Originally Posted by kokomo61

After I got a decent road and commuter bike, I came up with this wild idea to upgrade my Trek 7300 hybrid into a fast flat-bar road bike (with the exception of some head-tube height, it's identical to the FX geometry).

Well, the combination of being a noob and initial excitement has gotten me into kind of a bind. I've bought things that don't work - Front DR (too small of a band clamp), crankset (outer chain ring is too big for the drive train - it's a 52/39/30 - max for the Shimano flat bar setup is 50T)

I also bought different shifters than I wanted, but I put those back on eBay.

Here's my question - is there a 50T Shimano outer chain ring that I can swap with the 52T? There's a 10SP compatible one that's 50T, but I don't want to buy ANOTHER thing that doesn't fit......at this point, the bike isn't really rideable, because it's still got the old SRAM X series RD, the 11-32 cassette, and the old front DR (with the new crankset). Am I in over my head, and should get a REAL mechanic to set it up properly, or can I (slowly) dig my way out of it?

Here's what it's SUPPOSED to have when I'm done:

Shifters: Shimano R-660 flatbar shifters
Crankset: 105-series triple (50/39/30) - it's currently a 52/39/30
FR - Shimano FD-R453B (9-sp, compatible with the R-660's)
RD - Shimano Ultegra long-cage (9-sp compatible)
Cassette - Shimano 105 12-25
Wheels - Shimano WH-R550

Right now, my sticking point is the outer chainring. If I keep making mistakes, it will have been cheaper to buy a new 7.3 FX.