i don't think it's the drops themselves that are uncomfortable, it's about how low you ride and how much weight you put on your hands. i like to ride in a down position and put a significant amount of wieght on my hands. on both my my road bike with drop bars and my hybrid with flat bars, the bar is a good 4" lower than my saddle. i do find that the flat bar bike is too limited in hand positions. i used to have bar ends and i switched to them all the time to save my hands, but a recent wreck damaged them and they had to come off. now riding my 15 mile one way commute with just one hand position is super annoying. i guess i could raise the bar to take some weight off my hands, but i really hate the added air resistance of a more upright posture, so instead i ordered some bullhorn bars to put on the hybrid to give at least a good 3 different hand positions, while still allowing me to ride relatively low.

i'll report back after the switch to bullhorns, but i suspect that they will be much better than just a regular old 1 position flat bar.