[Opietaylor]

Hi All of you Road Bikers!

I am looking for a new road bike I want a full carbon bike and was wondering if any of you have feedback on how a road bike with straight handle bars work for you on longer bike rides say 40-60 miles. Or if you can suggest a comfortable drop bar bike.

I am looking for a women specific and am willing to spend the money if the bike is worth it. I am looking for an Endurance Bike and I already have a hybrid bike that is great for city riding so I don't want to buy the same thing.

Karen

 

[JSR]

Her's my 2c.

A woman in my club came to cycling from running two years ago. She rides a pretty nice flat bar "fitness" bike. Although she's done a number of centuries, she is now looking for a drop bar road bike.

The upright position of most flat bar bikes is just not compatible with fast, strong road riding. The handling is kind of goofy and it's hard to lay down the power.

As long as you don't have some physical anomaly for which an upright flat bar bike would be helpful, and given your intention to ride long distances, an Endurance bike would be better, IMHO.

 

[Mapei]

Every once in a while you just gotta change your hand position. Everything starts to hurt much more quickly if you don't. From your neck to your shoulders to your wrists to your lower back. Drop bars give you a bunch of places to hang onto.

 

[factory feel]

drop bars for me.

 

[Opietaylor]

Thank you I appreciate your feed back alot. I took a few flat bar bikes out and some felt like a hybrid. The Fuji all carbon was very light but it handled a bit odd which falls in line with what you said.

This was helpful

Karen

 

[DaveRider]

I bought a drop bar CX bike for the bad roads here. The hood position is very comfy & the drops are convenient for tucking in for high speed. My hands are much happier now with three different positions.

 

[Lombard]

Drop bar, flat bar. It's a personal preference. Drop bars can be intimidating to someone who has never ridden with them. However, the more upright position on many endurance bikes is almost as upright as some flat bar bikes.

It is true that drop bar bikes give you alternate hand positions. However, if you install bar-ends on a flat bar bike, this will give you alternate hand positions for "laying down the power" as JSR said.

My suggestion would be to test ride some endurance bikes. Keep in mind that there is no standardization, so some endurance bikes will be more upright and others will have a more aggressive racy position. The Cannondale Synapse, Trek Domane and Gian Defy are some good choices to try. And remember that you can always swap out the stem or tilt the handlebars up to achieve a more upright position.

Bottom line: Test ride some bikes and buy what feels right.

 

[Jay Strongbow]

You already have a hybrid so there is absolutely no point in buying a flat bar road bike (which is really just another name for hybrid). If your hybrid is too sluggish but it has the position you like you just need new/better/maybe smaller/maybe no knobs is you have them tires not a new bike.

I have no idea if you would like a drop bar bike but can say that about 99.9 percent of people who do 40-60 mile rides prefer them over a flat bar bike so there's probably something to it.

 

[Lombard]

Karen,

Jay brings up a good point. Putting smoother tires on your hybrid will give you the most noticeable extra speed. A pair of these roll nice and won't break the bank. I have these on my hybrid and they roll nice:

https://www.biketiresdirect.com/pro...c-road-tire?adl=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI58_q7NKB1gIV01cNCh26DwE1EAQYASABEgIc4fD_BwE

Also, which make and model hybrid do you own? The reason I ask is that hybrids can be quite different from each other. Some are heavy front suspension bikes more like mountain bikes. Others are lighter, rigid front bikes more like road bikes.

 

[No Time Toulouse]

Us 'roadies' have a term for flat-bar road bikes; we call them "hybrids".......

 

[Lombard]

Us 'roadies' have a term for flat-bar road bikes; we call them "hybrids".......

There you go again.

 

[cs1]

Us 'roadies' have a term for flat-bar road bikes; we call them "hybrids".......

They're the not the same thing.