Well, if these clamps had been 25.4 mm, I'd be happy, but they're only 22.5!
The bar itself is 24 mm, so with 1.4 mm to spare, things would've been just fine...

I'm not trying to make things difficult for myself, I just don't understand why I should be so extremely limited in my choice of brake levers just because I want to use drop bars. There's just no reason.
Manufacturers are stupid and narrow-minded. I'll just have to accept that in this case, I guess, and make the best of the situation.

And Raiyn, there's nothing WRONG with trying new things once in a while.
If everyone only did what people before them always had done, we'd be eating ants off of straws and digging up edible roots with our bare fingers...

You obviously have some serious problems if you call that a fiasco.
I can't help that you're too narrow-minded to see the benefits of my proposed set-up. At least TRY to accept that other people might have a bit more vision than you have yourself.