strwbrry

I bought a Haro alpha bike (I believe it's a 90s model) at a flea market today and I'm wondering if I could change its flat bars to drop bars? And what would I need to change if I do do a drop conversion (brakes etc.)? Any good quality recommendations?

I'm a newbie in the biking culture as you can tell. any advice, help would be appreciated! thank you.

IthaDan 

Sure you can, but whether it'll be cost effective to juggle all those parts around is an entirely different matter.

Off the top of my head, you'll need: brake levers, possibly new brakes or more expensive levers if your bike has "v" brakes, new shifters, probably a new stem as older mountain bikes tended to have very long toptubes, bars and tape. All that can easily ratchet over $200. Whether that's worth buying another, already drop bar bike for the same $200 is entirely your call.

CliffordK

There are lots of opinions on this.

There is a very long thread on drop bar MTB conversions.
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...nversions.html

Your classic Hybrid is likely a good candidate.

To save money, you might choose to use a few vintage parts. But, none of the sizes will quite match, so it can be a bit of a pain for some things.

Expect a really nice conversion to cost a few hundred. That may or may not be ok, if you compare the end result to a new cyclocross bike that could run you over a grand.

However, if you're careful, it should be possible to keep the parts investment below $100 or so.

Chris Chicago

Should be under 100 easy if you don't spring for barcons.

if you can shop used at a co-op or swap, even cheaper.

Assuming you do the work yourself