Originally Posted by David Broon

In my mind, tops/hoods should be the primary position, with the drops only used to get aero/low/more power. With that in mind, if you ride primarily in the drops, that suggests a fit issue to me. The only exception would be CX, but that's not the point. That said, I come from a road racing background, and all of my fitting knowledge is based off that.

Taking that into consideration, I would suggest a pair of compact road drops, with a cross-top lever. Or, if you can overcome your aversion, a pair of road levers, a-la sram s500, is gonna be pretty perfect.