Originally Posted by meanwhile

If you're comparing road drop bars to flats, yes. Dirt drops, like Bell Laps, not really - it's partly a matter of taste of course. Honestly, if drop bars were difficult to balance on in poor traction, cyclocross racing - 35mm tyres in deep mud - would be impossible.

Jacquie Phelan's bike O t t o was possibly the winningest mountain bike in MTB history, btw. See the bars?