Originally Posted by
Kertrek
I've been using an aluminum hybrid for both commuting and touring. Flat bars, but still comfortable during long tours. I'd prefer drop bars. Though I incidentally found some reputable places that will do the complete conversion+labor to switch to drop bars for $200, and I can afford $200. I've tried bar ends, thinking it would let me change my hand position, but they're too wide apart to feel comfortable.
I've looked at both bike styles side by side and the geometry is about identical, but the touring bikes most often have drop bars. That being said, would a dedicated touring bike make much of a difference (for something I will tour with, but also do most of my daily commuting on)?
Dedicated tourers have lots of fender/rack etc eyelets that might not be present on hybrids. I converted an old Rockhopper MTB to drop bars & used a prev (long) racing stem/handlebar & it gave twitchy handling despite long fork. Might have worked better with shorter stem that angled upward, I dunno. Thorn (UK) guys claim switching drops/flats not a great idea for handling, perhaps that's part of their marketing. But I'd lean to keeping your current set-up--easy to buy narrower flat handlebar so that bar-ends comfortable to reach.
BTW it's a bit ironic that Europeans are leading the trend to flat-bar touring--in the 70's many of the fancy touring bikes were French or English drop-bar bikes. Many folks there/then toured on flat-bar bikes but
AFAIK those were mostly folks who used their daily-drivers for short tours also.