Drop bars on a Mt bike?
 

I have had had almost no luck in making my converted Mt bike commuter as comfortable on the hands as my road bike. This is the second bike I have owned with flat bars and bar ends, and I think I would like to convert to drop bars.

Is this just more trouble than it is worth? Can I use the rapid fire shifters with road bars? I can't use down tube shifters, bar end shifters wouldn't bother me but how would I use the brake levers?

I love the old bike. I have tried moving the saddle fore and aft some and moving the bars up and down. Some moves help and others make the situation worse.

Any suggestions will be helpfull.:confused:

I've been thinking about drop bars myself, I think the shifters may work but you would need to get used to the new angle they would have to be mounted at, the brake levers may be tough although I feel you could get them usable. The correct answer to the problem would be avid cantis and bar end shifters, the avid brakes work well with road brake levers, I use that combination on my touring bike and they are a powerful brake.

If you have road bike that is comfortable, measure the points of contact (saddle nose, brake hoods, pedals at 3:00) and plot them on a graph, using the bottom bracket as [0,0]. You will then be able to compare the position to your current MTB setup. By using xy coordinates, you dont have to worry yourself with frame angles or size. Just swapping flats for bars may place the bars too far forward, and moving your saddle forward to compensate may upset the pedal position.
As an alternative to drop bars, you can fit butterfly bars. These give you a variety of positions but retain MTB style controls.
Most drop bar brake levers work OK with cantelevers (not well, just OK), but you need to tune the length of straddle cable carefully. Diacomp make a special long-pull lever for cantelevers and one for V brakes.
For shifters, you would have to use bar-ends or clamp on downtubes.

YES, go dropbars! I would suggest fitting road type brakes. That way you will be able riding with your hands on the brake hoods. It´s very comfy and braking is easy. I would also like to throw a strike for bar end shifters. I like mine very much. It´s easy sifting when you ride with your hands on the hoods, which is a very relaxed position, just let your hand drop down a little and shift. Of course you could use your rapid fire shifters, but I believe it´s not as comfortable as barend shifters. But for brakes you should absolutley go for road typ. Welcome to take a look at my bike which is a converted mountain bike.

http://www.karlstam.com/

Klick on "Bicycling" in main menu at top. Then klick "Pictures and tips about the bike and gear" to veiw my beauty;)

I converted an old mtn bike into a touring bike with drop bars. I used bar-end shifters and aero brake levers. I was very happy with this bike. I did a respray with flat green spray paint. It was locally known as "the Green Machine." Unfortunately, it was destroyed a while back when I was hit by a car.

One thing to check is that you might need a new stem--both to get the reach right and because straight bars are normally 25.4mm and drop 26.0mm

Good luck,
Dave

You make me want to do it NOW! I do have another question. How do you handle the problem of fine shifter adjustment when the mt bike has no adjusters on the frame?

There is a little thing called "InLine cable adjustor" that basicly is a screw which is to be installed in the cable housing and with that screw you can adjust brakes or shifers.

I bought mine from SJSC in UK, but I know you can get them from Colorado Cyclist.

Good luck

Anders

The inline cable adjustor looks like this :)

I don't know about drop bars, but I DID see a MTB the other day with Aero-bars. :rolleyes:

I didn't use in line cable adjustors, I just used the adjusting barrel at the rear derailler. Worked just fine.

Dave

That works for me too, even if it means stopping the bike and get off to adjust. But they are very necessary when used with the road brakelevers and V-brakes/cantilever brakes along with V-daptor/Travel Agent. There is no other way adjusting the brakes.

Thank's for all the help!:D Now I just need to get the cash scraped together to make the change over!;)