Vaio_s

z415, I could only get my brake levers up to that point. The bolt was fully loosened (and almost falling off) but the bracket couldn't open anymore. That's why they're mounted there. Also, my drops are not as big as regular drops found on road bikes, so the perpendicular part (to the ground) is tight to hold even with my small hands. I'm a pretty small guy, around 5'3" and close to 100 lbs.

z415

Ok, like I said, what works for you - just make sure you are comfortable and not hurting yourself. If you are good with where the levers are you might not need to get road levers.

BCRider

Hey Valo, if you find that these mods are making you enjoy your riding more and you seem to be getting into tune more with the bike then you don't NEED to wait to buy some new cyclocross bike. Keep your eyes open and learn what some of the better old bikes used for steel tubesets and shop for an older quality bike. You won't come across anything exotically Italian since everyone knows that those are worth money but there was lots of older bikes from the orient or domestic companies that were fine rides. For example, I found my first Miyata road touring bike in a bike consignment shop and picked it up for $160. I fixed it up and rebuilt it stem to stern and rode it as a commuter for about 3 years before selling it to a co-worker that wanted a nice bike. There's lots of similar deals if you look around, are patient and keep some bike money set aside. It also gives you an excuse to ride your conversion around to the second hand shops and bicycle shops that may carry some used bikes....

Yes I know it's not a cyclocross bike but you may find a sweet dusty diamond out there that with a bit of TLC will turn into your own road racer.

Vaio_s

Hey thanks for the comments! I pried apart the brake lever bracket with a screwdriver, so now I can use my "brake hoods" and brake from the top now Thanks for all the help! When I get my new handlebars and cables, I'll post more pictures.

By the way, since it's imminent, what's the best way to cut a handlebar? My tools include a hacksaw and dremel, and a tiny chance that I have a pipe cutter somewhere. But just assume that I don't. What should I do? I really don't want to spend money on a tool like that. Or should I ask my LBS to do it?

z415

For an aluminum bar, I think tube cutters, like the plumber's stuff, are the best. Hacksaw and dremels work too, but I would think you'd have to be really good at eyeballing and have a steady hand or you'd need a guide. Pipe cutters are cheap and you will need it for your fork in the future anyways. The aluminum is soft, so it'll probably take less than 10 rotations and then I'd just sand it down a little.

A LBS charged me $5 + tax to hacksaw (w/ a guide) my seatpost since it was way too long. Not worth it in my book.

Between hacksaw and dremel, I would use a saw and fashion some kind of guide. I tend to screw up when I use a dremel.

BCRider

Pipe cutters will work but you don't have one so that's more $. Instead there's a little trick you can use for the hacksaw. Wrap a turn of masking tape around the bar with one edge on the cut line. If it wraps around and lines up withitself then you did good. If it starts to corkscrew along the bar then unwrap it and try again until it meets itself with a solid overlap or at least within a 1.2 mm of being lined up. That's close enough. Use the edge of the masking tape as a mark to guide your cutting with the hacksaw. File or sand the raw edge smooth after the cutting and dub over the sharp corners with the file or sandpaper as well.

Just put the Dremel away. It's a special tool for special needs and you're far from the only person to be sucked in by the TV ads and think it's the best tool for everything. As 514 found it isn't. For some things it is THE tool to use. In other cases it'll just get you into trouble.

Vaio_s

I asked my dad, and he suggested a jigsaw, and he also has a diamond edged saw for cutting tile. Now which one is the best? I'm thinking the rotary tile saw... right?

fastev

Don't use the diamond saw! A hacksaw is fine if, just take your time. If you wrap a piece of asking tape around the bar it'll help guide you to cut a fairly straight line. Finish it up with a file to debur the cut and you'll be in business.

BCRider

Diamond blades are great for cutting highly rigid materials such as glass or ceramic. But try to cut aluminium with it and the blade will just load up and then bind and the result will at best be a really messy cut and at worst will gall and grab the bars and toss them across the shop. Diamond blades must NOT be used on softer materials. And "soft" in this case means any sort of metal other than perhaps carbide tools or maybe high speed steel.

A jigsaw? Maybe, but only if you have a vise to hold the bars. Try to cut the round tubing with a jigsaw while hand holding the bars and you'll have lots of nasty cuts up and down the length of the bars and perhaps even over your fingers. It's overkill though. In the time it takes to put the right blade into the jigsaw, find a spot to plug it in and then the safety glasses you'll want to wear to protect against the cloud of aluminium shavings I could masking tape the bar, put it into the vise and cut it with a hacksaw and file the ends smooth. And with a lot less noise.

