Categories: Defining MomentsEtiquetteReverenceTechnique

Defining Moments: Hood Position

If I spent half a summer riding with one hand on the tops and one on the hoods, I spent the other half riding with each hand deliberately gripping the hoods differently. As any young Cyclist growing up in the United States in the late 80s, I had a major thing for Greg LeMond.

I imagined Greg to be the perfect Cyclist, as youth often does of their heroes. I modelled my position on his; when Scott Drop-Ins became available, I hastened to save up for a set and mounted them on my bike. In the interim, I mounted some mountain bike bar-ends on the drops of my regular Cinelli bars. (If I could ask Greg one question, it would be whether he ever actually used his Drop-Ins in any race situation. I’ve never seen a picture of him riding in them, and after having owned a set, I can tell you those babies were the flexiest bars I’ve ever had on a bike.)

But I digress. Back to me and my BFF, Greg LeMond. However much I idolized him, one personality trait I knew we didn’t share was an obsessive/compulsive need to have things be symmetrical. I am all about symmetry; my hoods have to be mounted at exactly the same height, the cables have to emerge from the bar tape at exactly opposite the other side, the gap between the tape and the stem has to be exactly the same on both sides of the bars. LeMond did not share this compulsion, a fact most readily demonstrated by how he gripped his hoods with each hand usually sharing a different number of fingers in front and behind the brake levers.

I could understand that people might differ on precisely how many fingers should be in front of the levers and how many behind, but the idea that one could grip their bars with an uneven distribution across hands completely blew my adolescent mind. If I was going to win the Tour some day, this was obviously a skill I needed to have.

So I set about practicing holding the hoods the way he did; one hand with no fingers in front of the brake lever, the other with all but the littlest hand-piggie in front of the brakes or two fingers in front, two in back on one hand, one finger in front on the other – the quantities were irrelevant so long as they were not the same on both sides.

But I couldn’t do it. It drove me crazy – it twisted my guts up inside. And that was when I realized I would never become a Pro Cyclist, if I lacked such a basic skill.

But every cloud has a silver lining, and with my failure came an interest in the various ways one could grip the bars. The first obvious point to make is that the classic “three-position bar” actually offers about a trillion positions, although I admit I lack both the skill and the fortitude to count them all, and am therefore unable to confirm that figure.

I find the hoods offer the most interesting position variations; depending on how you grip them, you can stretch your back or shoulders, settle in for a relaxing spin, or go low and aero for some Passista hammering. Most importantly, if you add a scowl or a grimace and a little bend to the elbow, you can instantly look the Flandrian Hardman.

[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/Hood Position/”/]

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

freddy says:

Mar 19 2013 at 9:50 am

Back to hood position:
PeakInTwoYears says:

Mar 19 2013 at 10:10 am

@Chris

(The ability to swap spiders is great for old gits like me whose knees explode at the merest hint of an incline)

Honest to god. When I got back into cycling I said, "WTF do you mean I can't assemble a different freewheel for every damn ride?" That was part of the fun, in addition to being practical as hell.
scaler911 says:

Mar 19 2013 at 10:58 am

@G'rilla

Totally agree. I can't stand the design of the upper end shimano cranksets. Yuck.
Ron says:

Mar 19 2013 at 11:03 am

I feel that it should be an international law that all decent-to-high end road handlebars be sold with measurement marks at the stem clamp & at the transition where the shifters are set in order to make symmetry easier to achieve.

Nice article, love the assorted photos. It's very cool that some of you have made this a lifetime passion. For someone relatively knew to the sport it allows me to wonder about what I might have been like as a teen Velominatus.
frank says:

Mar 19 2013 at 11:17 am

@Spun Up

On average, have the hoods moved higher on the bars in the pro peloton in recent years? Seems like fewer riders these days have them as far forward as Merckx did. The photo of the Schlecks shows hoods that appear to be as high on the bars as mine, and I'm a 44-year-old lardass with three fractured vertebrae. I've managed to work my way down to one 5mm spacer below the stem, but if I pushed my hoods as far forward as Merckx's, or even Frank's, I would look like Marty Feldman after a few weeks. How high constitutes a Rules violation?

For sure. We're changing our position a lot, and I don't know if its better or worse. We're riding smaller frames, lower bars, higher hoods.

I've moved my hoods up (or, more accurately rotated my bars) to find a neutral position. I think riders in the past used to use the hoods to create tension which the theory is provided more power to the guns - think Fignon with his low hoods.
frank says:

Mar 19 2013 at 11:28 am

@pink

I am keen on the phantom tt bars.

Also, the tops while climbing may not be the most stylish, but with a loose grip and a big smile it is really un-nerving to those hunkered down on the hoods grimasing and nodding away.

One of my signature moves is that if I happen to be passing someone, I'll give it a little gas right before I pass and then go full straight arms on the tops and chat a bit as I blow by.

Riding the tops is ultra-pro, but I really only can sustain a speed - if I'm accelerating quickly, its hard to gain enough leverage.

@scaler911

Your avatar made me watch American Flyers while building up the VMH's bike last weekend.

@all

I'll still grip the hoods and number of ways, but always symmetrically.

The Knuckle Ball: Two fingers on either side of the lever body.

The Pinkie Swear: a pinky curled over the nob on the hoods and all other fingers pointed inwards and forearms resting on the tops.

The Pinkie Swear Alternate: pinkie under the brake lever, all other fingers above.

The Strangle Hold: Two fingers in front, two in back or one in front three in back - and using it for maximum leverage.
frank says:

Mar 19 2013 at 11:30 am

@Marcus

I always appreciated Cipo's super high hood position - apparently set up that way so he could maintain a very high level of comfort whilst lazing away in the bunch. The only time he would strike a pedal in anger, he would be in the drops, so why adopt anything but the most upright leisurely grip possible at all other times?

Almost like he considered lower hoods to be only required by those peasant domestiques who had to labor on the front for hours.

I remember he won a Giro sprint in 2002 on the tops. He even surprised himself, that time.
mcsqueak says:

Mar 19 2013 at 12:31 pm

@frank

The Knuckle Ball: Two fingers on either side of the lever body.

I don't ride the hoods that often unless I'm in a group where I really need fine control and braking ability. Since I ride solo so much, the tops are where I am like 80% of the time, and I use the drops when I really want speed or when I want to sprint up a short hill quickly.

But there is one way I grip the hoods which I call "the lazy superman", which is to cup your palm over the top of the brifter (god I hate that word), sort of like how you'd hold the stick shift in a car. It gives you a nice, stretched out position without going as deep as you are in the drops.
frank says:

Mar 19 2013 at 12:46 pm

@freddy

Back to hood position:

I was actually going to issue a point penalty to anyone who picked him on account of the leg-warmers over the bibs, but decided not to in the end. Riding like that at the start is one thing, to finish...well, I quite frankly don't care HOW cold it is - there is no excuse for that!!
snoov says:

Mar 19 2013 at 12:47 pm

@Spun Up

On average, have the hoods moved higher on the bars in the pro peloton in recent years? Seems like fewer riders these days have them as far forward as Merckx did. The photo of the Schlecks shows hoods that appear to be as high on the bars as mine, and I'm a 44-year-old lardass with three fractured vertebrae. I've managed to work my way down to one 5mm spacer below the stem, but if I pushed my hoods as far forward as Merckx's, or even Frank's, I would look like Marty Feldman after a few weeks. How high constitutes a Rules violation?

Is it maybe because it wasn't possible to slam the stem like you can nowadays?