riding on the hood depends on how well the bike is fitted to you I think. height of the bar in relation to the seat and how far foward or streched out. This bike is fitting me well so I didn't have undue force pushing between my thumb and my fore finger.

One thing I did notice is that the brake handle was quite a bit stiffer than my old ultegra STI or even Centaur. It was really good from the drop but trying to close the brake from the hood was really hard. Part of the problem for me is that my hand is not that big. I usually have to ask a guy to open a jar of pickles and the like.

The reach from the drop on FORCE wasn't too bad. it was reasonable and it didn't take too much strength to operate it. Still its not as close as Centaur or Ultegra. Centaur has a button so that it can be made to feel like a short reach and Ultegra has a shim you could drop in to make it a short reach.

Disclaimer: I'm using my old shimano 600 brake caliper instead of FORCE brake caliper. I don't really see performance advantage so I will most likely be selling the FORCE brake caliper to recoup some of the money.

I'm not so meloncholy about selling my Orbea now. I was having second thoughts since it is a very nice bike. Its just too big and no amount of fitting will fix it. But this bike seems really nice.

smilingcat