It has been a while since I commuted regularly. Traffic has gotten worse in this are butI am getting out there again. Here is what I put together. I might do drops later on.

Looks good, but you may want to re-think the drops in the future.

i have a similar bike setup to your, and have been thinking of drops, the biggest issue is the shifters, as no matter what option you look at it isn't cheap, you would either need bar end shifters & levers, or STI's in what ever speed you have, in addition to the drop bars and tape, you can't use down tube shifters on this bike as there are no bosses on the frame for them.

Sweet bike. What fork is that? Did it replace a headshok? I can't quite tell what's going on with the headset

Here is what it was to start with. The fork is from QBP. I left the steereer uncut so I can have fun with different options. I didnt want to put much in this bike. I bought it in early summer and it sat in my back yard until last week.

As far as putting drops on it, I already have everything, bar cons and I believe I have brake levers.

Might add a rack that I have.

Wow, no need to go buzzkill on the very first reply. Obviously plenty of people have converted old MTB's to drop bars, the C&V forum has a longrunning thread about it

Cool bike. I commute with barons and they are perfect for me. I don't MTB but those bares look like a lot of work. Think about chopping them some? Moving all the controls inboard makes sense to me. Don't sweat the traffic. After a few days, you won't even think of it.

Right now I have the stock 7 speed setup with thumb shifters. I started riding in 89 and I really like thumb shifters, I actually have a set of Paul thumbies in my box. I am sorry for throwing out so many parts. I also have a set of 26" wheels on old XTR hubs that might go on this.

No buzzkill intended, as I said, I have a similar bike (mines a '95 DiamondBack Ascent) which I've been toying with the idea of going to drops, and the issues I listed were what I have come across (and not resolved as yet to a workable solution).

From what #wvridgerider is saying, he has all the parts, normally in this sort of post, the OP need to buy everything, which is where it gets expensive, although in this case it won't be an issue.

I love mountain bikes as commuters; drop on a mtb are pretty sweet but there can be issues with bike fit since the top tube tends to be long relative to the seat tube.