Originally Posted by
Nigeyy
I won't disagree, it's really up to the individual -but just my opinion is that most bikes are setup initially with the bars too low or too similar to a racing configuration (and I am certainly not racing when I tour.) Another point is the natural posture or physiological traits of a rider -for example I have a short neck (genetics, bah!) and bars set too low just aren't comfortable for me -and I take your point that certainly bars too high aren't a good idea either! It's down to the individual.
I think we have different preferences, but they are not really at odds. We both agree that it is a choice that is likely to be different for different folks.
I try to express my preference for lower bars on a touring bike only to counter the notion that often seems to equate bar height and comfort in a way where it is assumed that higher automatically equal more comfortable and lower automatically equal less comfortable.
My suggestion is for folks who are well acclimated to and comfortable on a road bike with low bars to approximate that position as a starting point and raise the bars a bit if it seems to make sense. For those who are not already acclimated and comfortable with low bars I suggest starting with the bars an inch or so below saddle height and raise them if they can't hack that position, but experiment with gradually lowering them as they become conditioned.
Originally Posted by
bailout
I have also noticed that despite people on here and another touring forum I go to seeming to prefer drops most of the blogs I see of people doing long tours they are mostly riding mountain bikes with straight bars and bar ends.
Interesting, but that has not been my observation. Maybe it depends on your definition of "long tours". I could see it more if you are talking about touring in places with poor or no roads, like rural Central and South America or Asia. I definitely do not find it to be the case in the US with the exception of the folks doing stuff like the Great Divide (mostly offroad). On the one ride where we met a lot of tourists (the TransAmerica) the large majority were on bikes equipped with drop bars. When I randomly sampled the CGOAB site by using the serendipity function to pick random photos again there was a clear majority of drop bars. The majority was even larger if you didn't count those on MTB's who were doing some substantial portion of their trip off road.
I am told that in Europe flat bars are the standard for touring, but strangely the Europeans I met in the US all had drop bars. Maybe that was a case of "when in Rome".