What to do, what to do...
 

This is an original to me early '90's Schwinn Crosscut hybrid. It's been a real workhorse, holding up well despite little attention. A bit of rust on the headset and pedals, new grip shifters a year ago, Exage 400LX derailleurs, Biopace rings, 175 crank arms, Ritchey bars. The rack on the back is pretty cool, a Topeak child seat clamps on and off of it very easily...good for the granddaughter.

Anyway, I'm considering doing something to this bike, and am open for suggestions. I've thought of dirt drops, mustache bars, narrower tires (striped? colored?), fenders, platform pedals/traps, etc. I've already got a couple of road bikes, so this will probably stay somewhat close to it's current use, which is about half gravel and half blacktop. Also, it sometimes carries a child, so I can't go too crazy with aggressive or sensitive handling.

Any and all ideas are welcome and appreciated!

http://i.imgur.com/ZSn07IN.jpg

Flipped albatross bars might be an idea. I did that with a hybrid (my winter bike) and it proved to be more useful than the straight MTB bars. More hand positions.

Here's a thread on conversions to albatross (Nitto makes a nice one...) It features my hybrid.

I've had several Crisscross models (one step below this one). Nice bikes!

I would go either trekking bars or drops. Trekking bars would be the lowest cost option, as you could continue to use the twist grip shifters.

Trekking bars came standard on those bikes in 1993.

http://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1..._Cnsmr_17.html

Headsets are cheap (less than $!5). I would just replace it myself.

+1 on narrower tires.

Nashbar trekking bars and Nashbar Moustache bars

http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...2_175533_-1___

http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...75_-1___202348