YOu don't have to ride the drops on a road bike - you can ride up on the hoods or hold on to the flat part of the handlebar. I do that most of the time. If you're in traffic,you want your hands near the brakes however - and you can get 2ndary brake levers installed on the straight part of the bars if that'll make you feel safer. You can also convert a drop bar bike into a flat bar bike if you bought one and then changed your mind (this is not cheap though)


If you buy an expensive bike and then learn to ride it. You're gonna crash it a few times and then you're gonna have a pretty bike with some scratches. And... I crash enough on my bike despite having learned to ride a bike when I was 5... that I do think you'll have a couple tumbles. And when you start using clipless pedals, you're gonna have a few more.

Wear gloves, it protects your hands in falls.

Get properly fitted - but not knowing how to ride a bike is going to make it hard for you to really decide what you want in a bike.

Where abouts are you located and around how tall are you?

Lots of highways don't allow cyclists on them - one near me lets you go on for about 15 miles, and while I do get on it or cross it ocassionally, it really isn't pleasant riding with the winds coming off tractor trailers doing 70 mph passing you buffeting you.