Small hands and STI Levers

[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.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

About glueing homemade shims in/on.....I'd be afraid they would fail and come off at a crucial moment when braking hard- that could be really dangerous. And you know they would fail just when you are using them hard. Glue is usually not a good permanent fix on a bike. Your life depends on your brakes working perfectly.

[Skierchickie]

Lisa - yeah - that did occur to me too. I think the right kind of epoxy would do the trick though - I'd have to be careful about that. It's possible I'll end up just biting the bullet and investing, but I'd sure rather not if something else would work just the same - especially if, as Eden says, there isn't much difference. It was the lady who did my bike fitting that suggested it, although it didn't sound like she was speaking from experience. We'll be going through there at the end of the month, and may have a chance to stop in and have her do a check-up - I wonder if I could move my shifters down a bit more (get them pointing down a little more). I just swapped out the stem & moved the bars to the right height tonight (per her recommendations), so my next ride may tell me a lot.

Thanks for the input!

[alimey]

Another small hander here. I more or less solved my problem with a combination of bars (short reach & shallow drop - FSA wing pro compact - more comfy for me than the Ritchey Biomax). I also had a pair of short reach Ultegra levers. They came w/ 2 sets of shims - one narrow pair & one wide. So I installed the wide ones & they worked pretty well. Then I thought about it a bit & thought about installing both of them. I cut the locating nobble off the narrow pair & glued them onto the other pair. They seem to work pretty well.

But now that the new Dura Ace routes under the tape AND has reach adjustment I might have to try them out . . .