HOW TO: Symmetrical Road & Gravel Levers // Perfect Alignment!

[@Andresrdo]

I think this is the best cycling video on youtube there ever has been

[@TheBikeSauce]

😆😆😆 I’ll take it!

[@n0ch91c3s]

A variation of this is the "falling horizon" method, whereby you look at the hood tops from behind the stem and move your head down until the handlebar obscures them (the hoods falling below the horizon). If one drops below the bar first, it's not level. No string required, and no variance on string placement introduced.

[@TheBikeSauce]

Yes! Fellow bike nerd! I like it

[@shannonparker7404]

Yay!! Bloody good effort bloke. Your channel is a really good source of considered information. Thank you.

[@TheBikeSauce]

Too kind, thx for the feedback!

[@shannonparker7404]

@@TheBikeSauce No worries! Love your work.

[@nimbuscycles2354]

*mind blown* would have never thought to setup the brifters this way. Fantastic option/method.. my OCD has always bugged me when it comes to this.

[@TheBikeSauce]

Nice! So it’s not just me.

[@Gufolicious]

Omg you just saved me. My levers were driving me nuts. Now i can sleep again :D

[@PaulBeiser]

excellent tips! I love your sketches, makes it a lot clearer. thanks, very useful.

[@TheBikeSauce]

I'll consider the sketches to be my 'value added' to the community 😆

[@dorandan100]

Very timely - installing the same levers as well - Thanks!!

[@BlakeJinesStorey]

So awesome to see someone who's as OCD about this stuff as I am. Thanks for the great content!

[@TheBikeSauce]

Haha nice

[@backnunAndy]

damn, I searched for this method for such a long time!!! KZbin finally guide to your video clip in 3 years!!!! Bye the way, thanks for your very useful video. I will try coming weekend for sure!!!

[@dgood911]

This is superb. I spent this afternoon wondering how to do that after swapping out my handlebars - made worse ‘cos the bars have no markings. So smart! Thanks!!

[@damienchurch2838]

Fantastic vid bruh. Love the engineering mindset to the task. Very well done.

[@anon7789]

Kudos. This has been bugging me to no end.

[@Monk_Life]

They're adjustable? Cool!!!

[@reckon6493]

I placed the Bike Sauce sticker on my water bottle perhaps 2 degrees off vertical and thought "oh no, Nolan will not approve..."

[@TheBikeSauce]

😆😆😆

[@jirdesteva]

I'm OCD to an extreme. Thanks again for a solution to this PAIN in the neck task.

[@TheBikeSauce]

Ha! Hopefully some will find it useful.

[@buster.keaton]

Subscribed... This issue has annoyed me for decades and this is the first time I've ever seen a tutorial that made sense for getting the levers height and rotation correct. I ride with my levers rotated inwards slightly and every time I get on my bike, I think that one of the levers is at a different angle than the other. I will now go see if that's the case! 👍

[@TheBikeSauce]

🤘🤘🤘

[@mrfuzz6744]

Great comments - I learned some new tricks. Yes, asymmetry drives me insane anywhere on the bars, beat it the angle of hoods, misaligned hoods, or bars that are not pointed more or less exactly straight ahead, so know that you're not the only one.

[@whambamjimmyjam]

Another way to make the height adjustment is get the second shifter roughly in line but higher than your first lever, remove the front wheel and put the drops and the brake lever on a table. This gives you three points of contact on the table. Then lower the second level until it makes contact with the table.

[@Roberto-s3h]

i used a long bubble level over the top of two levers , while bycicle was perfectly in equilibrium

[@MrUltimatePCgamer]

Thanks for the tips! Looking at the diagrams had me feeling like I was in college again 😂😂😂

[@richardlee8467]

This is so great I’m glad I stumbled upon this. My question is in regards to body geometry as nobody is perfectly symmetrical. I’m wondering if it may benefit the rider to have more asymmetry on the hoods to accommodate for differences between the right and left sides of our body. Although it may not help as much for bike control it may help for comfort over distances. Just a thought.

[@TheBikeSauce]

Yea lots of people have argued that people themselves aren't symmetrical. But I still like my bikes to be... 😆 Would be interesting to know if fitters actually compensate for asymmetries of the individual. Kind of doubt it, but perhaps.

[@Joshuakoffmansculpture]

Brilliant! So helpful. Thank you.

[@shaneurban5597]

I really enjoy your content and thanks for explaining this so well. I couldn’t help but notice you have the Venturemax bars. How did you get your shifters over the bumps in the drops. Please share your secret ways as I’d like to fulfill my OCD ways;) Thank you for all your content you post!!

[@TheBikeSauce]

Haha yea it was a puzzle. I took the shifter bands all the way off and reattached them once they were in place

[@shaneurban5597]

@@TheBikeSauce did you have to bend the bands open more at all to get them over the bumps. I’ve got the same shifters you do in the video and it’s so tight that I don’t want to ruin the bars.

[@boGardoN]

could you also use the string method to dial in rotation? for example, could i take the mid point between the tops of the shifters and check that it lands roughly in the center of the stem?

[@hoizkiacha]

best video on the subject so far. 😀 (imho of course)

[@TheBikeSauce]

🤘🤘🤘

[@fotosaccion]

Another great video!! Keep it up!!

[@TheBikeSauce]

Thx, will do!

[@Myodots]

On flared handlebars, rotation about theta changes effective z height. This method should work, however, on non-flared traditional road bars.

