You really have to wonder about this bloke. In another thread (at least one, I suspect others), he's tried to claim that drop bars = an aggressive bike. FFS, they are only HANDLE FLAMIN" BARS and when it comes to bars for 'just starting out', they are the perfect choice.

Fixed gear/SS means you only have one gear - no mystery in that though you'd wonder with some posts. Road drop bars, NOT track bars which are another beast completely, when fitted with a pair of road brake levers, provide the most hand positions you'll get on any set of bars. You DO NOT have to set them up miles below your saddle and this is where WestPablo gets himself all confused because he imagines that road bars = an aggressive riding position (actually, he imagines it means an aggressive frame but that's nonsense as shown in another thread). My own bikes wear road bars set at more or less the same height as the saddle and don't even pretend to be aggressive. Not only is this comfortable, it gives a variety of hand positions and seating positions. If you don't understand that moving your hands changes how you sit you shouldn't be arguing the point in the first place. For this reason alone, they are a better choice than any other choice of bars. If you are spending 90% of your time on the hoods, you are not riding efficiently and your bike is probably poorly set up because on an efficient bike, you can and do change hand positions fairly often to even out the wear on your body.

Apart from the variety of hand positions, where road drops really come into their own on a fg/ss bike is when you hit a head wind. On a geared bike, you simply go down a gear or two. You can't do that with our bikes however, simply going onto the drops reduces your aerodynamic drag and it's like having another gear in your back pocket. True, you need to have your bike set up properly to take advantage of it but that's just part of the skill of bike fit and even fat old gits like me appreciate that lower gear when the need presents.