seely

WOW. Great deal IMHO. I wish I had the cash, I would love to give this a good home (and some drop bars). Check out that rear chainstay length!

Chrome Molly

I wish the flat part of the drops were about an inch longer, and they had about four degrees of sweep for comfort on the tops and to bring the drops back further. That said, they work pretty well as is and beat the heck out of regular road bars for the intended mission.

gt eunuch

I know you guys have seen this bike a few times much, but I am approaching about 800 miles on this bike this year (hoping to hit 1k before the year is over). This thing sees about 95% of the riding duty in the 3 bike stable. The bike is about ready for a headset, and could use a good cleaning but it has been an absolute beast. I have started hammering down brick paved alleys in favor of smoothly paved streets when I can, because I can

One thing to note, I need to incorporate some in-line barrel adjusters for the brakes. I have only had to adjust the cable hanger once to account for pad wear, but this could get annoying quick.



edit: ignore the cross chaining

anixi

^I'd have to say it's hard to ignore this degree of cross-chaining!!!

azgreg

frantic, if you don't mind I have a couple of questions. First, what shifters are you using? and second, I noticed on another of your bikes you had the Geax Street Runner tires on it. Do you notice much difference between those and the Roadsters? I have the Street Runners on one of my bikes and like them very much.

carfart

I don't have a photo to share, but I've had the same experience with the Soma Portola which is fairly similar to the Midge. Riding and braking both on the hoods and in the drops felt pretty good at least with Cane Creek SCR-5 levers.

Yo Spiff

Thanks for all the mentions of different dirt drop models. I was only aware of a handful and a search for the word "dirt drop" didn't turn up much. For the benefit of others that may be searching for such bars, here is the list of models I have so far. If I overlooked anything, let me know.

Salsa Woodchipper
Soma Portola
Soma Junebug
Origin 8 Gary
WTB dirt drops
On-One Midge
Ragley Luxy
Nitto RM-014F

The history-of-dirt-drops

TimmyT 

It was last July when I last used them, and it was on an aluminum cx bike that was already on its way out with me so my memory is kind of foggy. I sold the bike shortly thereafter. My main problem was reaching the brakes. I'm not sure if I had it set up right. I'm 6'2" with wide shoulders, and I normally like the drops. The length of the drops are HUGE---there are at least three different positions you can put hand and shoulders in. Overall, I tend to be happy with maes or rando bends, though, so the dirt drops are take some getting used to.


Thanks! This is helpful. Like I said above, my memory is a bit foggy, so it's good to have input before I put these on another bike.
Hey, than's for that! I like looking at the different dirt drops because there are subtle angle differences in setting up the drops relative to the levers.

Both of you guys, Due Route and Yo Spiff, have done a great job setting up those bikes.

Yo Spiff

Just ordered a set of the midge bars. At $30 for a pair I can take the chance that I may not like them, but all the reviews I have read were positive about the aspects I care about. I love the one pair of Woodchipper I already have, but they are a bit pricey unless I luck out with a good find like I did with the first pair. I'll probably try them out on the tandem first, and if the reach is too far, they will go on something else.

cyclotoine

I found these article helpful in determining that I want to try woodchippers after not liking WTB dirt drops...

https://twentynineinches.com/2010/01/...-a-comparison/

https://twentynineinches.com/2010/05/...-final-review/

I also think it is cool the woodchipper comes in two different widths which I think is great and the width is the width at the hood I believe which means a 46 will be great.

@ TimmyT: I find anything under 44cm at the hood totally intolerable. I will ride a vintage 42 on a short ride and on my track bike (for actual track riding) this is why I think the woodchippers are the only dirt dropish bar I would like for riding on the hoods.

TimmyT 

I don't mind under 44 at the hood, but I need some width on the drops. There's also such a thing as "too much drop" as well as "not enough." The woodchippers are pretty shallow, I seem to recall. I have woodchipper moto aces (25.4 clamp), and I'll have to check them out later.

I definitely looked at what Guitar Ted had written before I bought mine. He's got a lot on that site that is useful.

RaleighSport

My Miyata Ridgerunner SE is back, I opted for a bit longer stem and skipped on putting strange Scott's on, I am now debating on putting on fenders and a pletscher rack though...

EKW in DC

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10757602@N08/9549954418/

Finally getting around to posting the build, at least as it stands now. The complete progression, complete with photos, is available on Flickr.

