Hood positioning on drop-bar bikes (e.g., road, gravel, touring) is often overlooked but crucial for a great riding position. Many riders spend significant time adjusting their cleat position, saddle height, and stem length but neglect their handlebar rotation and hood position.
Typically, the stock hood position on a new bike is not optimised, or even thought about. By simply adjusting the hood position, you can change the overall reach by nearly 20mm, equivalent to switching from a 100mm to an 80mm stem. This adjustment significantly affects your posture through the shoulders and neck. Poor hood positioning can lead to hand and wrist issues, such as cyclist’s palsy, a numbness in the fingers that can persist after riding and, if untreated, cause permanent damage.
Understanding Hood Positioning
The first thing to consider is that proper hood positioning is largely dependent on the reach (horizontal distance) and drop (vertical distance) from your saddle to the hoods. The challenge this presents is that adjustments to your hood position impact the drop and reach to the hoods, so this can become a recursive problem.
We recommend first ensuring your overall position (saddle position, handlebar reach, drop and rotation) is as close as possible to your target position as possible (you can do this easily with the MyVeloFit AI system and a few videos of you on the bike). Once you have your general position figured out, it’s time to look at your wrists and hands to establish your hood position. We will revisit your overall fit after your hoods are closer to their final position.
Hood Position Tips & Tricks
When considering hood position there are three things to consider
- Vertical hood position
- Hood position relative to handlebar rotation
- Internal/Neutral/External rotation of the hoods
Vertical hood position
Hood position relative to handlebar rotation
hoods can be angled by rotating the bar or by changing their position on the bar
Internal/Neutral/External rotation of the hoods
3 Steps to Better Hood Positioning
To set your hood position effectively follow this order
- Set your handlebar rotation
- Set your vertical hood position
- Set the lateral hood position (rotation inwards/outwards)
Set Your Handlebar Rotation
Personally I like to set my handlebars so the bottom of the drops are horizontal to the ground. This is a handlebar position that works for many riders, though depending on how you like to hold the drops, you may find that having them pointed very slightly downward (or upward) may feel better for you.
Set Your Vertical hood Position
Once you have the bar where you want, take a look at the angle of your wrists. Is your wrist rotated down (relative to your arm) towards the ground, pulling your shoulders forward? This can often lead to a tight neck/shoulders and/or numbness in your ring and little fingers.
Hood Position Too Low
Or is your wrist angled up too far upwards, potentially causing an excessive bend to your elbows? This can cause excessive triceps fatigue and/or numbness in the thumb, or index finger.
Hood Position Too High
We are aiming to achieve a neutral position with your wrists relaxed and straight – Not bent excessively towards your thumb or little finger.
If you’d like to reduce your overall reach, perhaps to take some pressure off your shoulders or arms, angle your hoods slightly upward. Conversely, if you are looking to shift your weight a little further forward, for a longer and lower position, angle your hoods a bit downward.
Hood Position Just Right
Set the Lateral hood Position
Lastly, you’ll want to adjust for internal or external rotation of your hoods – generally if you have the correct width handlebars (handlebar width roughly equal to shoulder width) a neutral/straight hood position should work well. Taking some time to make small adjustments to suit what feels comfortable can also go a long way to improving your overall experience.
If you experience very rounded shoulders while riding, rotating the hoods slightly inwards can help alleviate this. Similarly, riders with narrower shoulders (often women) may be more likely to have bikes that came with handlebars that are too wide. Though narrower handlebars is the best solution, you can often improve your comfort a bit by angling your hoods inwards a few degrees. We never recommend having the hoods rotated outward.
