While my arms won't be sore I'd have recumbutt after <20 miles on my recumbent. On my touring bicycle I can do over 100 without any arm/hand/neck pain.
I think with a different recumbent I'd be better so as previously mentioned it is a fit/compatability issue person to person.

I "just" installed these and today was the first commute back (last two days bike wasn't quite back in place yet). I think I love them. It's like the perfect combination between upright/flat bar position and bent/drop bar position.

I felt as fast as I ever did on my drop bars, yet had time to sit upright and be more comfortable at times too. And since I never much used the drop part of my old drop bars, I felt like I had many more hand positions.

Trekking/Touring bars FTW!!!!

It's more about fit than about the bars. I've toured on Scott AT-4 bars and never missed my drop bars. I commute on moustache bars. My IRO will have some Major Taylor bars. Those AT-4's are on my mtb. Drops on my road and cross bikes. Nitto Promenade bars on the townie with sprung Brooks. Swept back bars for the kid-hauler. The only bike I am not so crazy about is my wife's townie which has flat bars. Having only one hand position sucks for any ride over 2 miles but it's not bad for goofing around.

Sitting upright is nice for cruising slowly along. My townie is setup pretty upright so I can sip coffee and eat donuts comfortably. With big platforms, sprung seat, panniers, beer cooler, and basket it is the ultimate slow (but plushy) roll. I wouldn't ride it any longer than an hour though.

If you can recline your recumbent's seat more, you should be able to eliminate your recumbutt problem

I'll jump in with the 'it all depends' camp. I commute on a 3-speed upright and I love it. Once I get some decent (read Baltimore-proof) wheels on it I will probably never commute on anything else. That being said, my commute is at most 5 mi round trip. When I was in CA and was doing 25-30 mi RT I was preparing to put drops on my MTB to ease the wrist pain.

The solution - a massive stable with all sorts of configurations

(anybody want to buy it for me?? )

Well I'm a recumbent zealot so I'm going to say recumbents are better (-even though they do have their disadvantages-).
But back when I had upright bikes.....
As I remember, the main advantage of riding on the drops was only aerodynamics. It made a big difference riding into a headwind, but it wasn't ever more comfortable.
...
And I remember when road bikes didn't have sculpted brake hoods--these were added precisely because so many people didn't want to ride long distances on the drops, but they wanted some aerodynamic advantage over riding on the tops.

In the USA it should be noted that bicycles are getting further and further away from the traditional leaned-over-forward road bike riding position. There has been a progression from road bicycles, to MTB's, to hybrids, and now to "comfort" bikes. MTB's and hybrids were fairly similar gemoetry, but between road bikes and MTB's, and hybrids and comfort bikes the riding position got more upright and it's the market that drove these changes. The average recreational cyclist simply doesn't want to lean over forward, does not want to "support a third of their weight on their hands". So don't feel silly if you don't like to do it either.
--------
Having had both, I find a bicycle with a rider position leaning backwards vastly more comfortable than leaning over forwards. Even if I am not as fast as I would be on an upright road bike, I can still stay on the recumbent bike and pedal much longer.
~

Trekking bars uber allez!

There's no law mandating flat bars to be high or drop bars to be low - although you'd never know it from so many of the comments on here.

Bar choice should be about preferred hand-position. Height and reach are entirely different subjects.

Clever Cycles has a thread on this, mostly about the "Dutch" style bikes.
https://clevercycles.com/?p=193#comment-53586

I think I want to get a Dutch bike to try.

What, you're suggesting that one actually spend time to fit their bicycle to their own ergonomic needs? Heresy!

Personally, I have my seat and bars at about the same height. Guess what? My drops are actually *gasp* comfortable!

I'm not a drop zealot. However, I can't understand people who say they always ride on the hoods. If you're going to do that, why have a drop bar, and brifters that are ill-designed for how you ride? Adapt your equipment to how you want to ride, not the other way around.

Yes, the visibility is much improved when you're sitting upright. I think this gives you have a better chance of avoiding accidents. This makes upright-sitting bicycles inherently safer than bikes that require its biker to crouch low. I can actually look up and enjoy the clouds without worrying my head might snap off. Sure, the upright riding position is not as sexy as the back-parallel-to-the-road position, but I'm old enough to care less about image.

I just ordered an adjustable quill stem for my PDG resto project. The stock stem is very agressive, and since the frame is a bit small for me anyhow, I really need to get the bars up higher. I'll lose part of the original look I wanted to maintain, but I'll be able to ride it instead of just looking at it propped against the wall in my apartment.

