Originally Posted by Colnago Mixte

1 inch is a lot. I used to always be trying to run my bars as low as possible, until I figured out that when I run them low, I just quit using the drops, and am on the hoods and bar tops 95% of the time.

Right now, my bars are maybe 2" lower than the seat. which is optimal, and allows me to make full use of the drops as intended. If I go any lower, I will just find myself abandoning the drops, which is a real tragedy as it deprives me of many useful and comfortable hand positions. So these days I don't bother fighting it.

I have found I like bike with longer head tubes than I used to, Marco Pantani used to like bikes with large headtubes, because it allowed him to do much of his climbing in the drops. I think I'm coming around to this same conclusion.