Aemmer

The idea of an early mtb dirt drop setup was to primarily ride the drops, thus the tall LD stems you see on the era correct bikes above. I never ride the hoods on this bike, but if I did, it would not be comfortable. The goal was improved hand position and a bit of old school suspension built into the bars while riding in the drop position.

frantik

what are the things holding the shifters near the brakes?

mainstreetexile 

If you look at that catalog page, it looks like that bar/stem combo has shifter mounts for thumbies there. Pretty sweet setup, seems like an interesting place to mount them, I'd love to try a set of those out.

Aemmer

WTB shift pods. Out of production for several years, If you are patient, a set will show on Ebay every few months. Again the setup is such to facilitate riding in the drop position. From there, using the shift pods, you can reach out with your thumb to shift while still maintaining control of the bars.

himespau 

I wonder if that's where the idea for Kelly Take-offs came from. I did enjoy mine when I had them, but took them off because I want to try brifters.

dirty tiger

I have a question about sizing.
If you are looking for a MTB to convert to drop bars do you:

Go with your standard size, Or do you go one size bigger or smaller.

FrenchFit 

Tru dat. The other naggin reality is on most DBar MTB rigs your hands are not going to able to trigger brakes and shifters without moving them, which you can obviously do on a standard MTB rig. Something to keep in mind if you are going to be riding any technical trails, single track.

If you want short reach, angled out drop bars take a look at Salsa Woodchippers. https://salsacycles.com/components/woodchipper/ They are harder to find in 25.4mm now, don't know why Salsa stopped distributing the vintage size.

KonAaron Snake 

Edit - it's tig welded with lower end parts.

dirty tiger

They call it the Moto Ace woodchipper https://salsacycles.com/components/moto_ace_woodchipper/

due ruote 

Those look great but everywhere I checked they were listed as unavailable. Maybe discontinued?

Yo Spiff

Getting ready to do one of these conversions myself. I realized a while back that I was most comfortable on my drop bar bikes, but I like the ability of this '88 Trek MTB to carry a load. I've obtained some Tektro levers, Suntour barcons and have a set of Origin8 Gary bars on the way. I put some lighter 26x1.5 road tires on the bike last night. The hardest stuff I normally do on the bike is gravel and I'm looking to make a decent commuter scooter, city bike, and possible tourer out of it. Here's how "Old Red" looks now. I expect to have an "after" pic within the week.

Old Red by Yo Spiff, on Flickr

After I try this conversion for a while, I'll then decide if i want an actual touring bike or not.

realestvin7

I just talked to Salsa. They're discontinued.

Sixty Fiver

Got to ogle this up close the other day... 1988 Steve Potts.


https://velocult.com/bikes/steve-potts-custom-1988-red/

Velo Cult in Portland has a wonderful collection of vintage mountain bikes.

mainstreetexile 

A lot of cool touches on that bike, but I love that stem.

Velo Cult is a great shop. They used to be here in San Diego for a long time before they moved up north. I'm going to be up in Portland next week, looking forward to checking out their new location.

Yo Spiff

Starting on the conversion now. Old bars are now coming off. Hope this turns out as good as I think it will be.

cooperryder

Finished building up my Schwinn Cimarron from frame & fork.

I'm liking it very much & have became a big fan of fat tires.

As I have gotten older I like the taller stem / bar combo. YMMV

That's the tall Soma stem adapter & that thing can get your bars sky high if you like.

I also really like the cross style brake levers coupled with the bargain Tektro Aero levers with Q/R.

Ever bike I have tried this on has been an improvement for my slower paced riding style.

KonAaron Snake 

This is one of my favorites posted so far...if not the one I like best! I'm also a big fan of the inline levers and have them on a few builds...including my main commuter. I'm going to be installing a pair on my drop-MTB, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm stuck with Pauls because I'm using them with an aero/brake-v-brake combo.

himespau 

Love the build. Is that the fork that came with the bike? If not where did you get it? I'm looking for a nice chrome fork with a long steerer (from the looks of the headtube that's what you have), but for some reason most cantilever forks for 26" wheels come only come with 7" steerers and I need something like 220 mm.

I've used one of the soma hi-rise adaptors in the past and liked it, but this time I'm going to try using a nitto technomic and see if I can get that high enough when I build it up again. And inline brake levers can be really useful as well.

I'm curious about how you finished your bar wrap. Is that cork with cotton covering the ends?

realestvin7

Wow, Paul. Who knew myth at old Cimarron I got you would be such a hit. That's the original fork. It's a Tange chrome fork.

himespau 

Of course it original. I mean I get that no one makes 23" 26-ers anymore, but I wish I could find one chrome fork somewhere (and avoid spending more than I did on my frame to get it).

realestvin7

What did you spend on your frame?

Yo Spiff

I'm almost done with my own conversion. Just need to tape the bars.

Yarper, I have a question about yours. I am using the same Tektro levers that you went with and it looks like you have similar style cantilever brakes. I found those levers with my brakes had little travel & very poor stopping power, which surprised me, as I have seen the same levers used on Salsa and Surly bikes with cantis. I changed them out for a set of V-brakes (which was an upgrade I had wanted to do anyway, but wasn't sure if the Tektro levers would be compatible) and the stopping power and ability to modulate them is much better with the V-brakes. How are you finding the braking with your canti setup?

Going in to tape the bars and I'll have a pic of my own conversion up shortly.

KonAaron Snake 

Spiff - are these the levers you have:

himespau 

Oh, only ~$125 or so and the rest of the bike (mostly replaced by now) was attached. After I posted that, I looked again and suddenly found a chromed fork (ramiko brand, which I'd never heard of before) for $40 that might work. Maybe my google skills have become stronger since I last looked or maybe there was a reason I turned it down before, at least it's something to look into further. I do wish for lugged rather than unicrown, but I know that's a futile wish. Then again, maybe I should just sell the mutt I've made and buy a road bike, which is apparently what I wanted all along.

Chris Chicago

himspau, looks like niagara has that fork for 27$ https://www.niagaracycle.com/product_...ucts_id=802949

edit: sorry, the hi-ten version is 27. the chromo one like you posted is 37