I’m bummed.

My days with drop bars are over. I love drop bars. I love the classic aesthetic, and multiple hand positions. I put them on my mountain bikes. I’ve been riding my Atlantis, with the original Nitto Cunningham dirt drops and these SIM WORKS for the past twenty five years. This bike has been ripping singletrack, bikepacking, gravel and long paved tours, and it’s been my only transportation….. only with dirt drop handlebars. My neck is now so arthritic with such limited motion, it’s hard to look up or turn my head.
I just ordered Ahearne-Mapp upright bars. Since I can’t look over my shoulder, a bigger handlebar mirror will probably go on. Might as well add blinkers, a big rear view camera and neon pinwheels. I’m not an upright kinda guy.
I know I’m going to feel a bit like an old dork riding upright bars, for at least a little while. Weight bias is going to suffer.
Self realization: “I am old…stiff…and clumsy…and probably a bike nerd, but not a dork. Okay, maybe..”