Gene465

Okay, purchased a Lexa road bike for the wife and she does not much care for the skinny tires and road style handlebars and shifters. She does love her Skye MTB. Thinking I may be able to salvage the Lexa by swapping out the bars/shifter to the Flat bar road bike shifters and handlebars. Wondering which shifters would be compatable with a 2X8. Would it really make that much of a difference if the front shifter is a 3 ring or not. Sure it could be adjusted for operating a 2 ring crankset. Same for the rear would a 9 work on a 8sp derailer or just upgrade to a 9sp rear and cassette? Or just turn around and sell it! As I don't see her riding it much as is. Thanks Gene

goagain

FWIW-- Speaking as "a wife," I'd say sell it if she really doesn't like it, and ask her what kind she wants. Nice gesture, though. Definitely ask her if the modifications would make her like it before you do them because she might still not like it!

Gene465

Goagain, she already has the Trek Skye S mountain bike that I had put cross tires on as she will never do any offroading on. She loves her Skye S and I got her the Lexa to give her something a bit harder to turn as well as a bit faster. This way she could keep up with me somewhat on my road bike. Talking to her a few minutes ago I think she has decided to keep it as is. One thing she did not like was her foot touching the front wheel on turns. I removed the large toe clips and that rectified the problem. But yeah worst case scenerio I will sell it if she does not ride it. Thanks for the input though. Gene

goagain

Hey, that's great news! Sounds like she is warming up to it after all. Sometimes it's not love at first sight so give it some time.

Fern53

Road bikes admittedly take some getting used to-especially if one isn't quite on board with the idea at first. I can't answer your mechanical questions, but it's my understanding that changing from drops to flat bars (and their respective pieces and parts) is an expensive undertaking.

If your wife ultimately decides she doesn't like the Lexa, it might be better to sell it and have her try something in the Trek FX line (if you are devoted Trek folks). A few others are Fuji Absolute, Specialized Sirrus and Jamis Coda lines.

Burton

In a never ending effort to sell you yet another product packaged differently, the industry is now marketing `performance hybrids` as well as regular hybrids.

They have skinny tires and road brakes as well as flatbars and rapidfire style shifters/brakes. Pretty much exactly what you have in mind anyway.

So before starting another project - why not take the little lady down to a LBS where you can both take a look at a `performance hybrid`. If she likes it - the conversion won`t be all that expensive - bar, shifter/brake assemblies and grips. Maybe a stem to match the new bar size. New cables will come with the brake/shifter assemblies which are a lot less expensive than road style brifters.