Saddle to bar drop: how much is too much

What saddle to bar drop are you running and what symptoms you get if it’s too big?

I have Venge 54 with a saddle height of 725mm with 1.5cm spacers and that gives me a 9cm drop.
I can ride in drops for hours but when I climb I have some strange feelings in my hips (while on the hoods).

Before I rode bigger size Tarmac with 6.5cm drop and if I remember the feeling was a bit different (and there is some watts diff also).

But again, that is all maybe in my head or it’s connected with saddle height and not drop.

Its very very individual… I have 9cm drop, which allows me to ride in the hoods with 90 degrees bent arms (which is most aero), so for me that works well.

But I see a lot of riders who push crazy drops because it looks cool, and they ride with locked arms to just reach the hoods, which is idiotic.

There is a difference between flats and climbs when it comes to hips, reach and all other factors, so it might be that you get some sort of hip impingement when you are climbing…

Have you had a proper bike fit?

I would try to raise the front a bit and see how that feels :slight_smile:

Yes I had a bike fit and fitter told me that the numbers are fine but I can try to raise it if I want more comfort

There’s no way to answer that question because everyone’s fit is different, I know some guys who run a lot of drop and some that run very little. There is no direct correlation between bar drop and being faster among the people I know (as in the people with more drop are not automatically faster than those with little) so you should really be setting it up for comfort which will lead to power production, not setting up for “I need to get lower to get faster”

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As others have indicated, there are a lot of variables involved - body shape (leg vs arm length), flexibility, fit objective (fast short rides vs long ones), hand position preferences (fit for 90% on the hoods or 90% in the drops), and, yes, ego and willingness to satisfy comfort to look like a racer. But that last factor is very rare. :roll_eyes:

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