Looking for a good handlebar. Needs to be aluminum, 26mm clamp, 42 or 44cm wide.

Can anyone make a recommendation as to whether it should be ergonomic or traditional bend?

Also, I would like them to be under $50 or so.

look here, $10:

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/141722-these-bars-worth-getting.html

searching helps.

Those don't have a traditional bend, not exactly what I am looking for...

check any on-line store, there are hundreds of traditional bars.

I'd recommend the Ritchey WCS classic with traditional bend, say at Nashbar - at $69, sometimes available at $55.

Hey, I just ran across, IRD, Interloc Racing Design.
They have the fancy ergo carbon handlebar, BUT,
they also have a $40 aluminum ergo handlebar.
Sounds very interesting, and a heck of a lot cheaper.

I bought those $10 Modolo bars and they are nice for the $. The date on them was April '93. Seriously, talk about NOS.

Ritchey bars come in various shapes and qualities - from good to great. Reasonably priced too. Also, the Performance Forte house brand bars are very good for the money.

55/Rad

Hi,

I just got some 42cm (c-to-c, so really 44cm) Titec Malone traditional bend bars (250 grams) from Chucksbikes.com for $12.50. They only have the 42cm left in silver (44cm c-to-c in black).

I started riding on trad bend bars back in the 80's. The first ergo bend bars I tried were from Ritchey, and I could never get comfortable on the drops as the flat piece at the very end of the bar was too short for my hands to hold properly. They seemed to want you to either rider on the top of the bar (or the hoods), or hold a flattened section just below the brake/shift levers. Didn't work for me, but that's a subjective thing.

Personally I'd recommend trad bend simply because you can choose lots more hand positions and move around more on the bars, you're not being limited to what the manufacturers thinks you should like.

That's my 2c. A completely subjective and personal opinion, of course!

Cheers,
J.