Originally Posted by
Koyote
My commuter bike has a flat bar, and it's great. It provides a slightly more "heads up" position that allows me to see just a bit better, and the bar makes the bike very responsive...Also, on such a bar, the brake levers are always right there near my hands.
But on a bike built for longer distances, "serious riding," I will take drop bars every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
My gravel/commuter bike is a flat bar mountain bike, and I of course have a set of bar ends on it. It's not bad for semi-long distance gravel, but I don't think I'd want to try to ride a set of drop bars on gravel. I think it feels like there's a lot more control on gravel with flat bars.