i always feel like I’ve installed my break levers too high or too low or sometimes they just end up on suspect looking angles no matter how hard i try to get it all nice and even.
Has anyone got any tips for getting this right? obviously a big part of the position is personal preference but theres gotta be some handy tips out there!
todays bar lever set up is Cinelli Giro D’Italia 64-42 and Campagnolo Record shifter/levers, I have poor short sight in one eye but i think the bottom of one of the bars is slightly bent to add to the confusion
Height-wise, it’s a matter of preference, ergo’s and body positioning. I like to be able to rest my forearms along the forward extending seciton of the bars and hook my hands over the top or sides of the hoods, so I aim for a flat transition in that position.
In terms of getting the levers setup up the same: run a string line across the top of your hoods and view the bike from the front - if the sting line’s parrallel with the tops of your drops, you’re done.
to carry on from spirito’s answer, there are only two determinants.
comfort and function.
but of course it’s never that easy. The current trend seems to be absurd angles for STIs, but you can do that with Ergo’s which lots of people want to mate up with silly shaped bars with ‘experimental’ shaped ramps. Generally, there are few of these that are really suitable for modern levers.
As a starting point get the bars right, drop pointing at the rear brake bridge is a good starting point. Adjust from there so that you can comfortably use the drops as well as on the hoods (roughly positioned). What about bar height? Too low and you’ll likely want the levers canted up at some dumb angle. Too long a stem, same thing.
Get the positioning of bars and stem right and the levers will allow you to find a comfortable position. Get it wrong, or slavishly adopt a slammed position and you can employ all the damn physics you like but you’ll still never satisfy the comfort and function determinants. And by the way, on nearly all bars if they’re too high you won’t be able to brake from the drops… that’s the sign of a muppet who doesn’t know how to ride in the drops anyway.
