I feel a bit sorry for the original poster, because some of the responses have been absolutely unhelpful. I think Serious has been anything but serious (a pun, don't take it too...uh, forget it). Look, for XC riding drops can work, but before giving any advice we need to try to take in account what kind of terrain is being ridden, for how long, and what purposes.

Probably, for any racing on technical terrain flats/risers are a better choice, unless you have developed some real skill. A flat bar is simple, you aren't going to think about where your hands should be, the brakes and shifters are readily accessible, and if you need to change the width for a particular trail, it's really not that much work to do so.

On the other hand, many many people ride cross country that's not too technical. It's fun, people are happy, there are climbs, and descents. No huge drops, nothing really scary. I go on this stuff all the time with drop bars and it is enjoyable.

If you use your mountain bike on the road, commuting, riding cross country, going to the liquor store, hopping off curbs, riding fire trails, then drop bars are fine, too. You have the advantage of extra hand positions, which is really really very nice. I'm saying this as someone who, until two years ago, had spent ten years of riding solely with flat bars.

There seem to be some misconceptions, or lack of experience going on here. One in particular is that you can't ride with your hands on the tops. Well, I can't blame your lack of experience with wider drop bars on you, because the majority of drop bars are quite narrow and roadies have their own deeply entrenched, unshakeable convictions about what to recommend. But for the last two decades, various kinds of dirt drop bars have been around. I did not know that ten years ago, but I know that now. They can run quite wide, especially in the flares, but also in the tops. The Nitto drop bar mentioned earlier is very wide -- I love it, and it sees cross country every week. The cross brake levers are easy to get.

Look, I think flat/riser bars have their place, too. Obviously, they present a great advantage in downhill riding, and also in the more hairy XC stuff. And their simplicity is a virtue, just like SS is a virtue at times. But there are many variations of bar shapes, and I don't care what racers use, or what is dominant in the market, because IT DOES NOT MEAN IT IS BEST FOR YOU. I suppose if your idea of mountain biking was going as fast and as hard on trails as possible and emulating a racer, well, OK, copy them. But there are so many other considerations. I like endurance riding, long rides with my wife, trying something different. I'm thinking of trying butterfly bars on my mtb, because I think the European off-road trekkers might be on to something.

I already mentioned this, but it bears repeating. Skill level also plays a role, I imagine. Tomac and the many others who have used drops in XC racing clearly demonstrate it is possible. But it might be initially harder, just like riding a hardtail on really technical downhill portions is harder, but obviously there are people who find it fun, challenging, and worth a recommendation, or at least a try.

I also remember a quote by tomac (couldn't place it or even give a source so it is strictly from memory) but he wouldnt do dh again using drops as they were tooo dangerous. He did it for a very short time for reasons stated above, not because it was the BEST choice but because it made sense at the time.

This is also from the guy who makes comments about current dh riders not being up to par to race on the old kamikazi race (no one in the upper echelon entered the race if I remember right). Easy reasoning, no one does that kind of riding. Kamikazi died years ago, dh racing is now both intense skill going as fast as possible, not fire roads going as fast as possible. I would love to see how tomac does in a real dh race by todays standards. (curious observation, I still respect what he did 10-14 years ago, I also have respect for palmer, but I doubt many xc guys knows his dominations of the dh, fr, x-games circuit, bmx and mx)...

I use wide risers, I tried narrow flats, didn't work for me, can we please let this drop and just leave it to individual riders. Not everyone (no one I know really including the WC xc winner from the past few years) likes 17in bars let alone more technical riders who use 26 to 28in bars. Its personal like a seat. :) If I had a spare frame for ***** and giggles I might give it a try, but I don't :) So I stick to my 26" 6" travel front end and love riding the way I ride :)

Before I drop it, I will say this to SteelCommuter: great post!

If I came across the wrong way, I apologize. I did not mean to force the original poster into any particular choice. Your post makes perfect sense to me. Unfortunately none of us bothered to ask the original poster what type of riding will he/she be doing.

kandnhome had the same idea as you when he said: I still don't see why, although not the best in all applications, drop bars aren't the best (or at least a good) choice in many, many other applications. Especially for your average commuter/light trail/moderate singletrack rider.

Again, I certainly cannot disagree with that. Now I am going to have that pie! :D

mmmm pie!

Pie holder.

Ahhh!!! A voice of reason!!!!! :beer:

I like pie!!!!