Maybe because they are not sprinting away from a light? ;)

My CX has drop bars. When i used to use it for commuting on pavement with road tires I stayed on the hoods nearly all the time. But on rocky rutted singletrack with drop offs, dips, etc. I stayed in the drops as it gave me better control for turning, braking and powering up short steep rocky inclines. Maybe because my GC was lower?

Yes, I guess it might sound counter-intuitive to others, but drop-bars are the only way to go for my back. And ditto on the saddle vs. bar position - I have my bar tops about 4 inches below the top of my saddle. If I'm anticipating icy patches or the need to do some quick bike handling due to traffic, I am always down in the drops.

the saddle to bar drop is about the same on both my road bike and my MTB-turned-hybrid, the difference of course being that i can get even lower when i want to on my road bike because it has drop bars, whereas my hybrid just has a flat bar.



can you maintain the same level of control of the bike riding in hectic, harried traffic on aero bars like you have with drop bars? just an honest question, i've never ridden with aero bars before. also, being on the drops, i still have easy fingertip access to my brake levers which is also nice when riding in traffic.

i do however have long stretches of uninterrupted trail on my commute so maybe my old hybrid would be better served on windy days if i slapped some aero bars on it.

You don't want to use clip-on aero bars any place you might have to make a sudden turn or stop. I've had them on my bike and they're nice when you've got long open stretches but I get out of them once I'm in traffic or even around a lot of other cyclists.

Aside from not having any controls at your fingertips, the other downside is that they're probably not going to be positioned optimally without using a shorter stem. And if you use a shorter stem, then your handlebars may end up too close. Clip-on aerobars are really a compromise.

No, aerobars=poor control, but if you're into these epic battles heading into the wind for extended periods they can be a blessing, i'll just say that it depends. Drop bars are a compromise.

^ thanks for the input.

my hybrid currently has a flat bar with SRAM grip shifters, i was thinking about maybe changing to a different bar to get more hand positions. are there any other kinds of bars that can work with grip shifters? trekking bars? bullhorns? others?

Trekking bars, Im running a Rohloff hub and use an ITM trekking bar.

bar ends on the ends of your straight bars adds one position, trekking bars add several

a fore and aft rather than up and down for leaning into headwinds..

Again, not true. It is exactly the same as a sprint from a track stand on a velodrome.

Which again is not sprinting away from a light. ;)