dkatz1

I have a road bike (an Independent Fabrication) that I had made with flat handle bars (which ended up requiging mountain bike brakes). I used to prefer drops, but my back won't tolerate, and even worse, the arthritis in my hands is bad enough that I can't really work the brakes in the drops.

Happy Feet

Well, I wouldn't call them moustache bars but perhaps "raised eyebrow' bars?

Ironfish653

Weird is as weird does

yukiinu

Drop bars allow you to change hand and body position, on the drops you have more power/ leverage for climbing. I have a mountain bike with dropbar extentions, they let me do all of the above and change hand positions on all day 80+ mile Per day cross country rides. You are only using 2 of the 4 hand positions available on drop bars. My MTB/drop bars have 5 hand positions.

livedarklions

Can you post a picture of the dropbar extension setup?

livedarklions

Can you rig that seatpost up to shoot watermelons over a wall?

yukiinu

You can find them on Amazon. 2 types. I got the ones that have a sleak mounting connection as opposed to the ones that have a more bulky mounting connection. However mine have a 10° angle out from flat MTB bar that you may not like how it pressures your wrist, sometimes it bothers me sometimes not.

Jeff Neese

I guess I'll chime in. Across 4 vintage mountain bikes, I have two with drop-bar conversions, one with trekking bars, and one with normal flat bars. It depends on where I'm going to ride, but when I want the most control over challenging surfaces and also a variety of comfortable hand positions, I jump on one of the ones with drop bars. You generally have to swap stems in order to bring the handlebars closer for a perfect fit, if you're going from flat MTB bars to drop bars.

The only downside is shifters. I actually prefer friction shifting to indexed, but if you need indexing then it's hard to find a good solution switching from flat bars to drops.

livedarklions

I've seen them for sale but I've never actually seen them on a bike that someone was using. I'm curious how your brake setup works, for example.

Ironfish653

Even this guy switched to flat bars: He won, on this bike, but he still switched to flat bars.

Happy Feet

Hum... How many drop bars can we count?

Btw, I use an stationary bike at work to exercise elderly residents and we have a 32" TV in front of it to cut the boredom. This is one of the favorite videos to chromecast to it

Jeff Neese

I would encourage you to view some cyclocross racing - then you'll get it. Here's one of many to get you started.

Of course I'm not a cyclocross racer and if I was I'd certainly buy a dedicated bike. But since I have a Trek 970 mountain bike with drop bars, I don't feel a need to buy a Surly Cross Check or something like that.

Kapusta

I would like to take this opportunity to point out that the guy catching air in the video thumbnail is riding on his hoods

It is also worth pointing out that for UCI races (and some others as well), drop bars are mandated for CX. People are not choosing drop bars for cyclocross because they are better in the technical stuff, they use them either because they have to, or because they are an advantage in the non-technical stuff. There’s also the fact that it is simply traditional for the sport.

Of course this is largely subjective, and if you like drops for the rough stuff than use them. However, I have the suspicion that your experience with flats versus drops has more to do with the particular set ups of your four bikes.

Happy Feet

As are most of the riders, most of the time in the video.

Jeff Neese

It has to do with having a lower center of gravity, and being able to modulate the amount of weight placed over the front tire and how easy it is to move your COG front to back. Riding in the drops is, for me, much more stable and gives me better control when I need it.

Ironfish653

Not all MTBs are (were) created equal. A Trek 970 is a lot different from an M2 Stumpjumper or an F-1000 (and that's just 1990's bikes)
The 970's a nicely built bike, but it still falls under the 'recreational MTB' category, rather than 'XC Race Bike' running a zero-rise stem and 3" of saddle-bar drop.

'Challenging Terrain' too can mean different things to different people. Fast fire roads, rocky jeep trails, loamy single track; IMO it takes a lot of monkey motion to keep a bike under you climbing a root ladder or dropping through a rock garden, I've never felt that the straight bars on my trail bike were holding me back.
IME, i've found that drop-bar road riders are the most 'locked-in' on their bikes, ie; 'must keep their butt on the saddle and both wheels on the ground' That certainly limits your handling options.

Jeff Neese

I agree with your assessments. I ride vintage rigid chromoly frames, specifically a Trek 970 and 930, a Rockhopper, and an old Fuji. I am not a competitive rider by any stretch. I do know that when I'm barrelling fast downhill on a hard-packed dirt and gravel road, with all of it's potholes, washboard, ruts and other irregularities and start reaching that 25mph mark, I really feel more secure down in the drops. And for climbing it's better as well - I find I can drop down and use my entire body more efficiently. But then again, that's just me. I came from a touring and road bike background so I became accustomed to that style of riding.

I do not agree that riding in the drops causes one to be "locked in" or limited in any way. Just the opposite. When I'm in the drops, I can put as much weight as I want on my butt and can go from full seated to lifting barely off the saddle to full standing all very smoothly, with just minimal movement. I can put more or less weight over the front or rear wheel as the situation demands. I feel better balanced and more in control. I attribute most of this to simply having a lower center of gravity, but I also think the hand position is more natural.

Commutess

I would say that you only need drop bars if you are competing in road races, track, or you ride extremely long rides in areas that frequently have a strong headwind. Other than those reasons there is no reason to have drop bars. Casual riders with drop bars spend 99% of their time on the hoods, which is equivalent to bar ends on a flat bar. In city riding I think that flat/riser bars are much preferable since they offer more control steering the bike.

caloso

I would say that many of us prefer drop bars because we prefer the multiple hand positions.

sjanzeir

I would say that it's important for many people to be seen on bikes with drop bars, even if they don't need them or can't really use them comfortably and effectively.

caloso

Maybe. I guess I really don't care what I look like. I like the comfort and control of drops: having raced cyclocross, track, and road (especially crits) I don't agree that somehow drops offer less control than flat bars.

sjanzeir

Dude, you broke the chain!

In other words, there's no disputing the usefulness of drop bars in competitive cycling. Commutess and many others were debating the usefulness of drop bars for non-competitive cyclists, i.e. the rest of us, the "others", the dullards who so brazenly dare to muddy up the purity of the temple that is Bike Forum. Which is the whole point of this thread, if I recall.

Metieval

It's only important to be seen on drop bars, after 60 miles, because up until then........ a flat bar works just fine.

wolfchild

Flat bars with bar ends or riser bars with bar ends work just fine for 100 miles or more. There is really no limit how far you can ride with flat bars.

Metieval

well yes. true, but not totally true.

if only I could shift from my bar ends on a flat bar.