Adjusting to Drops

Last night, I picked up my wonderful new (used) bike from my LBS (they assembled it for me--I bought it from someone who shipped it to me). This bike is an upgrade and is a beauty (a limited edition Terry--LBS mechanic was very impressed with the quality of the bike). I've been riding a Terry Classic that I love, and it has straight handlebars, breaks/shifters within easy reach. My new bike has drops with the brakes/shifters in the usual place, which, of course, is not the usual place for me! Do any of you experienced riders have any tips for adjusting to drops? I probably will ride more upright for now, but I like to be withing easy reach of my brakes. I also got a combo clipless/platform pedal installed on the bike, but I'm going to take my time before I try to clipless side :)

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Originally Posted by mickchick

Last night, I picked up my wonderful new (used) bike from my LBS (they assembled it for me--I bought it from someone who shipped it to me). This bike is an upgrade and is a beauty (a limited edition Terry--LBS mechanic was very impressed with the quality of the bike). I've been riding a Terry Classic that I love, and it has straight handlebars, breaks/shifters within easy reach. My new bike has drops with the brakes/shifters in the usual place, which, of course, is not the usual place for me! Do any of you experienced riders have any tips for adjusting to drops? I probably will ride more upright for now, but I like to be withing easy reach of my brakes. I also got a combo clipless/platform pedal installed on the bike, but I'm going to take my time before I try to clipless side :)

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Most riders spend a lot of time riding with their hands on the brake hoods. This gives you an upright position with your chest open, and the brakes are easy to access. You can also pull on the hoods if you need leverage, especially when standing out of the saddle! I've only recently started using the drops, and that only for really intense efforts where I need the aerodynamic position and the leverage from my big leg muscles.

Good luck, and welcome to the wonderful world of road riding! :D

When I came back to biking a few weeks ago, I rode with my hands on the brake hoods most of the time for the first 25 miles or so. It just felt more comfortable. I started to think that maybe I should have looked more at the comfort bikes instead of a road bike. Then, without even thinking about it, I started riding more and more down on the drops. Now I hardly ever ride upright and I'm really comfortable. I guess that's where getting fitted properly ends up paying off.

I was going to try the toe clip attachments, since that's what I had been used to, but instead I went on a few rides with regular shoes to get used to the bike and then went clipless. I don't have any horror stories to tell yet. The first few times I made sure to clip out well ahead of time. Now I can just do it when I need to. I usually leave my left foot clipped in all the time and clipping out the right has always gone smoothly. The problem I sometimes have is clipping in the right foot after starting from a stop. If I don't think about it I seem to hit the spot and click right in. Of course when I'm at a busy stop light and overthink it I end up spinning my foot off a few times before I click in.

My LBS guro told me that I should learn to ride on my drops when I purchased my new road bike. I preferred riding on my hoods but he gave me some good reasons to ride on the drops which I can't remember now. :p

So, in order to break my habit of riding on the hoods, I started playing a game during each ride. Whenever I came to a nice flat stretch of road I rode in the drop position. I tried to see how much I could increase my mph or cadence during my "drop time" which made it fun and challenging. After a month of doing this, riding in the drops became second nature.

I like the game idea!
Suzanne you could try that - ride in the drops for some many strokes or until you reach that telephone pole or something like and then switch to the hoods or the flats for the same amount of time. Keep your pace smooth and comfortable enough for you to switch between the two positions easily and without swearving(sp) the bike. You could try moving each hand one at a time if you feel steady enough. Pretty soon it'll just become second nature to you and you'll feel "right" in the drops just like you do on the hoods or the flats. I have center pull brakes on mine so I'm constantly moving between the drops and the flats until I can get used to the reach of the brakes in the drops. As for the clipless - welcome to the club. We've all done that hit/slip/hit/slip routine. Funny you would mention that tho - I was just thinking today when I don't THink about needed to clip in, the foot goes right into the clip easy-peasy! When I "think" about it....I miss every time! ;)

I have had an unexpected benefit of switching to a drop bar bike. Changing position on the handlebars has always been described to me as reducing hand and arm stress on long rides. I'm not so sure of that, but it certainly makes you change your position on the saddle more and use different sets of leg muscles more. I have gone from every night being awakened by leg cramps 2 or 3 times, to no night-time leg cramps. Why didn't anyone mention that benefit to me before??

Drops give your back a rest as sitting upright has all the weight on you back and legs.

Once you feel comfortable in the drops you can use that position to stretch, and to give your body some variation in movement.

I also find the drops helpful when going around corners as well as picking up speed on the flats. With practice you can learn to go downhill and around corners with ease and control. After awhile you will love downhill- a nice reward for all the work it took to get up the other side! :D :D It all takes practice, practice, and more practice just like everything else in cycling! :) :)