well, there you go, done.
What bike do you have, and style/era/shape of dropbars?
Have you thought about slightly wider and or shallow drop bars with a bit of drops flare?
Now would be the time to do it, and heck while you're at it, put new housings on the bike too as you'll be mucking around with it all anyway.
If curious about the options of shallow dropbars, if you can, visit a bike store with actual models you can hold and see how they feel.
I did this when setting up my touring bike for a long trip, and it was useful to see how the one with a lot of drop flare out feel.
A wider drop stance is nicer for when on rough surfaces, more control, but some of the more extreme ones put the hoods at an inward leaning angle -- not my cup of tea but Ive never lived with them, only seen them on bikes, but my feeling was that I prefer my hoods more or less straight up and down. Mine might be very very slightly angled in with the Cowbells, but its fine.
The wider drop stance is nice on descents, I like it a lot, with a touring load (more leverage on downhills, even paved) or on dirt and single track when bikepacking, which I do with my bike also.
have fun with the changes you do.
I find the bars change kinda gives an old bike a new feel and look, fun to ride and as I've mentioned, has some real life benefits.
Also fun to do a different bar tape, again, makes the bike look and feel newer.
I really like how with wicked headwinds, shallower drops and slight flare makes the drops so much more realistic and helpful to use when battling a headwind.
cheers
The bike is a 2009 Trek 520. Original Bontrager bars. They wouldn’t be so bad except for the attempt to make the drops more ergonomic with the sloping rise into the bends. Never been comfortable for me. I have 3x hands and the flats are too short a traditional shallow drop with a long flat in the drop works better for me (Like Nitto Grand Randonneur)
I’m in no hurry to change bars because I’m still readjusting to a road bike again. Who knows what will feel good in another 3 or 4 months? In the meantime I will keep an eye for a bar that might fit me better.
