Mustache bars - at least three hand positions, can stretch yourself out if you want, and you can use your existing gear shifters and brake levers.

You don't even new cables and housing. You can cut your existing housings to install these.

You don't even new cables and housing. You can cut your existing housings to install these.

And of course the counterpoint Merlin is....roadbikes are in the vast minority of all bicycles sold throughout the world. Flatbar bikes probably outsell roadbikes 10:1.

True. And there's nothing wrong with a bike with flat bars. However, the OP said he wanted a road bike. For the uses road bikes are designed, properly set up drop bars are clearly superior.

truth.


Cute, but untrue. Firstly you don't have to bash bark to hook a bar end; underbrush, reeds, and all kinds of other stuff can get hooked and apply enough force to twist the bar, and then you crash. Secondly, when your bars are wider you slow down. This is natural. If you have 18" off each bar, you go full speed through the trees. If you have 1-2" clearance, you slow down.

just get a traditional drop bar road bike.

OP, fwiw ... I ride a 'flat-bar road bike' -- it's my only bike: three-season commuting, longer weekend rides (40-60 miles routinely), and a couple of century rides over the past two+ years. I have no problems with the positioning or the available hand-positions (four: grips; out on the bar-ends; grip/bar-end corners; hands in near the stem). One does give up a fully-sustainable 'aero' position (including the drops), but that's about it; to me, that doesn't matter, to others it does. If so, drops are the way to go.

However, I wouldn't take a bike designed for drop-bars and just convert it. As a couple of others have noted, the geometry is just wrong, unless you really do want a kind of 'sit up and beg' riding position. You need at least another 2 cms or so of effective t/t length (relative to a drop-bar bike the same size). Giant, for example, does exactly this with their Rapid series (which is simply a Defy with a 2cm longer t/t).

I've attached a (crappy, I know!) pic of my Sirrus, for reference:

You said "trees" in original post, so I took it literally for some crazy reason. Yeah, I dunno how guys get around on those 30" bars that are all the rage these days. I run 24"-25". Some with barends, some without. But, to each his own.

I find the dogleg barends like in my pic above seem to deflect quite a bit of flora, well more than they snag. I snag blackberry brambles even with no barends. Sometimes you'll have a bramble line up right between your fingers and ZZZzzzzzzzip, pull right through as you speed along. This = blood and makes you wish you'd worn leather work gloves or something.

I have ridden a longer-wheelbase flatbar road bike and traditional drop bar road bike. I liked both for different reasons. I'm sure that whatever I get i'd get comfortable with it, like the feel of a drop bar, so i wasn't to worried about the drop bar part afterall. I decided to go with a flatbar hybrid - the 2012 Focus Urban 27. What sold me on it was a recommendation by the bike shop owner. He's been using the 2010 model to commute to the shop every day and he loves it. He said he used to use his road bike but it got so beat up from the commute that it wasn't worth it. So i figured tougher (yet still very fast) is better in my similar situation. So far this thing is super sweet!