Bicycle Addict

I been getting bits together for while to build this up, Sora 3550 2 x 9 speed, I will possibly go down in large chain ring, 12 - 28 cassette, I have another wheel set to go on with Conti Town & country tyres 26 x 1.90, will tinkle away on it while finishing other projects, I have not purchased the cassette yet, should be soon though.

Pompiere

I finally got all the pieces together. I bought the bike new in 1986 after reading a test in Bicycling. They came in red and black Chrome. I wanted the red one, but the shop only had black chrome. Lucky for me.

Number400

The old drop bar GT goes well in the snow!

due ruote 

Nice, love that finish. Can you explain what's happening with the stem? Looks like some sort of riser/extender bit?

Pompiere

It is a quill extension. I bought it to try on my other bike but I ended up using a Nitto Technomic instead. I wanted to get the bars up high enough to be able to ride mainly in the drops. The black Bianchi stem came out of the BOC a while back.

Kobe 

I know you probably went with what you had on hand, but you could lower the stem a bit by using a handlebar with less drop, like a cyclocross handlebar.

anixi

I need one of these cx handlebars. Do you know of any low-cost examples?

Number400

Salsa Cowbell2's work well for me.

Velocivixen

I happen to live near the Planet-X store in Portland. I called and said I'd come pick it up if they had one. They had one black 25.4 handlebar (on sale too). Their online availability has been off and on. I had to check back frequently.

cs1

Well aren't you the nice one . That's the nice part about the forums. Everybody wants to help out. 25.4 bars don't grow on trees anymore. Actually, they never did.

Velocivixen

@cs1 - yeah, I didn't mean to sound like I was rubbing it in. Just letting the poster know that even with frequent checking of the website, calling them over the past months, and living practically in the same town, I had to drive there and they only had one.

cs1

That's why I used a smiley. Actually, it was really nice to check it out.

Kobe 

Salsa makes a few in the $40-$50 range, but for cheap these Aluminum Round Bend 42cm Road Bars Handlebars | eBay look like they would work.

FredyCro

Hello guys, thank you for the amazing inspiration first! Here is my conversion to be in the LBS that allows me to use their tools. The frame was rescued from a lot at a student dorm where it was to be thrown away for good, it came with an almost full STX group but in an awfull, rusted condition. It is to be more road orientated build, for now it stands as a SS, but I have a Shimano 600 6400 Ultegra mini group I plan to put on it. The front derauiller is no good since it is a bottom pull and there is no possible routing (except to weld/braze one on). I read here before that some sucessfully used road STIs with MTB FD although it is not suposed to work. One long googgling session later I found this - Front derailleur mod to permit MTB FD with STI road shift levers- Mtbr.com.
Before I emerge on this quest, I wanted to ask if any of you had succes in doing this and what is your experience? Is simply mounting the cable on the opposite side of the bolt enough (I was thinking to file down a cable route and pin it down with an extra washer)? I plan to use the STX crank as a double (42/32) with STX FD, Ultegra RD and Ultegra STIs (2*8, road casette).

Squeeze

@Velocivixen, thanks for your input.

They went from having none in stock to just one bar? That's strange. Maybe someone returned one.

I can see them running out of stock at times, but if the place in Portland and On-One in the UK are the only two places in the world to get these bars, one might assume they would another large production run, like maybe a couple hundred bars, for example, in order to have a supply on hand for a couple/few years. I don't know how many they sell each year but surely they don't manufacture them one at a time.

I will keep checking with them, but I also might go with a different bar. All I know is my straight bar is uncomfortable and I will eventually change it for something else. Lately I've been eyeing pictures of the Surly Open Bar, moustache bars, and other oddballs.

Chrome Molly

You should be able to make it work as a double using the opposite side cable mount on the front d. You will likely be using the stop to tune the front d on the inner ring but it should work. I gave up trying to make Brifters work on a triple though... First try it without the drilling for the cable pull adjustment. You may find that between the stops and the derailleur travel that it works fine. You can also get a cross front d that is top pull and has a ratio for road shifters.

