Gravel bike bar set up help

[ishaw]

I've not ridden a drop bar for donkeys years but a new to me steed arrived today and I'm keen to put it to use over the weekend.

If it was a flat bar MTB, I'd have no issues but I'm not really sure what I'm aiming at when it comes to bar and lever positioning with drops.

Can anyone point me in the right direction so I'm there or thereabouts for my maiden voyage.

Cheers

 

[M_Chavez]

Road-oriented "gravel" bike with road bars (narrow; 0-5* flare) or offroad-oriented "gravel" with dirt drops (wide; 20-35* flare)?
Two big differences.

But the generic advice would be to keep messing with it 'til it feels right.

 

[ishaw]

The bike currently has road style bars fitted, but also came with flared bars. I'm going to use it as is so as to avoid my usual mistake of fettling for months before it is 'ready'.

What is the benefit of the flared bar?

 

[M_Chavez]

The way I set them up:
Road: I prefer ~5* flare. Just more comfortable than the straight ones. I set them to feel comfortable in the drops while I'm still benefiting from better aero and more stability, and as a result, I have a very relaxed position for the hoods. Tend to spend a lot of time in the drops.

Off-road: I set them up for riding most of the time on the hoods and mainly use the flared drops for stability when going offroad. The heavily flared bar essentially allows you to have a narrow & comfortable position for the roads and wide bars for off-road. Not really the best of both worlds - narrow is not as good as you'd get on a road bike, while wide is not as good as you get on flat bars.

I kind of like the cowchippers on my "gravel" right now but used to have on one midges with bigger flare and found them to be very uncomfortable for the wrists. However, I intend to put a wide-ish 5* flare bar on the next "gravel" build and see how I get on.

So, as it was explained to me a while ago: as a generalisation, on the road bike, the drops are for more aero, on the "gravel" the flared drops are for stability. If you think about them this way, the flare starts making more sense.

 

[Frankenorange]

I use old road champion randonneur bars on mine. They are approx 35cm ctc at the hoods and 39 at the ends. For anything other than downhill trail lunacy i don't think wide bars are required. I am pondering narrower as there is a benefit on long road sections to being more aero.
It is all personal but my setup is bottom of the bars a few degrees from parallel to the ground and brake lever hoods(Sram Rival) parallel to the ground. I tip the levers in a bit, too, as that is the way my hands are when i hang them out in front of me. Bars wrapped in cotton tape and just add new over old to make the bar a bit fatter and more comfy.