Hood and bar placement

Hi all, I’m building up a Fairlight and I’m struggling/second guessing my hood placement. are these okay? I’m getting a bit of pressure on the bottom outside area of my palms. once I’ve got it all dialed in I’ll cut the fork, re-hose and re-tape the bars.

Excuse the mess!

thanks in advance

The picture from further away looks somewhat decent, but the other two seem to have the bar tilted down way too much.

For most bars, the rule of thumb is to orient the lower bar end in the drops to be level with the ground (if they have a section that looks like it should be, not all do).

The hoods also look ok at a glance, them being tilted upwards ever so slightly.

Anything further would probably need some pictures including your hand placement (both, side and top view). It’s hard to tell where the issue might be without seeing where your hands actually rest. Just to mention it, tilting the hoods inwards may shift pressure points towards a more equal distribution, but this also depends on where your hands actually rest.

Amazing thank you. Ill give it a go

IMHO the discomfort you feel could be connected to the small “valley” that is formed between the handlebars and the hoods.

As a neutral position, I’d start with where you can draw an imaginary straight line from the handlebars to the shape of the hood. The hill on the handle-bar-side of the valley will put additional pressure onto the palm of your hands. I apologize if I have mangled the explanation, but have a look at this Youtube short.

Great tip! Thank you. Dougie fitted my TT bike many moons ago.

As you are able to adjust the tilt of your bars (which do look to be tilted more ‘forward’ than normal), is would start there, and rotate them to a position where your hands (and wrists) feel comfortable when in the drops. Once your one that position, the find the position where the hoods, and using the brake levers, feels comfortable for you, and tighten them down there. You’ll probably end up with something pretty ‘standard’ looking, but there can be some personal preference in this, since everyone is a little different. I also like turning my hoods inward just slightly.

Wow, what a coincidence! So you know it comes from a trusted source. :slightly_smiling_face:

As a starting point, I usually point the bottom flat part of the bar downward a bit from horizontal. Then, I position the levers so that there is a flat transition to them from the bar’s ramps. Bars that have a sharper bend in the hooks near the ramps work better for this. Ideally, when done, the tops ramps, and hoods fall in one plane. This works well for me. Here’s pic of one of my bikes from 16 years ago.