Road Bikes with narrow bars

[allroy71]

Just wondering if any one knows about these rd bikes, multi-speed and single speed, that have very narrow straight bars. I see a lot of them around Long Beach.

I mean these riders have completely straight arms, no bend in the elbows at all.

Looks very unsafe and uncomfortable.

When did this trend start happening?

[RidetheRAAM4]

aero bars?

[sailcalifornia]

The idea is that you can fit between cars when traffic is bad, but i think a lot of it is for the look

[slowSSer]

flat, olde style MTB bars? I've noticed this as well and have zero idea why you'd want a roadie with flat bars.

heck, some brands even sell roadies that way. we had to do a converson once at REI and it was quite the issue- the bike owner didnt get why the roadie shifters/brake levers wouldnt fit on flat bars and why we had to order mtb/cross style shifters/brakes. oh well.