on 7/15/10 3:17 PM, d2mini at d2creat...@gmail.com wrote: >> I historically have hated straight bars, flat bars, mountain bars, > > Me too! Which is why I'm shocked that I'm liking them better and > finding them much more comfortable. > No matter the rise, stem length, etc.... I'm never 100% on the drop > bars. Overall it seems to be due to the hand/wrist position. And the > top straight portion is never wide enough.
You might pay attention to what your upper arm is doing between the two bikes. I've found it to make a big difference for me, particularly as I get tired on longer rides. This is actually one of the things I've noticed since doing regular yoga over the last year or so. It's a heckuva lot easier to show you what I mean, but I'll try to describe the positions I'm talking about. When you are riding road bars, it's easy to start "hanging" from the tendons at your shoulders - your head/neck starts to drop, and your ribs relax a bit. Your shoulder blades start to come together and your elbows kick out slightly. Your upper arms (between your elbows and shoulder) rotate inward (at the top - i.e. your right upper arm goes slightly counter-clockwise). You are essentially sagging your torso weight, putting most of this weight onto the joints of the shoulder. I would always have to remind myself to "sit up" as the ride went on, but that led to some muscular tension in other places. The correction which seems to be working for me was to line up my bones a little differently. You can play along at your desk, and then try slight position differences on the bike. If your place the edge of your hands on your desk in front of you, and position your hands so the palms face each other - as if you were riding in the drops - you should be able to rotate just the upper portion of the arms outward (at the top - right goes clockwise, left goes counter-clockwise). This changes the position of your shoulder blades, bringing the lower portion together. For me, this lets me slightly open up my chest, which in turn positions my torso up "higher" into my overall position. There's a position of the upper arms which stacks up everything so I sit more comfortably with less effort - _not_ hanging from the tendons. It's a reasonably subtle tweak and takes some practice to recognize it. I've always been very comfy on mtb bars that had enough sweep (angle back towards the rider.) Sweep on a straight bar mechanically mimics this concious movement of the upper arm. - Jim -- Jim Edgar cyclofi...@earthlink.net Gallery updates now appear here - http://cyclofiend.blogspot.com Cyclofiend Bicycle Photo Galleries - http://www.cyclofiend.com Current Classics - Cross Bikes Singlespeed - Working Bikes -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
