brake lever postioning on road bikes

last year watching the tdf I noticed that the riders seem to have their bars and consequently brake levers in a very high position....to the point that it looks positively unrideable to me.....here is an example with stuart o grady:
http://i2-images.tv2.dk/i/33/12027333-0 ... d8841.jpeg

when i used to ride road everyone always had a much lower position....
what's the craic?

Personal choice I guess? AFAIK Stuart O'Grady is a sprinter, so therefore he would spend most of his time during a race conserving energy being sheltered by his team. He would not be like his team domestics - head down arse in the air pushing the pace at the front of the peleton. The only times he would go to the drops is during the final run in to a sprint. So he can have his brakes / hoods set high for comfort.

That's my theory, I may be wrong???

Drop bars 5mm down for every year back until they face backwards and then they're North Road bars and you're in the 1950s on a Raleigh sit-up-and-beg roadster.

Dont forget to fit the under bar extensions for that extra stopping power











:twisted:

It's also the way that Shimano shifters sit - the hoods and the big knobby things that hold the shift mechanism stick up very high.

Note the 'real thing' Campag shifters behind....

Also, as the other post said, he's a sprinter so is set up with low bars for a fast aero sprint position.

Double post Bizzarrity!! Nothing to see here.............*waves passers by to post below*

Aye- I've noticed the same thing- basically set up so most of yer riding is done on the hoods- it can indeed bring the levers a bit far away on anatomic bars..............but sprinters dinnae touch the brakes anyway once they get started, the 'effin maniacs!

I always set my levers up so that the bottom of the lever blade is level with the lowest part of the bar.

Fashion? Been like it a couple of years now and getting worse.

I think it's all to do with these horrible 'ergo' bars! My experience with them is that they're almost impossible to ride on the drops if the levers are set at a comfortable position on the tops - which is generally the high style as per the original post. I find that when I'm riding my modern Bianchi with STI's I never use the drops and spend virtually all the time with my hands at varying positions either on or around the levers and the top bar section. Personally I find this a very relaxing way to ride and not at all aerodynamically inefficient as I'm sure my body is just as low crouching with my hands around the lever hoods as it would be on the drops.

In the good old days (60's and 70's!) I remember Colin Lewis (a top pro of the day and bike shop owner in Devon) writing a training article in 'Cycling' magazine complaining about riders who had their brake levers set up 'like 6 guns'. He, and most of the pros (and therefore also average riders who copied everything the pros did) had their levers almost halfway down the bend or with the flat top of the lever parallel to the flat part of the drop.