Exciting times for drop bars

There was a time, not so long ago, when the handlebar selection of your typical high-end shop consisted of road drop bars (25.8-26.1 mm clamp) and flat 5 degree mountain bike bars (25.4mm clamp). Maybe there would be a pursuit or TT bar laying around, and if your shop was particularly cool, a Nitto moustache bar.

Nowadays handlebar variety has exploded, and with it the simple characterization of bikes into MTB/road categories has fallen apart. Sadly, the old WTB dirt drop bend is no longer available, but there are a wide variety of different bars that fall somewhere in-between your typical drop and your typical flat bar. Even flat bars have gotten interesting thanks to Salsa (17 degree flat bar) and Jitensha studios.

Sadly, though, transmission and braking component manufacturers haven't really kept up. Road-derailleur-compatible flat bar brake/shift levers are easy enough to come by, but the variety of brake levers for operating mountain-style brakes beyond cantis on drop bars has been sparse. May Tr!ckstuff be praised!

Photo from cyclingnews.com.

This clumsily-mounted chunky widget converts the mechanical pull of your typical drop-bar brifter into hydraulic-line disc brake actuators. More useful for sure than those hard-to-find Magura set ups that only work with their cant-post hydraulics.

Even more challenging than braking from drop bars has been fitting a Rohloff hub shifter, designed for 22.2mm bars. But Mittelmeyer can help you with their reasonably-priced custom shifter.

So it is definitely time to start experimenting with drop bars off road.