Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods

Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods

I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
put's more strain on my wrists. The one advantage of the hoods is
that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
climbing style.

hizark21 a écrit profondement:

| Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods
|
| I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
| seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
| tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
| put's more strain on my wrists. The one advantage of the hoods is
| that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
| climbing style.

Riding on the tops is more Macho.

You sit way back on the saddle, hands just lightly resting on the tops
- like you were tickling the ivories.

Then no matter how you're hurting, when the lads start grunting and
groaning, you survey the opposition whilst giving them all a big
smile.

****es them right off and can work to your advantage


--
Davey Crockett
-
**** the New World Order
Fly your Nation's Flag
http://darkstar1.azurservers.com:608...lishdragon.jpg

hizark21 a écrit profondement:

| Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods
|
| I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
| seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
| tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
| put's more strain on my wrists. The one advantage of the hoods is
| that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
| climbing style.

Riding on the tops is more Macho.

You sit way back on the saddle, hands just lightly resting on the tops
- like you were tickling the ivories.

Then no matter how you're hurting, when the lads start grunting and
groaning, you survey the opposition whilst giving them all a big
smile.

****es them right off and can work to your advantage


--
Davey Crockett
-
**** the New World Order
Fly your Nation's Flag
http://darkstar1.azurservers.com:608...lishdragon.jpg

On Jul 26, 12:09*pm, Davey Crockett wrote:
hizark21 a écrit profondement:

| Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods
|
| I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
| seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
| tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
| put's more strain on my wrists. *The one advantage of the hoods is
| that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
| climbing style.

Probably the biggest advantage is that a rider can conserve more
energy on the tops.

Riding on the tops is more Macho.

You sit way back on the saddle, hands just lightly resting on the tops
- like you were tickling the ivories.

Then no matter how you're hurting, when the lads start grunting and
groaning, you survey the opposition whilst giving them all a big
smile.

****es them right off and can work to your advantage

--
Davey Crockett *
-
**** the New World Order
Fly your Nation's Flaghttp://darkstar1.azurservers.com:6080/rbr/englishdragon.jpg

On Jul 26, 1:32*pm, hizark21 wrote:
On Jul 26, 12:09*pm, Davey Crockett wrote:

hizark21 a écrit profondement:

| Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods
|
| I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
| seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
| tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
| put's more strain on my wrists. *The one advantage of the hoods is
| that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
| climbing style.

Probably the biggest advantage is that a rider can conserve more
energy on the tops.

Why?

Riding on the tops can be more relaxed
just in terms of upper body position. I don't
think it saves energy in itself. Climbing on the
hoods allows you to pull on the bars when
you need to push hard, and to transition
quickly between seated and standing. This
also makes it easier to attack or respond to
attacks.

If climbing on the hoods puts uncomfortable
strain on your wrists, it may help to adjust
the position of your brake levers.

Ben

wrote:
On Jul 26, 1:32 pm, hizark21 wrote:
On Jul 26, 12:09 pm, Davey Crockett wrote:

hizark21 a écrit profondement:
| Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods
|
| I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
| seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
| tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
| put's more strain on my wrists. The one advantage of the hoods is
| that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
| climbing style.
Probably the biggest advantage is that a rider can conserve more
energy on the tops.

Why?

Riding on the tops can be more relaxed
just in terms of upper body position. I don't
think it saves energy in itself. Climbing on the
hoods allows you to pull on the bars when
you need to push hard, and to transition
quickly between seated and standing. This
also makes it easier to attack or respond to
attacks.

If climbing on the hoods puts uncomfortable
strain on your wrists, it may help to adjust
the position of your brake levers.

Ben



These are young guys. They can climb wherever they feel comfortable.
I've got to move around frequently or I seize up. On long climbs my
lower back will seize up wherever my hands are.

Steve

On Jul 26, 8:52 pm, hizark21 wrote:
Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods

I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
put's more strain on my wrists. The one advantage of the hoods is
that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
climbing style.

I believe that stem height has gone down in the last decade so that
riding on the hoods now is almost like riding in the drops was before.
In particular, Indurain used to climb in the drops! Also, if you look
at riders in the 70's they did all their racing in the drops, some of
them with their forearms parallel to the ground, elbows bent at 90
degrees. Sean Kelly rode this way and when he was on the handlebar
tops near the stem he was almost sitting up straight.

-ilan

On Jul 26, 2:18*pm, "
wrote:
On Jul 26, 1:32*pm, hizark21 wrote:

On Jul 26, 12:09*pm, Davey Crockett wrote:

hizark21 a écrit profondement:

| Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods
|
| I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
| seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
| tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
| put's more strain on my wrists. *The one advantage of the hoods is
| that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
| climbing style.

