Boy, does this thread hit close to home.

I've ridden my old Specialized StumpJumper with flat bars and bar ends for a very long time. I'm now in the market for a bike, but I'm not enthusiastic about going back to drops. Part of it is that I've never ridden on dirt on a drop-bar bike. In the abstract, seems kind of sketchy.

My philosophical issue with drops is that NO ONE seems to ride in them. I see dozens of roadies around LA, and almost invariably, they're on the hoods. If that's the way I'm gonna end up riding, I may as well stick to the flat bar and get some visibility. When I took my son's gravel bike to work one day and had to squeeze between cars, I did not feel comfortable on the hoods, and dropped down. Felt better ... and then I went back up on the hoods.

So looking at flat-bar bikes, I end up at the Salsa Journeyman - but it's aluminum, and I want steel. So I have these debates with myself if I can convert a bike to flat-bar (and bar-ends) and get what I need. Reading this thread, now I'm not so sure.

Actually, the bike I really want is one of those BD Mercier "flat-bar gravel bikes" (which are really just SS bikes with derailleurs, I think). But they are way out of stock, and I'm getting antsy.