Small hands and STI Levers

[NbyNW]

I had Shimano Ultegra on my previous bike, and while I loved the feel of the mechanics, they were a bit of a reach for me, and I never felt comfortable going downhill on that bike.

My folding bike that I commute on has Shimano Tiagra mounted on bullhorn handlebars. I don't know if it's the design of the Tiagra, or how they're mounted on the handlebars, or the shape of the handlebars, but these are working really well for me.

My touring bike, which I've had for less than two days, has Campy. The reach is not going to be a problem for me. I didn't really notice the "slimness" of the hoods until reading this thread. Again, for the couple of hours I've had on this bike, they've been pretty comfortable, in the sense that I haven't noticed them. Don't know if I will feel differently as I start to go on longer rides, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

[kermit]

I recently changed my bars to Specialized Ruby carbon bars. The drop is smaller and I can now reach around the brake in the drops which I could not do before. Just a suggestion if you have a Specialized dealer in your area.

[Kathi]

you know they say that the campy hoods are smaller but I think the shimano feels nicer on my thumbs because there is more curve to the tops. This is expecially appreciable on the higher end Ultegra/ DA. the R600 (9speed) and R700 (10 speed) are similiar in my opinion.

Besides the width of the Shimano hoods the curves are bothersome. My fingers don't wrap around the curves as easily as they do on Campy. This means less leverage when braking.

[Kathi]

I recently changed my bars to Specialized Ruby carbon bars. The drop is smaller and I can now reach around the brake in the drops which I could not do before. Just a suggestion if you have a Specialized dealer in your area.

I checked out the Specialized bars when I built my bike, the smallest size is 38cm which was the case for many of the women's bars I considered.

I wonder why companies who market handlebars to women fail to recognize that some women have narrower shoulders than 38cm.

[bounceswoosh]

I'm not sure how much this helps vs. 38cm, but the Bontrager FIT VR is available in 36cm:

http://bontrager.com/model/06244/en

That's the model that came on my Madone, although I'm not sure which width is on there.

[Kathi]

Thanks, for me the solution was the Modolo Venus in a 34 cm.

[madscot13]

i wish these bars that everyone is mentioning came in 26.0 clamp.

[VeloVT]

Madscot -- not sure what size you need, but if 38 is sufficiently narrow, Ritchey Biomax bars come in a 38 cm width/26.0 diameter. That's what I had on my old bike. I liked them.

Also Deda makes two 26.0 models that come in narrower widths -- Piega and 4Girls. I have no experience at all with the 4Girls bar (though I think there are a few people on TE that have them), but I have the Piega on my cross bike (they were stock) and they're just kinda ok. Pretty deep drops, and the anatomic bend is not the most comfortable bend in the world. If you are looking at Deda note that they measure outside-outside, so a 40-cm Deda bar is roughly equivalent to a 38-cm c-c bar.

I wish Deda made the Newton Bar with the shallow round bend (called "Italian Classic) in smaller sizes . Sigh...

I'll bet Ritchey makes a few other models too, they make so many bars...

Good luck!

Edit: Biomax are also available in 36 cm. Ritchey's Pro Logic bar is also available in 38cm/standard diameter.

[Andrea]

I have the biomax bars & love them!

Mine are a 40cm, though. I went down a size from 42cm since the drops flare out a bit. I've got wide shoulders

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

We're really talking about two completely different issues here....bar fit and hand/brakelever fit.
The shortest shallowest narrowest bars in the world still won't help you if your fingers are too short to wrap around your brake levers. The problem of the original poster is that the levers splay too far out, for larger men's hands. Bringing the bar back just won't give you longer fingers. I found that out myself.
You need short reach brake levers/brifters and or ones with shims in them.
I really wonder when manufacturers are going to get a clue and make these things in sizes other than for men to BEGIN WITH, instead of needing to get shims. Not all levers and brifters take shims.