[@TheBikeSauce]

I think z is meant to be the distance along the drop to the clamp, so it’s independent of rotation whether flared or not

[@bugeyesprite119]

Very nice video, thanks!

[@pauloschmitt9328]

Thank you!

[@StanEby1]

Brilliant! You not only have clear understanding of geometry, you have a methodical approach to process and a gift for teaching. BTW What dropbars are those? Thanks for your videos. They are very helpful.

[@TheBikeSauce]

Thx Stan! Teaching is my day job so I can see how it’d translate into these videos 😆. Those are the Ritchey carbon venturemax bars.

[@JDPhader]

I've set the hoods to the same height and the same length from stem, measured at the top of the hood. This should give you the same angle I think but the thing is that there is actually quite a big difference. Using the method for this shown in the video I am also getting different values when I tried to set the same angle by eye. Any ideas? Thanks.

[@CuriousMind_LVG]

What if you have one arm longer than the other? I tend to just go off feel and basic visual inspection.

[@TheBikeSauce]

Ha yea it's a consideration.

[@davidcummings5826]

I wondered the same thing. I believe there are few humans who are perfectly symmetrical. However, I do visually notice when my brake levers or bag or something on the bars is not symmetrical.

[@TheBikeSauce]

Tough call. My personality would have me setup the bike symmetrical even if I am not.

[@watchoveryou08]

Love the content your channel! 👍🏻 Nerdy and bike loving! 😉

[@TheBikeSauce]

Ha, thanks. Welcome!

[@ToPiKa182]

In what order would be best to have geometric amplification: 1 - handlebar alignment 2 - lever height 3 - lever rotation Is that the best order?

[@TheBikeSauce]

That’s how I do it. Not the only way though as others have pointed out

[@giladkaplan8058]

Well.. after you've set z, by changing theta you are essentially also translating in z, thereby misaligning again. You might just pull it off with a road bar but with the flared geometry I just don't see how this could work

[@TheBikeSauce]

Astute observation! Yes there’s some cross-channel coupling which is exacerbated by higher flare angles. My work around in the video is to ‘roughly align the angle’ of the adjustment side before setting the z dim. In practice, the theta adjustment should be minimal, thereby mitigating any effects due to coupled channels.

[@acckids]

Thanks

[@Rali272]

I purchased a Poseidon X with flared bars. On my first ride i fell which pushed in my right levers. They are no longer symmetrical and I been trying to match it with the left for 5hrs now. My OCD so bad I was going to sell the bike and buy another one lol.

[@TheBikeSauce]

Lol. Glad you didn't

[@lipancek]

Hej, whats the size of that venturemax handlebar? Thx

[@markbenn1907]

Degrees of freedom🤤🤤 talk to me nice

[@randorecumbent]

Very useful tips and techniques. Thank you for this video. Symmetry makes the bike look great, but people should be aware that the human body has asymmetries. If you're setting up your own bike and you're aware, for example, that one of your arms is a few millimeters shorter than the other, a purely symmetrical setup may not feel comfortable to you. Those levers are geometrically "perfect" but your body isn't. Best to be aware of when to sacrifice geometric perfection for bike fit. Just a thought.

[@TheBikeSauce]

Totally agree. Others have mentioned it too.

[@toxicblackwidow9841]

Printed scales on handlebars are often asymetric, misaligned or crooked ! ;-)

[@jonpoon3896]

My OCD fighting the advice from the bikefitter that says good ergonomics doesn’t have to mean symmetry

[@TheBikeSauce]

Haha yea. I prefer symmetry as well

[@theforeigner6988]

Vielen Dank!!!👍🏿

[@alannoyadamasco8330]

awesome

[@Megadeth6633]

This is a cool video but I find a bit pointless when we are all asymmetrical by nature. I just adjust it by eye and then just grab them as I would riding and adjust each one to my comfort.

[@mf0u3021]

Nice. Next up... how to wrap symmetrical bar tape 😩

[@TheBikeSauce]

Was thinking about it, but would be very niche!

[@arieljohnmaduro9788]

Looking forward for you to be part of Alternative Cycling Network sir.

[@TheBikeSauce]

would love to be a guest at some point. Think this channel needs to find its ‘voice’ first 😆

[@tsamsiyu5890]

Or just use a laser and two rubber bands with marks in the middle like normal people

[@toria-j]

What? How please?

[@rg807]

NEVER score a carbon bar. It weakens it. Use a Sharpie instead.

[@petef15]

I'd say that humans are not symmetrical, so just jump on a static trainer and position them in a way that feels good.

[@ilanpi]

Hi! First of all, there is no such thing as "perfect" in engineering or in nature. In particular, bike fit can change on the same day due to differences in body flexibility, etc, so there is more of a "fit window," as explained in the book by Phil Burt. Finally, I also done this for a while, and I use my phone as a level for angle measurement, and height from the floor using a metal tape measure. You did not explain how to keep the string taught, by the way.

[@Artem-fy1br]

Херня полнейшая. Параллельность веревки зависит в т.ч. от поворота пистолета, а про доску вообще молчу. Все это реально проще выставить тупо на глаз, чисто посмотрев сверху и спереди, выделяя «контрольные» точки, которые должны быть видимы или нет с определенной точки обзора. Как вариант можно приспособить под это дело правило для петуха, заменив сердечник с резьбой под переклюк, на такой же, но с резьбой под якорь