Very nicely said Mitch. Before I add my 2ยข, I want to say that my '70
Limongi track restoration will sport a 3ttt down-turned stem and deep-
drop narrow pista bars. Mostly because I like the look and because I found a NOS matched set, not because it was what I used on the track when I was racing.
I raced my Sieber with a really long, square-tubed "Major Taylor" style stem and Maes narrow, shallow-drop road racing bars. My thinking, as a skinny 14-year-old kid, was that I would be even more aerodynamic with my arms fully extended forward, rather than downward, to get my back level with the track. I guess I was onto something, look at the current time trial bars. And as they say, "It worked for me." And no, I never actually met Major Taylor, he died the year before I was born, But I did read his book in a youth hostel
on a tandem trek with my Dad in Southern Ohio in 1948. I rode "captain" because my Dad was blind. But I digress.
Mark Fulton
Redwood City
California
USA