Yeah I have risers on all of my bikes. I can't even imagine riding drops on the trail. Just sounds unreasonably awkward. I guess the guy in that article is using some kind of weird drops that are wider and angled differently than you'd find on a road bike, but I dunno...I like my risers. They're wide enough to give me leverage, sit me more upright than my road bike does, put me in a good position for just about any kind of trail riding I can think of, let me move around how I want, etc.