General: What is a good brand of Drop Bars

Posted By: barondavisI was just wondering if anybody could help me out with chosing the right pair of drop bars?

To do what?

Different tasks call for different bars; different bikes call for different bars. Until the '90s, people rode comparitively narrow bars (narrower than their shoulders); track bars still come that way. A lot of us don't like having our chest all scrunched up; we like breathing, hence, wider bars.

There are bars with deeper/shallower drops. There are the traditional rounded Maes drops; there are the more common/modern aero bars, which have graduated steps in the drops. There are randonneur bars, which have a sweep on the flat tops, and then turn out at the drop ends to give a variety of hand positions on a long ride. Some people like the very shallow drop of "dirt drop"-type bars, such as the WTB Dirt Drop or the On-One Midge. And then some people like moustache bars.

Notable brands are Cinelli, Nitto, Deda, Ritchey, 3T, Salsa, Easton...horses for courses.

What bike do you want it for? How do you plan to ride it?

I am not sure what 'the right bars' would entail. But if you have a 31.8 stem, then the deda pista's are nice drops.

The initial selection of drops will be much easier if you know:

How many brakes are you running?
Is the bike geared?
What kind of levers do you use?
What size stem do you have?
For what purpose is the bike?

cinelli 18 are my favorite.