My commuter is a '70's Motobecane Grand Jubile that I truly enjoy riding. It's a beater for sure, not original, and takes a lot of abuse. Still, it has a certain style and rides with a certain feel that is not duplicated by anything modern. Don't tell anyone in C&V, but last week I swapped the drop bars for flat bars, primarily so my new Bar Mitts would work on all three of my bikes. Aesthetically it hurt, but I'm too cheap to buy two sets of Mitts. The result: What an incredible improvement in the usability of this bike. I think the biggest improvement is brake lever convenience, followed by a more upright position that works well in traffic and stop/go. I'm not riding this bike on any 200k brevets, just short rides around town, so aerodynamics is not relevant. It's a better bike for the change... didn't really expect that.

I hear that! LOL!

I drug my old Giant OCR3 RB out of sitting in the shed for 9 years...and snuffed it all back up and then some....



Then?...it occurred to me that my local riding area was in pretty rough shape hence real limited in where I could go on the RB so I made the mistake of buying this used for $120....



and had such a blast on it?...I now knew EXACTLY what I wanted and just had to have.



Bingo!....UTOPIA!

Flies over pavement and laughs at dirt trails and potholes! LOL!

I come from the opposite position, in the sense that I hated the flat bars on my mountain bike until I added extensions, which give me a much-needed second position with the neutral wrist rotation of a drop bar. I still find I have more trouble with finger tingles on the mountain bike than on any of the road bikes.

I've never understood that compulsion to keep bicycles, or anything for that matter, original. I've certainly changed over time so my wants and needs have evolved also. My possessions either have to adapt so that they continue to make me happy or they're out of here.

I started with a flat bar (I was new to cycling) before knowing exactly what I wanted. Seems I aint alone on that boat! Anyhow, after ONE club ride, I want learned of my error, and immediately took a rear-end chewing from my wife for wanting (another bike) a drop bar road bike...oh...and carbon instead of aluminum. Now...now my rump is smaller, and I have two bikes. The flat bar remains as the commuter bike, and the drop bar for club rides and local long distance. Both have a purpose, and both do what I want them to do very well.

I have a drop bar road bike and a flat-bar general purpose bike and have ridden centuries on each of them multiple times. +1 on getting good bar ends for a flat bar. I like the Ergon GR2.

On my road bike I'm on the tops or the hoods 90% of the time. With the Ergon bar ends, my hand positions on the general purpose bike are almost identical to those two hand positions on the road bike with the exception of the bars being about 3 cm wider. When I want to go aero (a relative term for an overweight 50-year-old) I just bend my elbows and I'm in the same body position as I am in the drops on my road bike, except for the angle of my forearms, which are actually less exposed to the wind as they are almost horizontal. I've seen the studies that show an aerodynamic advantage to drops as opposed to bending your elbows more on a flat bar, but, at least for me, the advantage is minimal. My average century times on the two bikes are quite close even though my road bike is about 5# lighter and has narrower, more supple tires.

+ 1.