Flats or Drops

DrJakoby

Hi all,

I'm in the process of choosing a new bike and need a bit of help deciding whether to go for drops or flat handlebars. Budget ~€1000. I'll be using the bike for:

• Commuting to work in and out of Dublin city centre (~25k return)
• The odd weekend trip around the country, 2/3 days of 100k each
• The odd day trip up the Dublin/Wicklow mountains
• My first sprint triathalon this summer - not looking to set any record times but would push myself hard

I've been around the shops and tried different bikes and at the minute my head is telling me to go with the Giant Rapid 2 as it felt the most comfortable and I feel it would be more practicle & safer for the commuting. I also tried several drop bars of which I felt best on the Cube Aerial and Peloton. I've never had a proper road bike before, I've always used an mtb bike so I feel alot more stable on the Rapid but I'm worried that I'll regret not going for drops after a few months. After a lifetime on flat barred bikes it's hard to properly evaluate a dropped handle barred road bike during a 5 minute test ride.

Any advice would be appreciated, esp from anyone who has already made a similar decision.

Cheers

Raam

Drops. End discussion.

TinyExplosions

Flats. End discussion

...just to be argumentative, really I agree with Raam

petethedrummer

Flops.

Lumen

DrJakoby wrote: »

After a lifetime on flat barred bikes it's hard to properly evaluate a dropped handle barred road bike during a 5 minute test ride.

It would be easy if that five minutes involved going up and down a big hill.

Jawgap

Drops.

Bought a flat bar, then bought a drop bar and immediately realised I should never have bought the flat bar in the first place. The drops give you more options for hand position etc

TinyExplosions

snip -I'm an idiot!

CheGuedara

Drops.

A quick search of the forum will turn up several threads where people have gone bought a FBR/hybrid/whatever despite recommendations of going for a road bike and subsequently discover over the following months that they like cycling, would like to do more of it and want to convert the bike to drops only to find out the cost is steep, particularly the brake-shifter units, and the geometry of the resulting bike will often not be exactly right.

Buy the right bike first time around, given what you want to do a road bike is the correct option.

HivemindXX

Probably I'm the first person to reply who actually uses flats day to day.

Commuting. I prefer flats, they encourage you to keep your head up. You can do this on drops as well of course but I prefer flats.

Long distances at the weekends. Drops have more flexibility and I've had numb hands from not changing grip often enough on my flat bars (although padded gloves fixed this). It's perfectly possible to go long distances using flats but I'd prefer drops.

At the moment it's pretty much a wash but you mention you want to do some racing as well so it looks like you really want drops you just need someone to give you a push.

Just to note, I'm currently cycling around 200k a week on flat bars which includes some hills. I don't race though. If I did I'd almost certainly change to flats (or buy a third bike).

DrJakoby

Thanks for all the advice.

Any racing I do is going to be really for fun, competing against myself.

If I did go for the drops I was thinging of putting on some cyclocross style brake levers on the handlebars to allow a more upright position in city traffic.

Raam

DrJakoby wrote: »

I was thinging of putting on some cyclocross style brake levers on the handlebars to allow a more upright position in city traffic.

You don't need them. Honestly.

TinyExplosions

HivemindXX wrote: »

Probably I'm the first person to reply who actually uses flats day to day.

I do as well, my commuting bike has flat bars, but I'd not do any serious distance on it, and if I only had one bike, it'd have drops

DrJakoby

TinyExplosions wrote: »

I do as well, my commuting bike has flat bars, but I'd not do any serious distance on it, and if I only had one bike, it'd have drops

Idealy I'd get several bikes but with city living space is at premium so it's just going to be the one. Leaning towards the drops now.

petethedrummer

I was a flat bar owner once. And so were many others who have since converted the flats to drops (which is more expensive than it first appears) or bought a new bike with drops.

happytramp

DrJakoby wrote: »

If I did go for the drops I was thinging of putting on some cyclocross style brake levers on the handlebars to allow a more upright position in city traffic.

I did this when I first made the leap from flat to drops and it certainly helped initially. However, once I find the right levers (old super record) I'll probably go the whole hog.

Lumen

You may just need to accept that whilst a proper bike may initially feel weird and uncomfortable, you'll eventually be happier on it.

I don't currently own any flat bar bikes (and haven't since I stuck Ultegra on my steel hybrid in the early nineties), but I do regularly ride Dublin Bikes.

IMO, there is a strong case for an upright position in an "around town" bike. I find it quite uncomfortable to ride a road bike in smart clothes or even jeans, so when I'm riding my own bike I always cycle in lycra or fakenger gear. If I had to cycle round dressed like a normal person I'd get a proper town bike with flat bars, flat pedals, mudguards, chainguard etc.

blorg

Raam wrote: »

You don't need them. Honestly.

My commuter came with auxiliary cross levers and I thought I would take them off but ended up finding them very handy for commuting.

keenan110

blorg wrote: »

My commuter came with auxiliary cross levers and I thought I would take them off but ended up finding them very handy for commuting.

My bike also came with these and i find them really handy for everyday use.:)