Da Drops Pt III

Okay, last part on the my Quest for Handle Bars.
Mr. JRA of One Speed: Go! fame brought up a good question: if my intent is flatter tops why go with a bar with a steeper top angle?
Here's the images again:




Now I have the 3T TDF bends now, and it would appear that the Cinelli Giro bars have a similar angle on the tops compared to say the Cinelli Criteriums.
The flattest bar of the Cinellis is the Perfection, but it also has the largest drop.
The Criteriums have that track style bend.
So for me, in this world of traditional drop bars with 26.0-26.4 clamps it's all about compromise.
The tops just don't seem like they were meant to be set flat.
So you look at stuff like reach, drop and width and figure out what you think is your best bet.
You buys your ticket and takes your chances.
In the case of the Cinelli Giro, it's the short reach that sold me.
Oh and be careful, some bars are not grooved for control cables.
Actually now that I think about it, that Criterium bar might be interesting for the bend may offer slightly different hand positions.
There is one more bar to look at if you are in the same boat as I am(apparently short arms, well actually short everything, except well, you know), and that's the Deda 215 with a shallow drop.
Now all of this bar rotation has a lot to do with the placement of the controls.
Some folks like them way down, easier to reach in the drops, some folks like me, like them closer on top, more even with the bend on top:



I've come to realize that again compromise is needed in regards to the placement of the levers. Although I rarely use the drops, I still like to be able to reach the brakes if I'm there.
I mean you never know.
You can see how far away the levers are on my old bars.
Now they are a bit closer:



Okay those are different controls, but good enough for comparison.
Some downward bar rotation might be needed in order to better use all the angles so I'm thinking of moving the levers up while rotating the bars down.
We'll see how it goes.
The good news is that all this is sort of moot if you have a bicycle with a newer oversize stem.
Newer bars seem to have taken flat tops into consideration if you look at 3Ts Ergosums and Deda 100s:




I'm probably going with the 3Ts on the new bike.
Or maybe the Dedas.
If you know what I mean.
If you like, Easton and FSA also make some nice shallow bars too, I ran some FSA K Wing Compacts when I had the Allez.
Now I'm no expert at fit or anything, just trying to find some bars that I like without losing my mind which can be easy if you are into the Italian alloy goodness.
Hope this helped.
This doesn't get any easier, you just acquire more bars.