Originally Posted by
BluFalconActual
I may be the weirdo then because I don’t care for a lot of flare. My old bike had Eroica bars and I couldn’t stand the amount of flare the had. I don’t know if that’s just because of the roadie in me not being used to it or not.
My current Giant Revolt Advanced has drops that i have heard nothing but bad things about but I really like them for whatever reason. They don’t have much flare are all.
I am not a fan of switching something just because. If the bar you have works, stick with it, that is all that matters. In my case a compact always had me uneasy on anything but road, after a few hours my hands were cramped from the death grip and my relative stumpy fingers had a hard time braking from the drops. I have hyd brakes and usually one finger but the remaining four were not up to the task. I was missing confidence and control and the experience off-road was not what I wanted. Flared bars solved a problem for me. I went way flared with a 24 degree, probably the "flat bar rider" in me. Good or bad I use my "gravel" bike a lot more and my XC bike a lot less now.