Use the right tool for the job. In this case the masking tape and a lowly hacksaw for the cut and a metal file to clean up the end is what I would use. And this is coming from a guy with a shop full of fancy stuff that COULD be used for this simple job but the hand tools are the right tools for this sort of thing. It's a simple job, no need for complex solutions.

z415

The bar's alum is too soft, I would say, to use anything electric. If you are strong and fast, it'll take you a couple of minutes manually. Aluminum is so soft I would suspect that if you took a high-quality ax and you were very accurate, that would work, but DON"T try it.

People on here always suggest dremels for cutting cables and what not and it does give a clean cut, but the dust and set up makes it seem so much easier to use a nice cable/housing cutter and just stick a pick in it if it wasn't that clean. Just FYI since you might have to do that soon anyways.

And file is better for cleaning up a hacksaw job, from experience.

Vaio_s

Whew, thanks guys. I'll tell my dad I'll just use the hacksaw.


Moral of the story: Always get a second opinion.

deburn

Hey Vaio, looks like you're having a lot of fun modding your bike, but another route is to get an older bike on CL and at garage sales. This is a slower route because you have to know what to look for and then wait till it comes along but it's amazing what you can find out there. A surprisingly large # of people are more interested in getting back some garage space and happy if they get some money in the process.

You can get a really good old bike with decent components for around 100-150.00 (I dont know your area that well, but I live in Boston which is a fairly expensive city too) which will likely be much better that what you have now (lighter, road frame makes a big difference imo).

Either way, it looks like you're riding a lot and that's great. I recently injured myself and very impatient for when I can ride again

Vaio_s

Yeah, I considered that too, but I don't have enough space in the garage for another bike, and I don't think my dad wants another bike around the house.

On a better note, I went to Performance today, and I'll start work tomorrow.

Vaio_s

It's done! Finally done!

I took lots of pictures along the build, so here they are.


Mockup


Sawing didn't take as long as my dad said it would, although turns out I used the wrong saw, (the pictured saw is apparently wood only...) so he was kinda mad about that.


Sucess!


Yeah I can't read that either.


Trend of the future?


Cable routing


Bar tape

Continued on next post... (too many images?)

Vaio_s

Finished pics







Yes I know the mirror kinda ruins it but I don't want to be again.


Now I just gotta save up for a rigid fork.


THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP!

z415

Looks good.

There actually is this European guy that rides around bar less - crazy fool -not sure if he is still around.... oh, by the way, did you remember to grease the threads of your bolts? It may be a little itty thing, but for me it is standard procedure.

BCRider

Looks great.

Normal practice for flying housings calls for not trapping them under the bar tape. Instead just leave free. But as long as you donn't have trouble getting our hands into place in those loops then don't worry about it.

Vaio_s

Oh ok, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to wrap it or not. I guess I'll remove it.

zonatandem

Clean up the bar some. Get a mirror that clips on to your glasses/shades.

BCRider

Sorry Vaio, I didn't mean to suggest that you jump up and change it. Just that if you found it hard to thread your hands around them then there was an option.

Vaio_s

No, no, not at all. I was considering it myself, because it was hard to hold it anyway. I changed it and now it's good.

Also zonatandem, what exactly should I do to clean up the bar? I don't think I have any non-essential items on it.

And another thing. On my "brake hoods" I don't find that the position is more upright. Is it supposed to be on a real road bike? I looked at some pictures of road bikes, and I can't imagine it to be more upright. Maybe it's just my bike. If not, what's the point of hoods anyway?

BCRider

Well you won't find a happy place for your hands on your "hoods" since they are so far down and around the bar ends. This is where your efforts hit a brick wall I'm afraid. You've made the best you can from what you've got but the next step is a complete swap to more of a road bike than the mountain bike you have.

If you look at this picture I stole from the Specialized website you'll see how the "hoods" can be a pretty comfy place to park your hands. Mind you this shot shows the bars angled up quite to the extreme. Most road riders would angle them down 3 or 4 degrees and very likely move the levers a little down onto the point of that sharper curve so they can actually use the drops and reach the levers without popping their hands out of their wrist sockets. As shown I serously doubt anyone could comfortably use the drop positions. But hopefully you get the idea. See how the upper section flows into the hoods? That's the idea. It creates a place to hold onto similar to bullhorns but still offers the drops for beating the headwind when riding faster or into a real headwind.

fcormier

Really nice job on that conversion, congratulations! I would second the comment about not wrapping your brake cable.

Vaio_s

Thanks, but unfortunately, I had a crash recently (into a pole!) because I was holding my hands on the top, and I didn't brake in time (at all, actually). Hit the pole, hit the ground, got a gash on my right eyebrow, and got 3 stitches. My dad made me change my handlebars back. Although I would be scared if I saw my son lying next to a pool of blood. No brain damage, I am fine now, although I am back to where I started.