I test rode a used Salsa Fargo today which, as I'm sure most of you know, is essentially a mountain bike designed around drop bars.

I was a little surprised by how much I liked the way it rode. Obviously riding around a parking lot is not the same as touring but I thought that the basic idea which is a flared handlebar with shallow drops was very comfortable; plus the drops are closer to saddle height than is usually the case with more "conventional" drop bars and the tops are a bit higher than most people normally set their bars. This is not a particularly aerodynamic tuck but hey a touring bike tends to catch a lot of wind with all the bags.

I thought the set up could be the bees knees for long distance touring and it's a relatively cheap mod to replace the bars and/or get a new stem that places them a bit higher.

Has anyone toured using this sort of handlebar set up for long distance touring?