffic and descents and in good time for forseeable obstacles.

Once I've found out how good the current brakes are then a pad upgrade may be something to consider. BTW,the bike's a 2014 Giant Defy 4 with Claris gear

[WarrenG]

I have two bikes in a usable state of road riding - a claris equipped winter hack and a Campy Veloce dry bike. But I have used both in all conditions and the standard pads on the Campy brakes are unbelievably better than the boggo shimano. I have also significantly outstopped a friend on his SRAM Red 22 using the campy bike.

as for hoods riding ;

BELGIAN STYLE // Riding primarily with hands positioned on the hoods.
“Look how clean the tape is on that dude’s drops! He must be a Belgian Style specialist.”

[Daveyraveygravey]

Mr Gear said:

You appear to be mostly in agreement with me.

Eh?! You made two statements, both of which I would disagree with.

"This is why I tell people who want a commuter bike or just something for cruising on the road to get a flat-bar bike."

A bike marketer would say this, looking for two sales. If you are NOT interested in cycling, just looking for a cheap way of getting from AtoB, maybe get a flat bar bike (with normal pedals). Chances are, you will end up getting into it, and realise that you want/need something more suitable.

"Drop-bars are pointless if you spend the whole time on the hoods. They are good if you want to go fast and prepared to get into a good aero position though."

Flat bar bikes, to me, are less comfortable than drop bar bikes because you can't move your position as much. I bought bar ends for my MTB because I hated being stuck in one position - there is no other place to put your hands on my MTB. It isn't just about "getting into a good aero position". And drop bars tend to be narrower than flat bars, so if you are ducking and diving in traffic, that's another benefit.

[donfisher]

I find that on my commute, long stretches of filtering using the brakes from the hoods much less comfortable than using them on something with flat bars. I also find that on rides over a couple of hours long having the flexibility of all the different positions on drop bars a real boost to the comfort.

The thing is that my comute is not over two hours long and I'd be very unlikely to be filtering for over a couple of hours in my spare time. My next commuter will probably have flat bars perhaps with some bar ends. IMHO it's down to personal preference and there's not actually a right and a wrong answer.

[TheInternet]

donfisher said:

I find that on my commute, long stretches of filtering using the brakes from the hoods much less comfortable than using them on something with flat bars.

Visibility tends to be usefully better on flat bars if commuting in traffic, and weight distribution is also better for braking. Stopping on hoods/drops is fine but can't match flat bars for me.