In short, I've found that when you mount road levers horizontally, it's better to use bigger, bulkier aero levers because they provide a larger surface area to grip or rest your palms on, tend to have better hoods for the purpose, and more intricate shapes that end up giving more grip opportunies. Traditional levers are less good because they typically have smaller bodies, and when viewed from what is normally the side there's more exposed lever arm, and less available body, than aero levers.

I would if I were you. Been using them on my Salsa and it's the most comfortable drop bar I've ever used.

Excellent - thanks!

Rear brake in front of the seatstay! I like! I did this on my "Team Dumpster", a frame hit hard by an SUV I picked up for $20. Liked it so much my best bike also features it. (Sadly, I cannot do it on the rest of my bikes. Canti and centerpull. My sidepull/dual pivot fix gear has such long and shallow dropouts that I need the caliper as far back as possible to keep it near the top of the rim.)

Ben

It's in front of the seat stays only for better cable routing. The cable stops are on the right side of the top tube. This is a long and lanky bike.

I had a set on an old single speed commuter. I had them set up with a short stem and the ones I had were dead flat. No slight drop like some of you show. The bars were good for me but the brake levers were always an odd wrist angle despite trying to aim them down fairly strongly as one photo above showed.

The bars were on a very old Norco that had one of the lower level Tange main tubes at least. And the stays may have been Tange too. The age of the frame and looking it up wasn't easy. But it was one of their better offerings in its day.

I later sold it to a buddy and bought a Redline 925 which came with bullhorn bars and bar end brake levers. Now THAT is a wonderful setup in every possible way for a guy that just doesn't bend over well and never uses the drops on drop bars. I can even get comfortably bent down and forward by holding around the hoods and "pulling". The resulting stretch instead of curling to reach down (I'm tall) actually opens up my chest so I can breath better and my neck isn't all bent back trying to see where I'm going like it is when I try to ride a bike with drop bars.

In fact it worked so well that when I built up a Soma Double Cross as a touring bike and heavy hauler shopping bike I mounted the brifter levers so the tops flowed much like a set of bullhorns with end levers and cut off the drops just under the lower edge of the hood. It's one of my favorite bikes and actually the mod looks decent enough.