Hi, I have mounted a woodchipper 44cm handlebar on my new custom gravel bike. I have been riding with the woodchipper about 2 months and I set up the woodchippers to use mainly in the hoods and the angle of the drops now is about 30 degrees.
I ride mainly on the hoods and use the drops only on offroad and asphalt downhills and sprinting. I feel not uncomforable riding at the hoods and also in the drops but I´m a totally newbie riding dropbars so I can´t compare.
I have read a lot of comments on forums of people afirming that the woodchippers are designed to ride mainly at the drops and that the best handlebars to ride both hoods and drops is the cowchipper.
So I´m thinking now the possibility to change to the cowchippers. Maybe they are better for me because I have a width of 44cm between my shoulders but due to the woodchippers design my hoods are at 39cm. So maybe changing to the woodchippers will improve my hoods riding. What do you recommend me?
I attach a photo of my bike with the woodchippers in a 30 degrees drop set up.Do you think the cowchippers are better for my type of bike and riding?
Is the cowchipper as good as the woodchipper for offroad downhill at the drops?
I have the 46 Cowchippers on my Kona Rove. Getting them dialed in took a while but they are very comfortable and confidence inspiring in the drops. When I was setting them up I had trouble finding the balance between the hoods and the drops. Many adjustments later I found the balance and I can ride for miles comfortably in the drops or hoods.
I set the flat part of the bars at a very slight upward angle. The rubber part leading to the top of the hoods is about even with the flats and the left to right hood angles are adjusted for comfort. This gives me two finger braking in the drops using my index and middle finger at the bottom of the levers.
The cowchippers work well for me. Your bike geo looks similar to mine. I have no experience with the wood chippers but knew they would not be a good fit for me and my type of bike. There are lots of videos about setting up the woodchippers which are worth checking out before switching. The cow chippers are like night and day compared to the stock bars that came on my bike, with those I just couldn't get comfortable on long rides.
Woodchippers are best if setup much higher than what you have on your bike. I tried them and decided they weren't for me. I now have Cowchippers and I love them. They work well in either the drops or on the hoods.
I have Woodchippers on my NORCO Threshold CX that I use fir gravel grinding. I love them. i spend lots of times in the drops on downhills be it pavement or gravel. I also spend plenty of time on the hoods. I find them a versatile handlebar with lots of different positions. It is true people say Woodchippers are "drop centric" but if you are comfortable with them they are the bars for you. The cowchippers do look like a happy medium I will admit.
I have the 42cm Woodchippers on my Straggler. I've been riding with them for about 3 or 4 months. All of my gravel rides have been hill climbs, since the best destinations in my area were up a mountain. I went from flat bars to the Woodchippers and lost a lot of climbing power/leverage, but I was much more comfortable on longer rides and on the slow and steady uphill sections when my hands were cramping from being in the same place for so long. It's fun to ride downhill once you get your brake angles dialed in, and there is ample space on top, which to me resembles a flat bar feel. When you don't need the brakes, it's kind of nice to just rest your hand at the edge of the drops and cruise. Overall, I really like the Woodchippers.
Unfortunately, I think that the smallest size available in the Woodchipper (42cm) is too large for me. I recently built up my Cross Check with the Cowbells (38 cm) for smooth and rough road commuting, and I LOVE them. It took some getting used to because my chest felt significantly more closed in compared to when I ride the Woodchippers (could be the sizing, or it could be the flare or geometry difference), but after a few miles the Cowbells became super comfortable. Because of this, I'm going to try the 40cm Cowchippers on my Straggler. OP, If you get the bars before I do, can you post a comparison? I'll probably do the same after a month or two of testing.
I switched from the Woodchippers on my Fargo to the Cowchippers. With the Woodchippers, setting up the brifters to a comfortable position while also keeping them in the proper spot for necessary brake lever clearance was a compromise at best. The Cowchippers allowed me to adjust lever position and tilt without interfering. I also like the less outward flare but my experience is all road so this colors my perception of proper setup I'm sure. Most of my time is on the hoods so...
I accidentally orderd Woodchippers when I thought I was ordering Cowchippers (bad google link), and sent them bike right away. I didn't have to put them on to know they would be unusable. They are made for a specific very high stack bike frame to ride in the drops constantly.
LOL - I did the same as you only w/the Ritcheys. I googled EvoMax and came up with more than a few purchase options. Apparently I didn't look close enough though as I ended up with EvoCurves. So they're just sitting here unused. They came from the UK so probably more expensive to send them back than they're worth. I was hoping for the Euro version of the EvoMax which comes in a gloss black. I ended up treating myself to the Thomson KFC in carbon. Haven't installed them yet but soon.
