Short bars... yes or no

Ha!

You're right, there will be lots of people on tops who ride a lot more than me and have been for many years more than me. But to me, it still looks wrong.

Looks can be decieving I guess, like when I thought you might be gay because of your earing... it turns out, that there's a possibility that you aren't gay.

Go burn a cross Hitler !

this discussion has happened so many times before.

run some bars full length for a couple of days, see where your hands rest most, cut to that point.

Ignore ftw!

true, just started doing that. got so much work done today, it's brilliant.

remind me, which means you're gay, earing on the left or right? :P

Ignoring the magic absolution smiley, which probably means this was a lead-in to a "tops are gay" joke... I thought (hoped) that this sort of bollocks and earrings having meanings etc. had disappeared since I was a kid and checked what side had what "meaning" when I got mine pierced so people would (wrongly) think I was straight.

You might have been joking, but I bet you have no idea how combinations of seemingly little trivial things like that can combine to seriously screw up large chunks of people's lives. You might not have been trying to be offensive but perpetuating shit like that just isn't funny sorry, or at least I don't think so.

Is Hat He Chewed Paul-Michael?

Seriously fucking me off on this thread. Think thats the first time I've sworn out of mallice on this forum!

back on topic

short bars ftw!

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8163/img4005.jpg

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/6863/img4009.jpg

@flick, please tell me you don't ride those bars like that... ;P

I don't understand the purpose of the tape in that pic when you can only see a tiny portion of the grip haha, nice bars flickwg :p, I can't believe this thread has done 4 pages already......I mean...really?!

I feel it necessary to make a comment.

With regards this ridiculous argument in relation to riding with hands by the stem or holding the hoods when on a road bike people have felt it necessary to post pictures of a peleton showing everyone riding on the hoods.

I think this agian was probably this numpty Chewed Hat.

You, sir, will be aware of the connetations of riding with a group of cyclist or within a peleton? No? Ok then, I will explain.

When you are surrounded 360 by cyclists, on bikes, going at speed, you will notice a few things.

You are going faster than you would do normally for the pressure applied - This is because you are riding through 'clean air'. That is to say that you have no/less air friction to cut through. The reason this is happening is because the cyclists in front of you are cutting the air in front of you which then creates a low presure spot behind them, which is in turn quickly filled by air behind that. Hence you have whats known as 'pull'. Now you must bare in mind here young man that the cyclist behind will therefore be pulled forward, this is what we call a 'slip stream'.

Now, when your in a huge peleton of cyclists this isn't that easy as everyone behind the front cyclist gets pulled forward, the further back you get from the front cyclist the more pull there will be as there is an even greater force pushing the air out of the way therefore the faster you go.

Now imagine your in a group of cyclists who have been cycling for some hours, doing maybe 50/60kph and your no more than 10/20 cms away from everyone around you. Now factor in all these air forces and the turbulance which is thereby increased. What happens? You become less stable. Your bikes moves around underneath you under force from that turbulance, you hit into and out of really clean slip streams and turbulant air. Your bike moves forwards and backwards almost jerkily.

WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU WANT TO HAVE YOUR HANDS THEN YOU CRETINOUS PRICK? Oh, yeah, the only place where you can control the bike at coast. The hoods!!!!!

Hood riding/stem riding/drop riding is all personal. Are you right or left handed? You'll find that a number of Tour riders ride on their stems because thats more comfortable for them. Not because their bike is incorrectly set up or because they don't know how to ride.

Now stop telling people (many of whom are accomplished cyclists on this forum) that they don't know what they're talking about.

Amen to that Pigfarmer, surely it's just each to their own everyone's got different preferences and they're own riding technique.

As long as you keep the safety of yourself and others in mind, does it really matter how big your bars are and how you hold them?

(Rhetorical question.)

great post pig farmer, and my nothing comment about where to put your hands really warranted that rant. I especially liked the bizarre explanation about slip streams (no longer shall I get them mixed up with soda streams). educational.

and don't think I missed the irony when, after a 3000 word essay on the basics of cycling, you said "Now stop telling people (many of whom are accomplished cyclists on this forum) that they don't know what they're talking about."

I've been converted, I'm gonna ride on tops all the time now, so I can be slower, have less control and less climbing leverage.

mark: fair point, apologies to any gays offended, although I think hitler may have been a bit more harsh than me.

Hat he Chewed, I look forward being judged 'an amature' by you for holding my bars by the stem while I blast past you. Also, the beuty of drops meens that you can hold the bars by the stem while on the flat and you can also use the hoods for the climbs/ sprints.

mark: fair point, apologies to any gays offended, although I think hitler may have been a bit more harsh than me.

Careful there, he started off with 'innocent' comments on internet forums and look what happened.

Lolz at Hat He Chewed, spot the person who hasn't ridden more than four miles in one go let alone raced

Lolz at Hat He Chewed, spot the person who hasn't ridden more than four miles in one go let alone raced

That is a good point. I would imagine quite a few people don't ride more than a few miles at a time. For those people, bike fit, bar width etc,. it largely irrelevant and nothing wrong with that.
It is only if/when they ride for hours at a time non-stop that they will need to consider comfort.

I ride quite a lot I think, around 10-12 hours a week average, with TT base bar and tri bars and a 91 inch gear. Also have a bike on a turbo, but I hardly ever use it, would rather ride outside.

I do indeed use tops occasionally to sit up, or on some climbs. But to spend 95% of the time on tops (which is what my arguement was about!), seemed very odd to me.

Ahh, you're a tester, explains everything ;)

lol