TallRider

Hey, I'm curious as to the reasons for people's preferences for shallow- vs. deep-drop road bars. As I see it, there are two main reasons for chosing deep or shallow drops.
1) The first is, how low do you want your hands to be in the drops compared to the brake hoods or bar tops. Deeper drops mean a more aero position and possibly better pulling position for sprinting with hands in the drops, or for hammering away on a solo break. Shallow drops mean that there's less distance between bar the tops and the drops, which is nice for shorter people to keep proportionaly, as well as for touring cyclists who want to use the drops regularly as a comfortable hand position and don't plan on crazy hammering.
2) Curve of the drops - this isn't so much of an issue when talking about ergonomic-bend bars, but for traditional curved drop bars, deeper drop means a more gradual curve, possiby fitting larger hands better. Again, a proportionality issue.
There are also randoneer-bend drop bars where the bend is the same curve as standard 140mm drops, but the tops flare up a bit so that the actual distance from flats to drops is around 120mm. These are used mostly by touring cyclists.

I'd appreciate hearing more thoughts on this subject. Thanks.

moxfyre

I prefer deep drops, mostly because I have fairly large hands. I also like them because it means that my elbows can be less bent in the drops (I find the 90 degree elbow position to be quite uncomfortable). I find the deep drops perfectly comfortable for long rides.

I greatly prefer ergonomic drops, although I do like the stiffness of traditional curved steel bars. I've never found any traditional curved bars where I felt that the bendy portion could fit my hands comfortably, so I always end up keeping my hands a little lower and having to move them to brake.

I may be a complete oddball, however. I like to use wide bars, keep my brake levers very far forward, and the bar-ends pointing higher than my brakes.