handlebars ?

[tallywhacker]

gathering the parts for a new fixed gear road bike. Looking for steel drops which are non-existant in Perth so they will have to come from the east or overseas which means buying without trying. I have narrowed it down to 4 sets. Has anyone got/used/know someone who has any of them ?
Soma Major Taylors 130mm drop


Soma 456 140mm drop


Nitto B123 170mm drop


Nitto Randonneur 120mm drop

[europa]

Tally, I've now got two sets of steel drops I've just pulled off old bikes. Want me to post one of them over to you?

In the last two days, I've picked up two very good sets of old style alloy bars from bike shops, both shops that have been around for a long time. One set was old stock that the bloke was glad to see the back of, the other set was from a cyclocross bike that had been bingled - I wanted a quill and got a quill, Dawes bars (and lovely they are too) plus a set of Aero brake levers (Exauage or whatever is was before Shimano600) for $30 (feel free to make an offer on the aero levers). Not bragging, just suggesting that finding a couple of old shops might help.

I've got the nitto noodle bars and they are brilliant - similar to the Randonneur but with a slight pull back on the flats which aids comfort in riding on the flats. However, the curve, although it doesn't look it in the photos, is very tight.

Of those shown, and just working on the pictures, the Nitto B123 looks good because the ends of the bars appear to drop downwards relative to the top of the bars. This means you can set the top of the bars up horizontal so you've got somewhere flat to put your hands, with the ends of the drops angled downwards which gives a natural wrist angle when on the drops (the good pair of steel bars I've got here does that too).

Richard