Drops vs flat
 

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What do you ride?
i am switching to flats after my ride tonight

None of the above. I ride swept bars. ;) I can't ride drops because my neck don't bend that way no more. Flats pound the hell out of my wrists. I can ride swept bars for hours with minimal discomfort. That's probably due to a combination of the wrist angle and more upright posture, whatever. Your body will tell you what works for your riding.

The nice thing about single speed is that it's fairly cheap to try a different kind of bar. I don't think you even have to remove your bar tape on the modern stems.

Drops with hoods. I love that I can dial them in for these hands that have been riding forever and I can ride as hard as I want and climb anything my legs will get me up in any gear (that my legs will get me up in) and not have hand or wrist issues. (Not quite true. For long climbing days on the fix gear, I make it a point to wear long fingered gloves because few brake manufacturers make levers that are really smooth on the underside at the hoods. Mafac Racer levers were the best I ever rode on that score. Wish someone would copy that detail. (But not the rest of the lever. Levers have come a long ways since then.)

Ben

Risers mostly. If you are talking a flat pipe like bar such as the nitto b250, those arent comfortable. Most bars have some sweep back. I have a few.

I have drops too that I put on from time to time. You have more hand positions. Maybe try a new drop bar.

Quick to change them up. 5 minutes like the above posted mentioned.

Bullhorns are nice too, but not a fan of how they look, so don't own any.

Drops.

+1 to drops with hoods. I really don't understand why anyone would want to run them with brake levers on the tops.

MTB bars ATM.
But ideally, incredibly wide drops.
Best of both worlds...
But drops usually don't have sweep :( which is the best part of flats IMO.

+eleventy brazilian

Hoods are 90% of the reason to run drop bars in the first place, IMO (unless you're racing and in the drops 100% of the time)

Yep, not having brake hoods to grab while out of the saddle climbing would castrate the only effective position to get up and over the local barely FG-able climbs.

As always, suit yourself.

-Bandera

Drops with hooded levers - I need all the different positions to keep my hands happy and to spread the work around to different muscle groups.

neither.

now kiss the headset
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/dow....php?id=404282

Maybe it's just me, but hoods and drops feel nice, but feels.... A little out of order due to the steep headtube angle of a track bike. So I've gone back to the flat top brake lever on drops, which makes climbing a little sucky.

I rode brakeless when I was younger. If I did have a brake it would have been a front brake with a lever on the top because there was some law that required it, but Chicago cops didn't care about stuff like that in the 90's.

Now that I'm old, my FG is just a road bike with one gear, so drops and levers.

Oddly enough "track bike" geometry wasn't designed for use on the open public roads where the lousy surfaces, steep climbs/descents and blustery wind conditions make for a lumber wagon ride quality combined with nervous twitchy handling at pace. As @kingston noted and my experience is the same:

As always, suit yourself.

-Bandera

Ritchey WCS 10d sweep flatbar

risers around town, leverage and control is a blast.

drops for longer distance, more hand positions.

I used to ride brakeless too, not super into it anymore. Having hoods and a brake means I can do more distance, go faster, climb more, descend more confidently, etc. I used to use a clamp on lever on the tops for commuting to the track, but never liked it otherwise.

I'm using Soma HWY One bars now, I like them better than the risers I was using before.

Swept back-no rise (VO porteur) on my daily rider, drops on my tourer/road bike (nitto/riv noodle mod. 177) and a set of swept back risers (nitto/riv billie bar) on my pashley.

ive never had a set of flats since the Fuji mountain bike I had back in the 90’s came stock with them. Hated em.

Drops for the versatility, although I very seldom ride down on the hooks. I ride on the bends, on the tops, or on the hoods depending on things like how steep the hill is.

At one time I had a lovely pair of almost straight carbon fibre bars on the bike, but they limited me to one hand position, were less good on hills, although better on rough ground. I decidedI had been a fashion victim and put the drops back on.

Been riding risers for the summer just because, but thinking about going back to pursuits for comfort on longer rides (personal preference).
Drops with hoods might give the more hand options, which could be seen as a more practical option, but just haven't had the opportunity to try it and not interested in investing for the parts to do so at the moment.

I just built a bike with those bars and love them. I am a big fan of compact drops with curved drop and long rearward extension. Civia Emerson is another one - super comfy.

+1 I have the Soma bar on my road bike. I like it a lot.

Call me trendy but I'm all about the flared compact drops these days. Even on the road, just a little 6 degrees or so is nice.

I do think it's cool that Soma makes their bar in a 26.0mm version.

They're trendy for a reason.