A slightly shorter stem may help, but you'll still be braking from the drops, not the hoods.
how would a shorter stem benefit? i imagine i'd be further over the bar making it more difficult to get leverage on the levers and i'd have more weight would be on the hands (thumbs).
Your levers are really, really low, and the bars are rotated the wrong way.
is "low" judged in relation to the saddle height?
wouldn't a shorter stem lower the levers?
You could rotate your bars slightly down (so they point towards the rear brake bridge or rear hub, depending on who you ask) and move you levers up so you can sit on the hoods to brake. Even a centimetre.
noted re lever position
Older bars and brake levers were designed so you'd brake in the drop and so forth.
Modern brakes and bars are designed to brake from the hoods and drops...
yeah, i can see from the shape of the hoods and length of bar pre-drop.
If you got a more modern compact bar, I'd suggest replacing the brake levers to something more modern as well (SRAM, Tektro, etc), otherwise you're just wasting your time.
want to avoid replacing anything, but may well have to. would i have to replace the levers and hoods or just the hoods?
how would a shorter stem benefit? i imagine i'd be further over the bar making it more difficult to get leverage on the levers and i'd have more weight would be on the hands (thumbs).
is "low" judged in relation to the saddle height?
wouldn't a shorter stem lower the levers?
noted re lever position
yeah, i can see from the shape of the hoods and length of bar pre-drop.
want to avoid replacing anything, but may well have to. would i have to replace the levers and hoods or just the hoods?
appreciate all the replies, thanks!