pursuit bars
 

are pursuit handlebars really that great, or is it just another fashion trend?

They're that great if you like them. If you don't, they suck.

It's all about what's comfortable for you. I personally think pursuits are awful for general street riding and commuting - can't manage to find a comfy hand position on them.

It depends on what you are doing. Often the best handlebar situation is compact drops with brake levers. This gives you a wide variety of positions for your hands, is narrow and allows for a low position. The problem is that people who ride fixed gear often ride with only one or no brakes so brake levers don't really make sense. Pursuit bars give you the position that most people ride with when using a road bars with levers - out over the hoods, without actually having brake levers, but you do lose some of the other hand positions.

If you are comparing it to risers or a straight bar that really depends on your riding style. If you are comparing them against track drops then pursuit bars are generally better for anything other than sprinting at the track.

I've been coming to that conclusion myself, what do you like for street riding?

Road drops are my favorite, as they offer the most hand positions. Regular bullhorns aren't bad either.

I had bull horns for a while, but I bought a cheap pursuit bar to try it out because I liked the aesthetics. For the first few days the pursuits felt weird. Because I ride with my hands tight to the stem, the drop in the pursuits changed the angle of my hands and wrists. Some discomfort/fatigue would develop after a long ride, and the handling of the bike while standing up out of the saddle felt drastically different. This got better over the course of a week.

I am so used to it now though that I feel weird riding bullhorns, or really any kind of straight bar. I have compact brake levers mounted directly beside the stem. I don't use the "horn" of the bars much at all unless climbing. Most common hand position is in tight on the stem so brakes are within reach, or along the along the bottom curves - it's a similar hand position to brake hoods on drop bars.

I suggest you try to find some cheap bars and try them out. I found mine for $20 on amazon.

When I wrote above I wasn't really making a distinction between bullhorns and pursuit bars.

Agree.
Mounting both road type brake levers, even if the rear is a "dummy" not connected to a caliper, gives excellent leverage for climbing while standing.

-Bandera

I like bull horns as they are better to hold onto than brake hoods for long hard climbs. Really only miss the drops for an all out sprint but that doesn't happen often for me and can still get by ok.

I've been using Profile Design Airwings for a couple months now and I really like them. As far as fewer hand positions, I find I have about three; the bar ends (where they bend upward, very comfy, this surprised me), the wider 'drop grip' area (where I thought I'd be most of the time) and the top near the stem (rarely, but nice when sitting up or for longer extended climbs). I found I had to switch to a shorter stem as well, but I've been increasingly more comfortable with every ride since I switched to these bars.

Road bars and aero brakes for me. The drops serve as a 'lower gear' if I get a head wind.

When I grab my Fixie for about $450, I'll put some pursuits on it and maybe chuck some aero bars on. If the aero bars don't fit then I'll put them on bullhorns. I've only test ridden a bike with bullhorns, but am used to my road buke drops. Is there that much adjustment between road bike drops and pursuits?

My experiences are with a various straightish bars, SR road/world champion drops, nitto noodle drops (sold), rb018 bulls, and rb009 pursuits.

My first good bike is too small for me and the rb018's are my favorite on that one, drops and pursuits are aweful and straights are o.k.
My fitted bike lets me have the stem nearly within an inch of level with the saddle and with a normal ~100mm stem, the world champs + cane creek aero levers is my favorite, the rb009 is ok on a 60mm stem and is both more useful and ugly than any of the other bars I have hanging around.

I'm hanging on to the rb009 with the hope that I'll get to enter some races over the next few years to put them to use, but they're just sitting in a box till I have time and fitness for that.

Most people riding pursuits prefer pursuit bars.

compact all the way for long distance. bull horns for street and fun riding.

that's my opinion.

Pursuit bars were hot in 2010. Compact ergonomic drops with levers are what's in now.

If your ride involves some random combination of trucks, busses, streetcars, taxis, automobiles, motorcycles, scooters, pedicabs, bikes, segways, skateboarders, inline skaters, runners, pedestrians, derelicts... who am I missing? ...all in various states of inebriation and degrees of indifference to traffic laws, you won't be spending any time in the drops

This is clearly anecdotal. I spend 70-80% of my time in the drops/deep hooks and I deal with all of the above. At the same time I don't weave through traffic, I don't jump reds, and I use brakes. Drops provide superior braking force, lower center of gravity, superior aerodynamics, and sprinting leverage. Bikes already have a higher vantage point than cars to begin with, so unless your obsessed with comfort riding or the roads you live in are filled with blood lusting ninjas, drops are advantageous in many street riding/commuting conditions.

I have bullbars on my nishiki roadbike, and sears&roebuck fixie, because they are a tad too small for me to use drop on, that and road frames look kinda dumb to me, with straight bars.