Cyclocross - rapidfire flat bar levers on drops

Hi...

I'm doing a cross-inspired drop bar makeover on a folder- it currently has riser bars with standard issue shimano rapidfire shifters with a 105 derailleur. I'm on a budget so i'd like to avoid shelling out for barcons if i can. So... has anyone ever tried mounting a rapidfire lever on a drop bar? The obvious place would be up by the stem where you'd put those secondary brake levers, but that would involve miving the hands off the drops to shift gear. Near the road brake levers would make holding the hoods fiddly and probably not be in reach anyway. Any other ideas at all? I'm planning on getting an on-one Midge handelbar..

thanks!! :-)

I'd be curious how you make out with this. But I thought that the rapid fires wont fit on a standard road drop diameter bar? I have size 46cm bars and they would probably be plenty wide for this...

The bar diameter of road bars is larger than that of MTBs. You will have to enlarge the mounting bracket hole in the shifters to allow them to slide onto the road bar. I have done this with MTB brake levers, using a dremel tool and an abrasive. Take a look at your shifters and see if there is enough material there to work with-likely there is.

I've mounted old style thumbies (which are cheap from your LBS parts bin or local co-op, or your own parts bin). They didn't have much material to dremel, so I bent them open, and used a longer bolt to reclamp them about halfway between the stem and the bend. The lever is long enough to reach from the hoods. (with my spider fingers).

Cool, thanks- for some reason i thought that the MTB bars were gibber in diameter than the drops... I'll still probably try it anyway, by bending the clamp out- if it doesn't work i'll just have to get some barcons...

Cool, thanks- for some reason i thought that the MTB bars were gibber in diameter than the drops... I'll still probably try it anyway, by bending the clamp out- if it doesn't work i'll just have to get some barcons...


Kelly takeoffs (http://www.kellybike.com/2nd_xtra_takeoff.html) are an option too, if you've got some downtube shifters laying around.

My bike friday setup might interest you, I use a rapidfire shifter on the left side for the sram 3x hub, and i have STI brifter on the right for the 105 rear derailleur. I use a riser mountain bar, and mounted some bar ends that mimic the drops on drop bars. On those bar ends i mounted the STI brifters. I'm currently not using the shifting capabilities of the left brifter, but it didn't shift the sram hub well enough to use. Kinda wierd setup but it works great!

Cool, thanks- for some reason i thought that the MTB bars were gibber in diameter than the drops... I'll still probably try it anyway, by bending the clamp out- if it doesn't work i'll just have to get some barcons...Actually, it's not much trouble to find drop bars that are the same 25.4mm diameter as MTB bars. I have Sakae SR bars in that size on three different road bikes. Most bikes in the 90's came with that size as OEM, and you can usually find several of them on eBay.