And while you are at it, make sure your bike is a beefed-up rigid roadie with fat tires and toe clips. That way, your chances to hurt yourself on technical trails are increased ten-fold. :D

Doesn't that make you unable to brake though? I cant reach the levers from that far back on the drops on my roadie. Kind of a dicey way to descend a hill off-road. Some people I have seen using drop bars for serious off-road use a second set of brake levers so they can ride on the bar-tops while braking. It's more of a cross thing, but fairly rare since those guys are usually trying to save weight.

Actually the C-26 that Tomac and quite a few others (such as Julia Furtado) were using was a bit of a timebomb waiting to go off. They didn't know it at the time of course and the bike performed well and was quite strong... at least for a season. However over time, there was delamination issue of the CF at the bonds with the aluminum lugs. The problem of course was that Yeti neglected to properly isolate the interface between the CF and aluminum with an inert material such as mylar. I think this was caught and fixed fairly early on but Tomac's C-26 from 1990 is not a ridable bike.

Either you run curved road levers which mount on the drop so you can still get a finger tip up there, or you mount regular MTB levers on the lower straight section if you're using Dirt Drops or Mustache bars.

If drops truly increase your bike handling ability, you certainly should be running them on your P1. Make sure to post pics. :D

Sheesh, even Sanjay switched to flat bars on his road bike at Sea Otter this year:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...sanjayjump.jpg

and yes, he landed the whole six-pack...

Gastro, those look like the same wheels you run on your SX trail.

Have you ever ridden any steep or nasty terrain on them. If you ever get to Pisgah I'll take you yo a trail called Bennet Gap and I bet you see the negatives in the first half mile. :D

http://www.galbraithmt.com/images/fi...lds_500pix.jpg

Found another pic of tomac jumping-ish. Just figured another pic for you guys haha

In addition to the drop bars, Tomac is also using cantilever brakes, an elastomer fork, a Tioga disc wheel, and neon yellow water bottles. Point being, just because he used them, doesn't mean they're appropriate.

edit for the old schoolers: anyone remember those neon Troy Lee feathers on his helmet? lol.

Some think that riding a bike isn't appropriate.

Sorry, to clarify, that stuff isn't appropriate for XC racing . An activity for which a bike is required.

where can you find those road ends?

Hey now, I won't hear cantilevers spoken ill of!

how the hell is it that drop bars keep you from getting your weight back? The bars attach at EXACTLY the SAME place as flat bars/riser bars (that is, they attach to the stem, which wouldn't change, or if it did, it'd get shorter for the drop bars, because of the reach to the drops, meaning your bars would be closer to the headtube, or FURTHER back). With CX type brakes on the tops (what roadies call the flat straight part of the drop bars), regular brakes on the hoods, and the drops, you have at least three advantages over flat bars:
1) you can get FURTHER back while maintaining braking ability for descending
2) you can get FURTHER forward while climbing (hoods/drops)
3) you have a whole crapload more hand positions for long rides

the list could probably be longer, but I don't feel like typing anymore.

Oh, and before you go saying, "but drops are too narrow" you can get drop bars in 50cm widths without having to get them custom, and as much as some of you pay for your CF flat bars, custom wouldn't be much more expensive, if at all.

Drop bars aren't cool, that's it. The facts, logic, and geometry are against the flat bar. But style is with the flat bar, so, hey, why screw with fashion. Anyone ever seen Clueless?

=clue..learn to ride. Wicked or not? I like /\ the post.

A well reasoned reply.

Do you really think that top XC racers care about looking cool over winning? Can you be that naive? Have you not seen enough drop bars in cyclocross to understand that where is appropriate people will use whatever makes most sense?

Something for you to consider are Butterfly bars. I rekon they will be just what you're after. Starting from the clamp they go forward, theres a forward parallel grip position, they curve back giving you a perpendicular position and then curve back to a parallel closer position which is where you bold on your standard moutain bike controls. You can play around with lengthand height of stem or angle of the bars to get just the positions you want.

Do a search for butterfly handlebars and you will see what I mean.

Regards, AnthonyG

Note that Tomac's bike also had cantilever brakes.

Just because they worked for him doesn't mean it's a better option today. Anyone out there interested in swapping out their V's or Disks for canti's since Tomac used them?

Bikes have evolved through years of riding and revising. Just because something worked 10 years ago doesn't mean it's a good option today.

I'll chime in with my $.02..............

Try the drop bar (or moustache), you might really like it. It you've got the stem length right and bar height set up close to saddle height, there's no reason it won't work well, current fashion be damned. Use a shorter and higher stem so the brake hoods on the drops will be right about where the ends of your flat bar are now.

One thing to look at when climbing is your hand rotation to use your biceps effectively. Having your hands on a set or brake hoods with drops, or on bar-extensions with a flat bar, puts your hands and arms in essentially the same position.

