Quote Originally Posted by little_teapot View Post
Hey,

I hopefully won't stoke the fire too much with this one, but reading things in various posts about brakes and reach and handlebars... if I am having problems getting a good squeeze on the brakes from the hoods, how would changing the handlebars help?? I can see how it helps if my problem is from the drops... but it's not, it's a hoods only issue... my hand is on the hood which is part of the lever... not part of the handlebar... so I'm perplexed!
Moving to short reach handlebars means there is less total reach from saddle to hoods. When you are struggling to reach the hoods well or can't quite get your fingers wrapped around that extra few millimeters to allow you to rotate out/down some really can help. A shorter stem may have the same effect but short reach bars are a less drastic change.

Or maybe I'm wrong?