Originally Posted by
ramzilla
Well, since you asked.............................
1. Most bike shops will not convert an old drop bar bike to an upright bar bike. But, they will sell you an entirely new bike. $$$$$$$$
2. When I quote $150 to $200 for an upright conversion that's just to cover the cost of parts. (I do these conversions for practically $0 labor). $$$
3. There are no shortcuts. You need to install new handlebars, grips, levers, shifters, cables, cable covers and, stem for a complete job. $$$
4. The skills, qualifications, ability and, tools necessary to perform a simple modification and repair to a bicycle are rare and practically non-existent in our modern world. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!++++++++
Originally Posted by
ofajen
Exactly. Add up any likely choices for all those parts and you will be up in that range. Those of us who do our own work, have various old parts in store and keep extra cable supplies on hand can do it for minimal additional expense and pretty quickly.
If you don’t have all that, then it will cost more... but it will be well worth it, if it creates a bike you love to ride!
Otto
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ramzilla Thank you for the detailed explanation! An excellent example of why I came here before allowing work on the bike to start (it is at REI waiting for me to give the go ahead) or just going along with the parts they handed me. Instead, I asked them to wait while I investigated getting parts elsewhere, but also wanted to understand why they chose what parts, such as the brake levers (although they only had one in stock that would work for me apparently). They quoted me about $220 including parts (expensive grips and a saddle I'm not getting) and installation if done as part of the tune up ($98) which I felt was a good deal if I used those parts. But I didn't like what they chose/purchasing from REI is both limited options and marked up so here I am.
I just installed the new stem, riser bars, brake levers, and grips on my BF's Mercier Kilo TT Pro today and then he brought it in to have the cables properly installed/cut (don't know anything about that) and everything checked. That cost him a a little under $30 I think, but would have been much more if they had installed everything. So that's what I plan to do with mine.
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otto thanks for the pics! are those 2 or 4 finger brake levers? And I'll make a note of that handlebar for the future
I would hate to pay that much just to send it away to be magically put together (which I could watch during the tune up) without any understanding of what's going into it. But being able to learn along the way makes it worth it IMO.
Originally Posted by
70sSanO
Ramzilla and ofajen are correct in how to convert drop bars to flat/riser.
The only thing I will add is to ride the bike and try to determine how much rise you need and the stem length. No one here can tell you the correct placement of the handlebars but you. Some want a very high upright, some a little more than riding on the drop bar tops, and some the more stretched out vintage mtb setup.
On a 2x flat bar, my preferred shifting setup is a right side trigger (rear derailleur) and left side thumb shifter (front derailleur). This keeps my hands on the handlebars when shifting. The trigger shifter is fast and the thumb shifter allows for easy trim.
John
Edit added: I do my own work, so it is always worth it. If you need to take it to a shop, you need to find one that will appreciate working on older bikes and not just rip you off.
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70sSanO My bf got a new stem but the REI guy (the one who is very knowledgeable--recognized my bike right away when no one else there did and has vintage bikes of his own) didn't think it would be necessarily be necessary, lol, based on my positioning but he also said I won't know until I ride it. I do appreciate that he didn't push me to get one right away before trying it first, but we'll see.
Originally Posted by
bluehills3149
There seems to be some confusion here regards to shifters.As stated in the original post this bike has stem mounted shifters and it will be perfectly fine keeping them as-is. Changing to bar shifters will way exceed the value of this bike and give only marginal improvements to the riding experience.
So to KA123, leave the shifters alone. The cost of this conversion will then be about $30 in parts. You already have Origin 8 bars, you need brake levers as stated and the Oury grips are good. If you are re-using the brake cables (providing they are long enough) you can re-use the outer part only. The inner cables will have different ends - your levers have A or B but you need the type C as used on BMX or MTB bikes (D & E are for gears). Make sure you buy Stainless cables, not galvanized which rust.
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bluehills3149 Thank you!!! I'm def keeping the shifters
Some people say to switch to downtube--any idea why? And had no idea about the ends of the inner cables so I'll make sure to ask about that. I assume it will be included in the tune up since the guy said they'd check them out and replace if necessary. And I swear he said cables are less than $1??
Hope everyone is safe and well!