scarkinsmel said:
but I am looking for some bars for my Rando bike, not my mountain bike. I keep searching for the bar that won't make my hand start to ache after 400k, and I doubt I will ever find them, but I keep hoping.
You've got them...the devil is in the details though. The key to setting up drops for the rough and/or for distance is getting them high enough while maintaining an adequate cockpit for seated climbing and breathing. Bars alone are not a solution to your quandry, some other fundamentals need tweaking.
Through lots of riding and trial and error, you've probably come to a setup that's "pretty good" - but not great. So take that experience and build on it with these steps:
1) Keep the Midge.
2) Measure the cockpit on your existing bike...center of your saddle to the center of your bars in a direct line. Use metric for greatest accuracy. This measurement is "X".
3) You want to maintain "X" while raising your bar height. Midges are an even greater help with their shallow drop. There's nothing more comfortable than being able to ride and climb in the drops on a flared bar. Nothing is better for staying relaxed on the bike provided they are set up properly.
To generalize here...you'll need a stem that has greater rise AND a longer extension than what you're running now. Forget aesthetics, forget "aero". Your goal is comfort and riding bliss. Some graph paper, a straightedge, some high school trig, and a beverage at the kitchen table can be your tools to calculating out a better position for actual bike riding. Brevets = actual bike riding.
I practice what I preach. I'm back riding (on the road) a week after kinghitting/hyperextending everything in my right arm (it is still covered in those good yellow and green bruises - fingers to pectoral) and spraining my right wrist so severely that I still need to use my left hand (also with tweaked wrist) for most tasks (insert your own lewd joke here
. I'll also be riding to the Puff on my bike from ID and then racing with zero setup changes. Slowly? Maybe. Enjoying myself? Indeed.
scarkinsmel said:
BTW how is the half man half amazing Kent?
He's good...I haven't chatted with him lately. I'd planned on doing the GDR with him this year but can't with other obligations here. He'll be rolling through town on the way and I'll ride with him some on his way to MT for the start.
Even if you decide the Midges are too kludgy for the road for your tastes...try my ideas. I think you'll see some marked improvement. Then you can be the freaky straight man in the local cycling club comedic ribbing. I've been that for years. We make the world a better place one weird-ass bike setup at a time.
Good luck!
mc