A set of trekking bars saw duty while I saved up for drop bars and the other related component upgrades (bar end shifters, etc.), but the conversion is now complete. Drive train is 3x8 (all Deore except for the cransket which is Alivio b/c I wanted square taper). Could never get the cantis set up the way I wanted, so I bit the bullet and bought some Avid SD7 v-brakes and Tekro RL520 levers. Love the setup.

After some difficulties with a rear wheel from Handspun (not build quality issues - tire compatibility issues), I ended up building my own rear wheel, too. Best rear wheel I've ever had, and it's the first one I've built myself. Over 1,000 miles on it now, and it's still as true as the day I built it! I just put Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour 26 x 2.0" tires on last week after getting fed up with sidewall failures on the cheaper Michelin City tires I was trying to use.

Anyway, bike's coming along. Still on my upgrade list are:

Brooks saddle
SPD pedals
Front rack(s)
Dynamo hub front wheel build and lighting

neo_pop_71

Hello EKW in DC,
The link you provided is bad, no photos available, just an FYI.
Cheers,
-D-

EKW in DC

Odd. Thanks for the heads up. It was working last night. Editing original message with a new URL.

neo_pop_71

Your Trek 830 came out great... really nice build!

Aemmer

I would add around that same time: More people were getting high speed internet, bicycle forums were picking up speed. Collecting and sharing of old Mtb's on the internet became more popular and the early stuff from Potts, Cunningham, Nichol became some of the first desireable things to find. LD's and dirt drop bars were never that plentiful and price soon followed demand.

Sprayman

So I have a question for the members about frame size. I recently was given an old Diamondback rigid frame MTB. It's actually in pretty good shape and rides well, but it's too small for me. Would this be a good candidate for a drop bar conversion? I've never done one, so I don't know if it's best to use a frame a bit smaller than one would use mountain biking, a bit bigger, or the same size.

Thanks,
Sprayman

Yo Spiff

I would think a bit smaller would be a little better, as mountain bikes tend to have longer top tubes than road bikes due to their (normally) upright riding position.

WNG

EKW,

I bought a pair of these Michelin City 26x1.85 tires for work. What kind of sidewall failures are you having?

BTW, I like how the Trek turned out.

likebike23

The only potential problem with a small frame will be getting the bars high enough. To ride offroad, the drops of the bars should be at the same height as a flat bar would be. In order to ride the smaller frame, you'll need to raise the seat quite a bit. The higher the seat is in relation to the top tube, the longer the stem will need to be to maintain "proper" bar to seat drop. If you want to ride on the road and don't mind a large amount of drop, then go for it.

neo_pop_71

Hey Sprayman,

The challenge with a smaller frame is it requires a tall stem to get the bars at the ideal height as likebike23 stated. There's no one position for a dirt drop set up but a good goal to keep in mind is your bar height needs to be close to your saddle height. If you're running a 1 inch or 1 1/8th inch threaded fork and headset, your tall quill stem options are fairly limited, many go with a Nitto Dirt Drop stem. That was same Nitto stem came stock on the 1987 MB-1 that Grant Petersen put together for Bridgestone. I'll include a photo pulled from online that shows various Nitto stems, they're all set equally at the limit line so you can see the difference in height and length. Also, I've included a photo of a 1987 MB-1, notice how the stem clamp is close to the saddle height, any less puts a great deal of stress on your wrists.

wrk101

Wrong size. Ideal size, at least for me, is about half way between my typical MTB size and road bike size. YMMV.

due ruote 

Sold my Stumpjumper the other day, thought I had good reasons, liked the guy I sold it to, he was totally psyched and paid a good price, and still I regretted it almost immediately.

So I consulted a famous specialist (Bianchigirl, thanks!) and she said take one of these and call me in the morning. It's a bit of a hot mess (replacment fork and some other odd bits) but I think it will work out well. I'll post more pics later on.



[edit] Parting shot of the old ride:

Sprayman

Neo Pop 71;
Very insightful advice. Thank you. I'm glad you mentioned stress on the wrists, as that's a problem I've had on many bikes over the years. That leads me to think that converting this old Diamond Back may not be a good idea. I like those first two Nitto stems on the left; the other three would have me leaning much farther forward than would be comfortable. I'll keep them in mind when I finally find a good conversion candidate.

Sprayman