I trying to work out which drop bars to get for my
Mercian Strada Speciale road bike build, think they will need to be 26 mm diameter to work with the Nitto Pearl quill stem I would like to use, and must be silver alloy, not black. Width needs to be 42cm. I will be using Campagnolo Ergo levers (10 speed, 2006-era) on the bars, which route both the brake and gear cable housing under the bar tape.
I'm not sure what sort of bars to get though, in particular, should I get bars with cable cutout grooves for the Ergos? Or does this not matter?
Grant from Mercian recommend the Nitto Mod.177 bars (aka Nitto "Noodle"), which have a fairly flat ramp up to where the Ergos would go and which look quite nice, though am not sure I like the look of the way the horizontal part of the bar is not completely straight, part of it is angled. Also, I don't think these have any grooves for the brake/gear cable housing. I believe the
Nitto Mod.185 has cable cutout grooves, but the overal shape looks a little different.
Someone else recommend to me the (discontinued, but available new on eBay) 3T Forma drop bars for use with Campagnolo Ergos. These are silver alloy, and have grooves for the brake/gear cable housing, unlike the Nitto Mod.177 bars, but they're also "ergonomic" shape with straight sections in the drops, which I don't think I'm so keen on for this bike.
Any other recommendations for suitable drop bars for my bike build?