Jaysus cycling! (2 Viewers)

he can be a bit grumpy at times. i never thought to ask about watching him work, but i remember when i was buying the groupset and wheels from him just about 4 years ago, i asked about paying him to fit it all, and his attitude was 'why would you do that? you'd be well able for it'. they've also regularly talked themselves out of sales or work when i'm there, where i know other bikes shops would have taken my hand off for the work.

i went around with the notion about replacing the aksiums on my winter bike (i had a budget of around €400 in mind) as i've been warned that getting traditional QR disc wheels could get difficult in the future, and he said to me 'you'd be mad to replace those, for a winter bike; ride them into the ground, then come back to me and i'll sort you out'.
 
he can be a bit grumpy at times. i never thought to ask about watching him work, but i remember when i was buying the groupset and wheels from him just about 4 years ago, i asked about paying him to fit it all, and his attitude was 'why would you do that? you'd be well able for it'. they've also regularly talked themselves out of sales or work when i'm there, where i know other bikes shops would have taken my hand off for the work.

i went around with the notion about replacing the aksiums on my winter bike (i had a budget of around €400 in mind) as i've been warned that getting traditional QR disc wheels could get difficult in the future, and he said to me 'you'd be mad to replace those, for a winter bike; ride them into the ground, then come back to me and i'll sort you out'.
thats gas. I have a mate who'd be more include to do his own work on his bike. He's been into Derek more than once getting him to fix stuff and would have gotten an earful telling him not to be trying that, and to bring it straight o him in the first place.

he also doesn't believe in having a winter bike (not for himself anyway). He always firmly believed that if you spend money on a bike, ride the fucking thing, regardless of the time of year. I can definitely get behind that attitude.
 
of the two road bikes i have now, i got the winter one first, as i wanted something that'd do as a commuter bike too; then needed a carrier for it too, so when i saw the frame for sale (secondhand) of my now 'summer' bike, i jumped at it.
 
I'm 6' 4"

But I don't cycle any more. I still have both bikes bundled up in the kitchen if anyone is interested.

When I went to the bike shop it was just "you're getting the biggest frame we have, and then we'll see". I never had a problem, but then I didn't know what I was doing. I actually used to get awful strain down my back on the rhs, just where the ribcage meets the spine. And the right collar bone area.
Well, I've never had that exactly
But I know drop bars do something to my entire upper skeleton that I cannot bear
I can only ride on straight bars
Drop bars suck balls
 
Sometimes descending on the drops can make things feel a bit more sturdy.

I've twisted in the hoods on the levers Remco-style, hideously ugly but also great. I can rest my forarms and wrists on the bars, and Ultegra STI top nobbley bit fits nicely into my hands with my wrists relaxed.
Then you can squeeze in your shoulders and tuck in out of the breeze.

I used to spend most of the time on the hoods, with straight arms. Now I'm spending most of the time resting down onto the bars.
 
I almost never rode on the drops. Usually the hoods. Obviously changing position helps (as I'm sure you all already know).

I think the pain may have been caused by Tae Kwon-do injuries. (Full force air punches with no resistance, over and over, must've caused me some kind of mischief).

I still get that pain now, as in right at this moment, sitting on an armless office chair.

But I couldn't expect my LBS mechanic to be my physiotherapist as well.


EDIT: flashback, when I said "hoods", I did mean the "top nobbley bit". Dunno if I was right or wrong, but glad to know that I'm not the only one reaching for the proper nomenclature.
 
I bike in the city almost exclusively

Two fingers on the bars, two on the brakes almost constantly

That's just not feasible for me with drops
 
oh, huh.
So according to that I'd never ride on the drops, only the hooks. I've never heard anyone refer to it as riding on the hooks. Everything below the hoods is drops, hoods, kinda hoods (what he's calling ramps - also never heard that before), and then the tops.

Why would you even ride down there all the way at the bottom? I've done it, like, once, to see what it feels like, it's shit.

But he doesn't show list the hoods twisted in, resting on your wrists and forearms, holding onto the tops of that knob yoke on your STI position.

Because if there's one thing I love, it's holding knobs.
 
I suppose the question becomes, since I'm so outraged at this weird holding all the way at the bottom, what he's calling "drops", why is that even there?

I should just cut it off.

We come together as a community, going to the bike racks with a battery angle grinder, chop off the ends of everyone's drop bars, and leave a little note saying "you're welcome, saved you riding in a shit position.".
 
Although, looking again, this person hasn't even trimmed their steerer tube. Just lobbed a few spacers and it'll be grand like?

No. It won't be grand. Slam the stem, commit, and cut the steerer. You heathen.
 
I see people cycling around the city on the full drops. They look uncomfortable and I know they can't see shit from that position. I've only rode on hoods, shoulders or tops.

My preferred city riding is short riser with slight angle on the bars about shoulder width. Got a basket recently too. Don't use it all the time but it's handy to have.
 
I can remember the day, some time in 1985 when Brian Judge rode into the bike shed of Joey's with his racer drops having been swapped out for flat bars
And my thought was "You can do that???"
Never ever wanted drops again in my life
And I have been recreating Brian's bike more or less with every bike I have had since

So many high end touring bikes have drops as standard and I cannot imagine spending 100 miles per day on a bike in what is supposed to be an enjoyable activity, with your back bent like a bishops crook

I have a friend that does IronMans on some super duper bike and she cannot live without drops, so I know it's each to their own
But I am as awkward as a newborn fawn on drops


Here is some carefully selected flat bar propaganda
I believe in the science

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I seem to be on hoods/tops a lot on that lingo and have my geometry a little biased for it, I like the drops for the first half of the commute though because it opens out a bit in a few spots -
My *new* bike is flat bar though, i'll have to bond with it.
 
as far as i understand it, one of the main benefits of drop bars is the variety of positions it offers your hands; with simple flat bars with a single set of grips, your hands will sit in the same position potentially for hours on end; to me now, it feels a little odd to cycle a bike where i cannot change my hand position occasionally.
 

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