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Saw a couple of comments recently about BDHU (bars down hoods up) in a discussion about shifter position on gravel drop bars.
I've got pretty average size 9/large hands but find that BDHU creates a dip towards the hood. It feels like there's then no support in the middle of the hand.
I find I tend to ride with a slight rise to the top of the bars so that there's a straight line from the bar top to the shifter. This line has a slight rise rather than sitting horizontal.
Interested in what others are doing as I still occasionally get numb ring and pinky finger.
I prefer that downward angle to the top section, more like the old round road bar shape, with the STI hoods level or a few degrees up and no more. I find I'm less likely to ride on the tops with pressure on my central wrist area nerves when on bars set up like that. Some bars just don't work that way though as the tops and hooks are closer to parallel.
All in all my natural position on the bike is with my hands reaching fwd and down slightly so that's how my bars want to be. If you're angling them up it may be for bracing yourself against sliding forward, a classic sign of a saddle that's too far forward.
It's only very slightly up from horizontal and my hands on the hoods are sitting about horizontal with the saddle.
It's possible the saddle is too far forward as it's 74° and an inline dropper post but the saddle is level, the cranks are 170mm on a medium and the cleats are all the way back in the slots.
Possibly a bit more fwd biased saddle position than an average road bike but if the bars are closer/higher then it can all balance out.
I use it more like a 90s mountain bike than a road bike so the position feels appropriate.
BDHU shouldn't create a dip towards the hood per se; the levers should still support your weight, but this can vary depending on the shape of your bars and the brand/type of levers. And especially when it comes to gravel bars, which are more diverse in their shape/sizing, and BDHU doesn't always hold as true..
The point of BDHU, as I understood it, was just making the transition from bar to hood appropriately smooth, and not using hood position - as jameso says - to not use them as a brace.
I also tend to find that BDHU solves the problem of "can't reach the brake levers properly in the drops". I'm of the opinion is that one reason people don't like being in the drops, especially when they're new to them, is the positioning of their levers; if the hoods are reaching for the sky, the drops become less usable.
Here's my understanding, which might be wrong:
Then again: if you are more comfortable, who's anyone to argue with that. BDHU is, I think, quite a subtle thing; the main thing it is designed to counter is having a completely flat transition from top of bar to top of hood, which is not as comfortable as it looks.
Yeah, it's that curve that feels like it's supporting the front and back of my hand but nothing in the middle.
Perhaps I've gone too flat. However, the lever blade is vertical and accessible from the drops.
It does feel like there's not a lot of bar left down near the plugs but I think that's not something that would be solved by rotating the bars down a bit.