Originally Posted by
murrellington
What is going on. That looks ridiculous and I don't see how most of that bar can be utilized. But I'm impressed he uses that for 500 miles a month.
Yeah, it definitely looks a bit ridiculous, but I don't think he cares much about aesthetics.
I haven't paid much attention, but I think he usually rides with his hands on the uprights. He can also grab the tops of the brakes (where the hoods would go) to be very upright, or get a little lower on the flat section to either side of the stem. He wears gloves so he didn't bother replacing the hoods or tape. To be fair, he sometimes rides a Dahon Mariner folder for some of that mileage, but this is his primary ride.
Originally Posted by
50voltphantom
That bike would be so proper otherwise.
True, it's all original otherwise. Here's a little closer-to-proper bike eye-bleach, my bike (smaller frame version of the same thing), and my dad's previous road bike, a 1981 Trek 613 he bought new:
More on topic, drop bars can still be used in conventional form without being very low; just use a steerer tube/quill extension or a longer-quill stem (if threaded). Also, interrupter/inline/cyclocross levers give easy added braking on the flat part without losing the regular drop levers.