Originally Posted by bmp
Well I'm deciding whether to go for aero handelbars or regular road handlbars, deciding to go with the vision tri max aero handelbars? However I would like to know the advantages and disadvantages with the aero bars. Currently my road handlebars are set a little low, and even after adjustments, they are low, so it's really hurting my back on really long bike rides (maybe i'm not use to it yet). I would also like to ask could you put sti shifters onto the aero handlebar, since im not really a big fan of bar ends. Thanks for your help.
Well, if you are riding a steep seat-angled tri-bike with a correspondingly low handlebar position, a pair of drop bars will be too low and the drops will be unusable - so then go with a flat or slightly dropped base bar (aka "bullhorns" aka "pursuit bar").
If you are riding a road bike with a slacker seat angle and a higher handle bar position (compared to a tri-bike), a pair of bullhorns will be too high and you're better off with standard drop bars.
You can put STI levers on the end of "bullhorns". I ran my tri-bike like that for about a year but I didn't really like it and switched to bar-end shifting and bar-end brake levers.