Originally Posted by Gerryattrick

I recently built up my first road bike in over 40 years. I have bought a couple of road bikes in the past year but they were for flipping, not keepers, whereas my new one is a modern steel frame bike that I got specifically to get back into road riding.

The bike is great, fairly light at just over 21lbs fully kitted, with a very smooth ride but I'm wondering when I'm going to love riding drop bars.

I can see the aerodynamic benefits of riding in the drops, but tbh increased speed is not a very important factor in my riding and so far I reckon I've ridden the drops probably about 2 or 3% of the time.

I've never had wrist, arm or back problems riding my normal 2-3 hour rides on flat bars with bar ends, nor on a 98 mile ride on an mtb. On the plus side I'm not getting the problems I thought I might have had with my long-lasting back and neck issues as I've set the drop bar reasonably high.

I'm not giving in yet, especially as I'm only just getting back to riding after a long injury lay-off and my longest ride on the new bike has been 20 miles.

For those who moved from flat bars to drops how long did it take you to to get really comfortable with them?