Walmer – Wide Drop Bars

A good two months of riding on a pair of the 550mm versions across trail riding and off road bikepacking has given a solid feel for the Walmers, as well as, most importantly, adapting to the change in position. The bars have been mounted to a Shand drop bar Bahookie, a 29er adventure bike for the roughest terrain based around modern mtb geometry and WTB 29×2.4 Ranger tyres. Just so you don’t have to search for extra long bar tape, Curve thoughtfully supplies include Forks have been swapped between Shand’s carbon rigid fork and a suspension fork depending on the terrain. Choosing the drop bar version of the Bahookie was mainly due to having fractured both bones in the left wrist. With the radius having been displaced backwards damaging ligaments, long distance riding on flat bars became painful after a couple of days. With their shape and width, the Walmer bar seemed like a perfect fit for the Bahookie, not just for the bike’s geometry and purpose, but also ergonomically for the wrist.

Admittedly, the first couple of rides were a little awkward, the bars feeling completely alien, which was expected of course. It wasn’t simply about adapting to weighting the bike differently, but also the physical adaptation of the musculature around the shoulders, which would take time. Even though the 110mm drop was the same as the out going bars, the increased flare meant that I was effectively marginally lower when moving from the hoods to the drops due to the width difference of 75mm each end compared to the previous 42mm. The new drop position did initially create some tension in the musculature between the shoulder blades, but this was also no surprise as the upper body was now in a new position yet placing the same demands on it as previously. This was my personal experience however and may differ for everyone else. As I explain to bike fit clients where there is a significant alteration in their position and/or posture, new muscular tensions are likely to be experienced which may be quite strong on the initial rides. Heeding my own advice, rides became incrementally longer over varying terrain as I adapted to the position. It’s a bit like doing press ups, going from your usual hand stance to a much wider one. It can feel odd and weak initially, but the strength adaptations happen quickly. The tension felt gradually disappeared over a matter of 2-3 weeks, the drop position becoming both normal and strong, becoming fully confident on technical, off road descents.