[Kathi]

I agree but handlebars like the Modolo Venus are designed with a shorter reach between levers and bar to address the reach issue. http://www.modolo.com/1_road_handlebars_temp.php?id=9
The only other bar I know of that addresses the reach issue is the 3T Eva but its smallest size is 38cm.

Handlebars with the correct width make a big difference. With my 38cm handlebars my elbow pointed outward while my hands curved inward toward the bar. The odd angles contributed to the reach issue. The 34 cm bar allows my elbows to be straight and my wrist and hand to hold the hoods in a "handshake" position.

Yes, shimming the Shimano levers would have also solved my reach problem but then I have the issue of the bulkiness and width of the hoods. Shifting, because of short fingers, is an issue because of having to push the lever so far. I have to twist my hand sideways in order to get the gears to engage.

Brake adjustments make a difference too. The shop employees like to adjust the brakes to their leverage and strength instead of mine. So I test the brakes before I leave the shop to make sure I can brake comfortably.

Whenever you are on the wrong side of the bell curve bicycle gear gets more difficult.

[jehocu03]

I agree but handlebars like the Modolo Venus are designed with a shorter reach between levers and bar to address the reach issue. http://www.modolo.com/1_road_handlebars_temp.php?id=9
The only other bar I know of that addresses the reach issue is the 3T Eva but its smallest size is 38cm.

Handlebars with the correct width make a big difference. With my 38cm handlebars my elbow pointed outward while my hands curved inward toward the bar. The odd angles contributed to the reach issue. The 34 cm bar allows my elbows to be straight and my wrist and hand to hold the hoods in a "handshake" position.

Yes, shimming the Shimano levers would have also solved my reach problem but then I have the issue of the bulkiness and width of the hoods. Shifting, because of short fingers, is an issue because of having to push the lever so far. I have to twist my hand sideways in order to get the gears to engage.

Brake adjustments make a difference too. The shop employees like to adjust the brakes to their leverage and strength instead of mine. So I test the brakes before I leave the shop to make sure I can brake comfortably.

Whenever you are on the wrong side of the bell curve bicycle gear gets more difficult.

How do you know what size bar to purchase?

[SouthernBelle]

Measure your shoulders from the bony areas on either side.

[Skierchickie]

So, has anyone here tried shimming STI shifters that are not of the shimmable variety? I have regular Ultegra STI 9 speed shifters from 2003 - pre-shim era. I just had a fitting over the weekend, which involved lots of changes, including rolling the bars up, a shorter stem, etc. Now on the drops I just barely can get the end of my index finger around the brake lever (it was a reach before, but not like this). Anyway, rather than spend $270 on Shimano R600 (the 9 speed version), I was thinking maybe I could rig something up. My LBS has a set of 4 degree and set of 8 degree shims that somebody didn't use, so maybe I could try cutting off the little knobs and glue the shims in place. I'm going to take the bike in and see if one set of the shims will work, but the shop owner was talking about having to adjust the brakes quite close, and the wheels having to be super-true for it to work, and it still possibly not working. Anyway, I'm going to check it out. Maybe I can do this for $10, rather than $270 + labor.

Ideally, I would win the lottery in the meantime, and would just upgrade to 10 speed Dura-Ace all around! Hmmm - my anniversary is in 2 weeks - isn't 18 years supposed to be something like "really cool bike components"?

So, if anybody has tried this, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks,
Jan

[Eden]

I saw somewhere out on the web a home shim job that involved gluing pencil erasers (cut off the ends of pencils) into the brake levers. I think it might have been on Sheldon Brown's web site? So I'd say yes it can be done.

On another note, I was hanging around in a LBS the other day and they has some SRAM outfitted bikes next to some Shimano short reach outfitted bikes and I had my own bike with DA levers. To tell the truth I couldn't feel a whole lot of difference between any of them. I think I might have been able to get my pinky finger onto the short reach ones, but I don't brake with my pinky so it didn't seem like too much of an advantage. I did notice that the SRAM levers were quite a bit shorter (top to bottom of the metal lever part), which I thought might have actually made them a bit harder to get all my fingers around them.