Crawford53

This is a cross post with another c&v thread (sort of) but I've decided to convert my 91 Rockhopper to drop bars as well. This is the Rockhopper as found:


Today at my LBS I picked up some midge bars, deore front and rear derailluers, shimano double MTB crankset and adjustable quill stem with removable face plate. The drops on my univega work well for that bike as a primary commuter, but I wanted something more versatile and gravel-appropriate for the 'hopper. From what I've read in the forum here, midge bars should fit the bill! I'll post an update on the build when I get it together.

Crawford53

I've been combing the forums but haven't found anything relevant yet so I figure I'll ask here where you all seem to be on my page for builds and clearly know what you are talking about. I've got a 1992ish Univega Via Activa that I converted to drops a while back. I love the bike, but I hate the limitations of the 700c wheelset. From what I understand, 700c is approximately the same as 29" MTB wheelsets in terms of diameter. Would a 29er wheelset be compatible? I'm also toying with the idea of offloading the rig altogether if I can get the Rockhopper to a point I'm happy with, the univega frame is at least a size too big but was free...

anixi

Far superior to the hard-rock, IMO. You can't go wrong with a quality frame!

simmonsgc

I'm very happy to finally have something to offer in this thread. It's been slow going, with life getting in the way of playing with bikes!

Got a mock-up done, finally, and the fit on this cold-set 1988 MB-2 with drops works great for me. I may not even need a dirt drop to get the bars where I want them. A 60mm SR road quill gets them pretty close, but we'll see. Probably won't run the Vueltas-- just put them on for mock-up since they are the only 26's I have right now with rubber on them. This one came to me from a friend as a bare frame and mismatched fork. Nice that the fork is lugged, but the keyway needs to be milled a bit, and then cut to length. I had to chase the threads further down the steer tube. I think it must've come from a much bigger frame. It's stupid long, which is better than being too short! I think I like the looks better than the original unicrown. My great LBS guy sold me a wheel's worth of Dia Compe 986's, so I just need to find some cantis for the rear. Plan is to build it up, ride and work out the kinks, then tear it down for PC. Paint is a hot mess.

This is one of the more inspiring threads in C&V, and I've really enjoyed all the creativity and cool builds here. Notice my Park CS-1 cold set tool leaning against the wall. Snagged it off eBay.

simmonsgc

Thinking about the next steps, you would say cut the fork down, wouldn't you? I know that you want the stem to be down in the steer tube past the threaded portion. I wouldn't want to ovalize it, or have it be unsafe.

In the pic above, the dark areas in the headset are the threaded fork. Adjustable race screwed down on the bottom, gap, then the toothed lock washer/cable hanger/spacer sitting at the bottom of the milled keyway (which I will extend-- access to a mill), another gap, and then the bottomed-out locknut. I'd have to make quite a spacer to fill it as is. As you know, we need the height on these conversions, and I didn't want to make it unnecessarily short. I have stems to choose from (technomics and dirt-drop clones). If the consensus is cut the fork, how high past the top of the head tube? What say you, wizards of the conversion? Never run up against this before, and safety first and all that.

Reference was this thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...eight-etc.html

icepick_trotsky 

Or, you could get a really wide cassette (like 11-34) and set it up as a 1x8.

cs1

Very very nice project. This thread has some serious stuff going on.

FredyCro

Thanks guys. Currently it will seat in a garage for couple of months since I am moving abroad for an exchange semester. I bought a really nice Ultegra 6600 crankset, so am contemplating on welding a downtube cable mount and go full Ultegra 6400-6600. Since I have a nice Columbus SLX road frame sitting around for almost a year and half now, I think this won't be the case. The problem is I have this 1994 STX crankset with crazy BCD and can't convert it to a single chainset, so I think I will keep my eyes open for an old square taper XT and pair it with a 9 speed XT mech and a wide casette. I mounted (sanding down with drill bits and spreading) MTB shifters on drop bars before and got it quite fine (my girlfriends Bottechia converted). My Nakamura looks like this now...

Velocivixen

I'm not sure, but I don't think I've posted this here. It's a 1988 Rockhopper Comp & was all original. Paid $60 plus a zefal mountain bike pump included. I bought the On One Midges, new Tektro brake levers and used Suntour bar end shifters.