It would make a big difference if you showed pics of the bike you want to convert. It's not necessarily expensive, depending on the bike, if you do it yourself, and if you have access to some old inexpensive parts. I did one one, it was cheap, but I did lose index shifting. I converted to friction down tube shifting (some people might not like that but I don't mind), which meant shifter compatibility wasn't an issue. The old mountain bike I used had Canti. brakes and they work well with the standard road brake levers that came off an old road bike I had. Just had to adjust the yoke height a bit on those brakes. The other thing that kept things simple was that I used old steel drop bars that have the same clamp size diameter as old mtn. bike bars. (25.4mm). It can be a little tricky if your not familiar with working on bikes and are unsure about compatibility (to me it's being unsure about compatibility that is the most challenging thing about bicycle mechanics), and it can be expensive if you want to keep your project light weight and high tech (Not something I was to worried about). BTW: I love my cheap drop bar conversion, I commute on that bike daily, I found the change in geometry made me quite a bit faster and more comfortable on that bike.