I notice many of the respondents who favor drop bars prefer not riding in the drops. I would concur. I've been riding seriously for about 40 years, racing for 35 of them, so I'm used to being in a low position. But the only time I'm ever in the drops now is when I'm on the track, spinning away in the pace line at over 40 kmh. On the road, I'm on the tops of the bars or the tops of the brake hoods about 99.9% of the time. Even when I'm pounding into a headwind, I just bend my elbows a little and keep driving from the tops of the hoods. During Paris-Brest-Paris, I will admit I was in the drops for about five minutes out of nearly 65 hours, and that was to stretch out my back!

I think that the basic design of the drop handlebars misleads beginners. They LOOK like you should be putting your hands into the drops for normal riding. But as you have seen, most of the very experienced riders here prefer to stay out of the drops, using the tops of the brake hoods as the "default" position. Indeed, I think the drop position is SUPPOSED to be uncomfortable, because you only need to be in it for a short time, like leading up to and doing a final sprint, or riding a short track race or criterium, where you want to be in a secure position for when you get bumped from the side. But for recreational use, you almost never need to be in the drops.

But what often happens is that beginners try to set up (or have their bikes set up by overly-accommodating bike shops) their bars so that they are comfortable in the drops. Remember, it only looks like that's the normal position. This results in the bars being set way too high, and the rider looking ridiculous to anyone who has seen lots of stylish riders. And the upright rider is probably going to be very uncomfortable because the saddles that come on road bikes are usually designed for riders on drop bars in the proper position, not for upright flat bar riding.

If you decide to go with a road bike, the only way you are going to be comfortable is to learn to adapt to the road position. And the road position is critically dependent on the bike fitting properly. With upright bars, you can get away with a lot of wrong dimensions because the saddle and bars are designed to accommodate a very casual approach. But a road bike and road position require way more precision. That's how people do seven-hour professional road races, or 1200-km brevets in relative comfort. Riding a road bike properly, if you are over 50 and are not used to it, requires some effort!

L.