Here is the second in my series of reports on drop bars for off road use. You can find a historical perspective on drop bar use and why some folks prefer drop bars off road in the post entitled “Drop Bars Off Road: Why?” In this post I will briefly give some pointers on how to look at drop bar set up and also I will lay out some concerns about going with such a set up. These will be helpful pointers to those of you considering a drop bar specific 29″er like the Singular Gryphon or the Salsa Cycles Fargo.

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The Set Up: I’ve written a bunch of words concerning this topic and so have some other pretty smart, experienced off road drop bar riders. I won’t be going into a detailed set up procedure here, but here are some salient points to consider though that will help you understand what it takes to achieve proper drop bar set up for trail riding.

Hand positioning: This is the linchpin of the whole set up procedure. You must first determine what your primary hand position is going to be for your riding needs and set up from that point. Off road-centric drop bar set ups work best typically if the rider is “in the drops”, gripping the extensions. Trail impacts will force the bars into your hands, instead of bouncing your hands off the bar, as this would on a flat bar set up, or if you were “on the hoods”. So, if you are planning on doing mostly trail rides with your drop bar set up, the extensions will need to be set up as your primary grip position.

If you are doing multi-surface rides, you may want to make the hoods a good place to ride on your smoother sections of your routes. This will help dictate what your specific set up will be. You will want to select your bars, stem, and frame to allow for all of the hand positions to be usable equally. If you will be doing nothing but paved rides, commuting, or casual rides on paths, the hoods may be where you will spend the majority of your riding time. In this case, a more traditional road bike set up will suffice, although a frame like a Rawland Draakar, Singular Gryphon, or Salsa Cycles Fargo is probably overkill for such pursuits. You might even consider not using drop bars if you think you will rarely ever be in the drops.

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Whatever you decide on for your primary hand position will determine the rest of your set up. I am specifically focusing on the off road, or the extreme opposite of road bike set up. Modern road bike set up is “hood-centric” while traditional off road drop bar set up is “extension-centric”, if you will. They couldn’t be more different, and therefore, it is important to think “outside of the box” if you have a “road bike view” on drop bars. What would be ideal for off road drop bar set up is to have your hands in the drops on trail sections at the same height and reach as your mountain bike flat bar set up. That means the top of the drop bar and the hoods may be in an awkwardly high position for use as hand positions for many instances, but not all. Remember, we are in the drops most of the time, so making the other hand positions marginal for use is okay here.

So, why not use a traditional flat bar? Good question, and I would start you out by having you read the first post in this series. Obviously, if you read that post carefully, you will begin to see that some riders like the ergonomic position better, and feel that their performance is enhanced. A traditional flat bar doesn’t do the same things in that sense. So, the only real connection between the flat bar and drop bar for off road is the relative height from the ground and distance from the saddle that the riders hands should be in. Otherwise the ergonomics are quite different.

Drop Bar Specific Frames: To achieve the proper set up, there are two ways to do it on a mountain bike. First, and maybe the easiest way, is to get a frame specifically meant for drop bar use. The head tube is usually taller, and the top tubes are often slightly shorter. Take a look at this Rawland Draakar as an example of this sort of frame.

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Notice the extended head tube which keeps the rider from having to use a stack of head set spacers. The taller head tubes usually help in finding a good stem without resorting to a very upright, custom stem. In this case the bike is set up with road components and a traditional road bar that would probably work well for a rider looking to use both the drops and the hoods as riding positions alternately.

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Here we see the Singular Gryphon with a bit higher head tube/more sloping top tube which also gets the bar up in the air higher for a more “drop-centric” set up in this single speed off road example. Either way, the stem is a standard reach and rise in both examples shown, with a minimum of spacers due to the frame which was intended to be used with drop bars. This keeps the component choices easy, but you do have to invest in a frame that is specific, (or in the Draakar’s case, nearly so), to drop bar riding. What if you want to convert another bike? One that isn’t necessarily a bike meant for drop bars off road.

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Converting a Standard Frame to Drops: Interestingly enough, there are many 29″ers with 100mm forks, like this Lynskey Pro 29, that have inherently high head tubes to allow for suspension travel. In fact, this particular bike has its handle bars higher than the tops on both the Singular Gryphon and Salsa Fargo that I have here! Stick a ten degree rise stem on the Lynskey, a set of drop bars like the Woodchipper, and you’d be well on your way to a perfectly fine off road drop bar set up on a 29″er not necessarily meant to have drop bars on it. Many other 29″ers may have stubby head tubes, or were designed with 80mm travel forks, or both. In these cases, a tall, very upright stem may be the only way to get a drop bar to work, and even then, you may need to resort to a custom stem.

Now I will address those that will say that either way you do this, it looks bad. Well, to these folks I will suggest that (a) you are letting fashion dictate performance, and (b) you probably have never ridden a proper drop bar bike set up off road. Does the drop bar look come off as odd? Of course it does. But that isn’t why folks are riding these set ups. They are riding them first and foremost for the performance and ergonomic benefits. Yes, a few may actually like the look, but that doesn’t trump functionality here. That said, there are a few draw backs that you should be aware of with off road drop bar set ups.

First of all, the obvious is the components that are necessary to set up a mountain bike with off road drop bars. Stem choices may limit you in some cases with some frames. The shifter choices are limited to bar end shifters, or brake/shift lever set ups from road bikes. There are a few that have modified thumb shifters and trigger pods to work, but these are not readily available to most riders. Finally, there are as yet no hydraulic brake compatible drop bar specific brake levers. The rumor is that it is being worked on, but as of now, you are stuck with cantilever brakes or mechanical disc brakes.

Of course, work arounds are out there and examples have been noted by me. The drop bar rider does have to be inventive, or willing to use what is available if they want to set up their 29″er with drop bars for off roading. Perhaps this will change with time, but such is the way of a very small, niche part of the mountain biking community!