Originally Posted by serious
Sorry seely, try as hard as you want, but drop bars are not ideal for the reasons that gettocruiser already mentioned. Of course they work, but so does a rigid setup. That is not a good enough reason to recommend it to somebody. In other words, there is a difference between what is possible and what is recommended. And this nostalgic idea that that nothing has changed in trail difficulty since the 1990 is silly. Some of the XC trails in Mont-Saint-Anne are shared by the DH people and many XC racers choose to run through challenging areas to avoid a crash. I want to see 1 person doing those races with drop bars!
You don't have to be in the drops all the time. There is also a top if you didn't know. Some of the trails here are shared with DHers too, I ride them on a rigid SS. I have ridden with FS bikes when on my SS and I was droping them on hills and downs. Just because people ride FS on trails doesn't mean they have to. Same with drop bars.