Obviously just me, but I can still not understand why drop bars are used when riding off road.  But then I have never tried.

On motorbikes, lower handlebars (eg clip ons) are used on faster naked road bikes while higher and wider bars are used on off road bikes.  A lot is to do with getting the ‘best’ riding position.  Lower clip ons work well at speed as the airflow supports the rider’s weight on their chest.   More upright bars off road allow the rider the move their weight around and stand up on the pegs if required.

Maybe most ‘gravel’ bikes are only used on fairly fast trails and roads?  I can think of some steep tracks that I sometimes ride on where my expectation would be that drop bars would put too much of my weight forwards……and braking would be more difficult.  My personal favourite road / trail bars are something like the Thorn Touring bar which is cranked and fairly wide.  Obviously not as aero as a dropped bar, but they give good control in all situations.

Drop bars on gravel bikes, I am sure some of that is a regional thing.  In USA, drop bars are more often the norm for bikes that are intended to go fast.  Most riders never use the drops, but they need drops to look like everybody else.  (I use the drops about a third of the time, but I am not normal in that regard.)  I think a lot of the riders that actually use drop bars want to fit time trial bars to their bikes instead of using the drops, as time trial bars are even more aero than using the drops. 

Gravel bikes, the drop bars are usually much wider in the drops, for the extra width and leverage for steering that you were talking about.

A couple of times I fitted a suspension fork to my Nomad Mk II, used that like a mountain bike.  The narrower drop bars did not bother me at all.  But I am not an aggressive rider.  That said, when I am pedaling into a headwind, I want the drops no matter what the road surface is.  I have used the drops on single track.

When I think of a gravel bike, I think of a bike like used on the Trail Divide Race.  Two links, one for drop bar bikes and one for flat bar bikes if you want to check them out.
https://bikepacking.com/bikes/2025-tour-divide-rigs-part-1/
https://bikepacking.com/bikes/2025-tour-divide-rigs-part-2/
https://bikepacking.com/bikes/rigs-of-the-2025-tour-divide-stats/

The above bikes clearly were used for competition, not an afternoon ride on a bike trail or tow path.  But still you see a huge variation in personal preference in those bikes.

I think most gravel bikes are sold with tires about 40mm wide, plus or minus 5mm.  But almost no bikes shown in the above links have tires that narrow.  That is a race so they want what they think is best for the conditions, not afternoon tow path conditions.

In my previous post, I showed some photos of my light touring bike.  But for my 2024 tour, I chose to add suspension, Redshift suspension seatpost and Kinekt suspension stem.  Attached photos.  The Redshift seatpost was not compatible with my Conquest saddle, I swapped in a Brooks Pro off my road bike instead, the Conquest went to the road bike.

I would never consider my Nomad Mk II to be a gravel bike, but maybe some would think so, third attached photo.  I had 57mm Extremes on the wheels, which I learned were not as grippy as the more knobby mountain bike tires.

Obviously just me, but I can still not understand why drop bars are used when riding off road.  But then I have never tried.

On motorbikes, lower handlebars (eg clip ons) are used on faster naked road bikes while higher and wider bars are used on off road bikes.  A lot is to do with getting the ‘best’ riding position.  Lower clip ons work well at speed as the airflow supports the rider’s weight on their chest.   More upright bars off road allow the rider the move their weight around and stand up on the pegs if required.

Maybe most ‘gravel’ bikes are only used on fairly fast trails and roads?  I can think of some steep tracks that I sometimes ride on where my expectation would be that drop bars would put too much of my weight forwards……and braking would be more difficult.  My personal favourite road / trail bars are something like the Thorn Touring bar which is cranked and fairly wide.  Obviously not as aero as a dropped bar, but they give good control in all situations.

My idea of a Gravel bike is something pretty close to a drop bar road bike with larger tyre clearance, which then usually leads to disc brakes whether you want them or not.  If I were in the market for such a bike, I don't think anything in the current Thorn range, or a Rohloff, would be on my wishlist. I'd probably choose derailleurs, shifters only lasting 8 months isn't the norm, decades is more common. If you wanted more robust, I'd look at the CUES range of components, designed for longevity, partly with E-bikes in mind, the concept seems to be more function than fashion, though I have no experience.
If you still want a Rohloff, you could just stick a tensioner on your current bike, not as good as a purpose made frame, but not much of a disadvantage either. If you want a more Rohloff friendly frame, here's some you might look at - Surly Straggler* (Or  CrossCheck for rim brakes), SOMA Wolvarine, Salsa Fargo or Marrakesh, Singular Peregrine, I'm sure there's others, but those are models I've considered in the past.  You could add the Thorn Mercury to the list, though you'd need 650B wheels to get the tyre width, and I'm not sure it would be the best choice in that role.  One question is what are you hoping to do on it that you can't do on the MTB? 
* It might need to be a previous version of the Straggler, the new one might have thru axle dropouts.

Just came across a Surly Ogre frame, it even has the Rohloff axle plate mounting slot

I had an Ogre, it isn't in any shape or form what I would consider a Gravel bike, fine for what it is, which IMO is a MTB tourer.  It also has a long top tube, you'd need to be careful with sizing if you wanted to use it with drops.

 

For me, a true "gravel" bike should have clearance for a minimum 45C tires (preferably more).  Definitely don't want carbon!  (As mentioned, even a Ti frame doesn't last me a "lifetime!")  So, steel for me.  Just came across a Surly Ogre frame, it even has the Rohloff axle plate mounting slot.  That looks like something that would work.  Not sure I want to go through the hassle and expense of building up a bike that I'm not using too often.  Probably keep searching for something used between now and spring time.

Thanks for your help mickeg and RonS!

From a Google search I found someone on this forum who said the mk3 has a bigger tyre clearance but I just wanted to confiirm that.

I will consult the archive of Thorn brochures in the Thorn General section!