Probably the biggest advantage is that a rider can conserve more
energy on the tops.

Why?

Pulling on the bars does you no good in a seating position. Your legs
are the only source of propulsion. I do agree that the hoods do allow
a faster transition.

Riding on the tops can be more relaxed
just in terms of upper body position. *I don't
think it saves energy in itself. *Climbing on the
hoods allows you to pull on the bars when
you need to push hard, and to transition
quickly between seated and standing. *This
also makes it easier to attack or respond to
attacks.

If climbing on the hoods puts uncomfortable
strain on your wrists, it may help to adjust
the position of your brake levers.

Ben

I believe that stem height has gone down in the last decade so that
riding on the hoods now is almost like riding in the drops was before.
In particular, Indurain used to climb in the drops! Also, if you look
at riders in the 70's they did all their racing in the drops, some of
them with their forearms parallel to the ground, elbows bent at 90
degrees. Sean Kelly rode this way and when he was on the handlebar
tops near the stem he was almost sitting up straight.

In the 70s we raced in the drops more for two reasons.

#1: You were closer to the gear shifters. It was a very easy thing to drop
your hand down to the shift lever when you were in the drops.

#2: The brakes weren't nearly as good then as they are now, so you needed a
death grip to slow down, and you just couldn't get that much braking power
from the tops of the hoods.

STI/Ergo shifting changed things dramatically. All of a sudden you were
spending a lot more time out on the hoods, because that's where you shifted
from. So bars with large forward reaches, popular back in the day, caused
problems because you got too stretched out from all that time in the hoods,
and if you shortened the stem to make the reach better, the "tops" of the
bar were too close. It took a bit for people to realize that a shorter
forward reach fixed things nicely.

Stems height can safely be lowered now because we're not spending extended
periods of time in the drops anymore, so we can adopt a more-aggressive
position (in the drops) than we could before.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA



wrote in message
...
On Jul 26, 8:52 pm, hizark21 wrote:
Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods

I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
put's more strain on my wrists. The one advantage of the hoods is
that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
climbing style.

I believe that stem height has gone down in the last decade so that
riding on the hoods now is almost like riding in the drops was before.
In particular, Indurain used to climb in the drops! Also, if you look
at riders in the 70's they did all their racing in the drops, some of
them with their forearms parallel to the ground, elbows bent at 90
degrees. Sean Kelly rode this way and when he was on the handlebar
tops near the stem he was almost sitting up straight.

-ilan

On Jul 27, 6:36 am, "Mike Jacoubowsky"
wrote:
I believe that stem height has gone down in the last decade so that
riding on the hoods now is almost like riding in the drops was before.
In particular, Indurain used to climb in the drops! Also, if you look
at riders in the 70's they did all their racing in the drops, some of
them with their forearms parallel to the ground, elbows bent at 90
degrees. Sean Kelly rode this way and when he was on the handlebar
tops near the stem he was almost sitting up straight.

In the 70s we raced in the drops more for two reasons.

#1: You were closer to the gear shifters. It was a very easy thing to drop
your hand down to the shift lever when you were in the drops.

#2: The brakes weren't nearly as good then as they are now, so you needed a
death grip to slow down, and you just couldn't get that much braking power
from the tops of the hoods.

STI/Ergo shifting changed things dramatically. All of a sudden you were
spending a lot more time out on the hoods, because that's where you shifted
from. So bars with large forward reaches, popular back in the day, caused
problems because you got too stretched out from all that time in the hoods,
and if you shortened the stem to make the reach better, the "tops" of the
bar were too close. It took a bit for people to realize that a shorter
forward reach fixed things nicely.

Stems height can safely be lowered now because we're not spending extended
periods of time in the drops anymore, so we can adopt a more-aggressive
position (in the drops) than we could before.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycleswww.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

wrote in message

...

On Jul 26, 8:52 pm, hizark21 wrote:
Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods

I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
put's more strain on my wrists. The one advantage of the hoods is
that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
climbing style.

I believe that stem height has gone down in the last decade so that
riding on the hoods now is almost like riding in the drops was before.
In particular, Indurain used to climb in the drops! Also, if you look
at riders in the 70's they did all their racing in the drops, some of
them with their forearms parallel to the ground, elbows bent at 90
degrees. Sean Kelly rode this way and when he was on the handlebar
tops near the stem he was almost sitting up straight.

-ilan

Good analysis. Thanks.

-ilan