Riding upright is alot more comfortable with a big wide sprung saddle. It's just really really slow. There are a couple of hills I have to walk my city bike up too but that's probably a gearing problem. I havn't really tried to go to work with my old Raleigh sports but I imagine I'd arrive in pretty good shape, though I'd be late!

My two most comfortable positions are one extreme or the other. Either upright on the Townie, or in the drops on my Specialized Allez Elite. I find in the drops to be more comfortable than on the hoods, flats or my flat bar hybrid.

I agree with the less tiring because your going slow part. I don't support much weight at all with my arms, shoulders, back, I use my legs and maybe abdomin. Whenever I go down in the drops I automatically pedal as hard as I can continuously, so if I'm tired or have a long ride I use the top bar for a little bit.

My grocery getter is pretty upright and it gets uncomfortable if I ride it for too long. Strangely, my hands tend to go numb when riding it. My Peugeot, Bianchi, and Bertoni are somewhat uncomfortable because I'm bent over too much (especially the Peugeot because it's too big for me). My Nishiki is smack dab in the middle and it's perfect. Just one reason it's my favorite bike.

I did 90km (60ish miles) on my Raleigh (upright posture, North Road bars, 5 speeds) last month and was fine . Went out the next day for another 70 km, too!

I like my drop bars too (on the touring bike), but I am still getting used to being tucked down like that. Makes me feel a bit invisible!

Bike fit is a personal thing. I used to race with a guy years ago, were identical in build. When fit kits first came out we were both measured and had identical measurements. However our bike setups were totally different. I have always put my seat a bit further back than the norm on a drop bar bike, and I like my bars a bit higher than the average. It is not the most aerodynamic position but I am not riding in the TDF. It takes a lot of trial and error to dial in a bike for personal fit. I have been riding for over 30 years and have ridden many different styles and configurations of bikes, so I know what works for me in setup and frame geometry. Also as you age you typically lose some flexibility and perhaps won't feel as comfortable on the same bike as you did 20 years ago.

Aaron

Your talking about bike 1 right? That almost looks like flat bars with just a little rise. You need some north road bars on that thing and a big sprung brooks.

For me, riding upright is more comfy since i don't have to bend my neck much, which I hate doing in the drops. That's just a silly position to ride in. Plus, the hands are further apart than they would be with drops, even when riding on top, which gives you more control. I just enjoy it more, wind be dam@ed.

I'm game to try the trecking bars, but just haven't.

I generally feel the same way. I always ride in the drops, and have a fairly large saddle to bar drop. I've NEVER been comfortable trying to ride in the hoods.

Until recently when I bought a new (to me) bike. The bike came with bars lower than I normally ride and a slightly longer stem. In that position I could actually see myself riding in the hoods. I ended up just flipping the stem and going back to the drops, but the point was, I finally saw the hoods as a viable option. I think the k-force bars and campy hoods had something to do with that as well though.

Again though, it comes back to determining how you want to position your hands, and adjusting around that.

In the heavy traffic of my commute though, I'm not sure I'd ever trust my ability to get on the brakes hard enough from the hoods.

I have an almost 5 inch drop on my bike. One reason I like it so high is that when I'm in the drops I like it to be my most aerodynamic position (flat back) for when I'm fighting a really strong headwind or sprinting as fast as I can. If the drops are at a comfortable height I'm trading off some aero potential for comfort. That's just me, but what you said makes sense for most riders and especially tourers

The page linked below is mainly concerned with another matter, but it has a bit of info pertinent to this discussion:
https://www.bicyclinglife.com/Effecti...oadsWeHave.htm

About one-third of the way down is a green, two-column table, showing the frequency of various trip distances in Holland.

It is true that many European bicycle riders regularly ride bikes with very-upright positions (and without padded shorts as well), but the truth is that these bikes are not more comfortable, nor are these people super-human in their abilities. In use, they don't actually ride very far per-trip.
~

In the 1970s I used to ride a drop-bar bike (a 10-speed, 'cause that was the way to go then), and despite a lot of fiddling and experimentation, I was never really comfortable.

When I came back to cycling in the 1990s, I started trying flat bars, riser bars and other raised positions.
I am vastly more comfortable with a raised bar-- not a TdF full crouch, not a fully upright position. This middle of the road position, so to speak, has many benefits. My neck is less stressed, I am easier for the Gasholes to see, I can very easily turn my head to check traffic, and so on.

If I get a head-wind ("if"-- Ha!), I just crouch way down over my riser bars. It's not much more difficult than crouching over drops, and my hands stay near the shifters and brakes. In my opinion, much safer than drops.

However, if you like drops, I won't try to deny you your preference. Jitensha de GO!

You can come over and try mine on my bike