Drops with bar end shifters give you multiple hand positions, good climbing leverage, and (dare I say it?) a friction shifting option.

I agree that with a second set of brake levers on the tops the bars would be no different that a flat bar for descending, although I would want a pretty wide drop bar for this.

But I have never actually seen anyone using bar-top brake levers in a race around here. The CX guys usually just get off and run the muddy descents, or sketchily descend on the hoods with their weight forward. Again, they are probably trying to save weight like everybody else, and an extra set of brake levers, cables, and splitters on top of STI road levers is more, not less.

Still, the dual-brake lever idea is interesting enough that I might check it out next time I am at a shop that has CX stuff.

No, I think top XC racers are huge weight weenies, and the 1/2lb or so from the extra bar material + extra set of brake levers means they'll do without the drop bar, even though it has more positions just for that weight advantage. Life is about trade-offs, and racing is a particularly intense form of life. If flat bars are so much better for off road, why don't 99% of cyclocrossers ride them? Because that's not what a cyclocross bike is "supposed" to look like. Same with XC mountain bikes.

I mean, seriously: the bars are in the same place; one is a different shape. How can there be that much difference? I'm seriously interested, because I might be wrong (it happens). I think the people in favor of the equality or superiority of drop bars have presented some well-reasoned thoughts and advantages. The flat-bar types have just said "come on, don't be dumb" in more or less those words. Prove me wrong. Use some logic, some evidence, or something besides inference and "common sense".

Nothing wrong with old-style cantilevers. They offer better modulation than most V-brakes.

Man I didn't mean to open up a can of worms, sheesh. Just thought the pic was cool for old school. I love it because to me, it shows where xc racing should be.

You're in the wrong forum. Go over to the cyclocross forum and ask the same question. If the course is fast and not too technical, you got the fastest thing out there. But converting a MTB to drop bars has some issues- your brakes and shifters. Road bike brake levers wont work on Vbrakes without an adapter- you need to switch to retro cantilever brakes (which work fine by the way....) Most people don't think the adapters are worth it, at 20 bucks per wheel for a slight mechanical advantage over canti brakes. Obviously you need to jury-rig some kind of adaption like thumb shifters, grip shift (which are made for drop bars, but obscure) or bar end shifters, or STI. A change in style like this ends up being an expensive proposition in the end. But its all good- I use my cyclocross bike for everything but super technical singletrack, big rocks and hucking. I prefer speed (up AND downhill...) to air-

Trust me, few experienced cross riders run down anything unless you're really talking about joyriding in the woods with dropoffs and stuff. I have one crosser with top levers, one without. Nice to have, but I don't miss it much on the one that doesnt. And my bike is set up so that I can (and do) touch my butt to my back wheel going downhill fast, and I can climb in the drops. The weight of the top-levers is a non-issue, and setup is very easy. You do want some wider bars, 44cm at least though.

Whats the widest drop bars? I know 44cm is almost 8in to narrow for anything I currently run on any of my bikes.

We were in the woods, but there was no joy involved. These guys are pretty fast, elite class, but the races in question are free-for-all affairs, so I guess these frequent dismountees could have been roadies who ride their cross bikes twice a year or so. And the race is more difficult, I suspect, than the average cross course; I ran down some descents, and I had my MTB. No pride here, whatever is faster.

When you say you can scoot back behind the saddle, are your hands on the tops or the drops? I'm setting up a CX bike for a road-riding family member who intends to race it, and we are trying to determine the best position for the bars and seat.

Edit: maybe this should go in the CX forum, I'm way off the original topic. Mael, I was just thinking that the freeride types are going to be looking at this and wondering what we are talking about; my DH bike handlebars, which I cut down quite a bit, are vastly wider than the road or CX bars I ride with.

Actually, I would be in favor of drop bars for a more "mild" and fast off-road course, as most cyclocross courses are. But the XC trails I ride are not that forgiving. The control advantage of a straight bar should be obvious where handling becomes critical (wider bars allow better control, it is that simple). The aerodynamic advantage of a drop bar is a non-issue in mtb courses. And generally, if suspension is a must (i.e. terrain is very rough), a wider, straight bar puts you in a much better position to absorb the shock (3-4 inches of travel can only go so far), than a narrow drop bar ever could. Handling a bike for several hours in rough terrain can be a real workout for your arms and shoulders and a drop bar would be a disadvantage.

I am not sure what else to say. To me the "evidence" is in what people ride out there. If drop bars were so appropriate, they would be widely accepted. Most of us would care less about what is cool.

you can get a 48cm Nitto Noodle from Rivendell.

i don't use drop bars - i've got an ancient Scott AT-4. it's 56cm wide, and has lots of hand positions too. plus, it's lighter than a standard aluminum bar with bar ends.

and i think i had those same day-glo bottles back in the day...