I absolutely hate the ergo bars on my Trek 1000. From the first moment I tried to ride in the drops, I felt like I would slip off the ends. My experience was always with noodle bars on old ten-speeds, which had flat parts on the bottoms, with plenty of room to rest my hands.

On the Trek, I feel like if I let go, I'm going to hit my nose on the headset (which I did when I was 9 and broke my nose, so that's not fun).

This is a starter bike, though. I'm looking at a Grail, from Chainwheel in Little Rock, (their steel ones are built by Waterford). I'm not going to change anything on the Trek or get a new bike until I'm at least doing 1000 miles a year.

Karen