Originally Posted by horatio

Thought I'd try something different today - my wife's flat bar road bike (Specialized Vita)! It's a little small (48cm), but thankfully it has a very long seat post that got the fit in the ballpark for my purposes. The main reason I wanted to ride it is because of the triple crankset (26-36-46), to see how low I really need to go (gear wise) to manage most hills I encounter locally, or aspire to ride. I have avoided MTBs and flat bars in general as they have always put too much pressure on my wrists, creating significant discomfort within minutes. I was pleasantly surprised to encounter no problems on today's 1.25 hour evaluation ride! The Vita's bars do have ergo grips, which may have helped some. My old MTBs have none. I had to move my hands some after a half hour, but easily found several resting points. I was a little slower than average on my road bikes, but not much. I think I could do better with a proper fitting frame and a little more aero position.

I've been toying with the idea of getting a gravel bike. Perhaps I will consider a flat bar version.

This was the first time the bike has been ridden on the highway.