thank you. Ive tilted the bars down a little since those photos. it feels a lot like an old motorcycle cockpit, low, but with a square wrist position. the frame is a hair big for me so between the back swept bars, moderate saddle height, and the dropped stem I'm pretty comfy. the bike is certainly a weird mashup between vintage race and townie, the cockpit falls in line with the rest. I make no pretense that this is a "proper" build by any means, just a mish mash of things I like that work well together.
this bike let me score the above at the 2008 santa cruz wildcat... it was a prize for speed, not aesthetics. ~30+ miles of both on and off road... The oldest bike by decades.