My last commuter I bought a flat bar road bike. Wanted to try something different, not sure I like my decision, but dont hate it either.

On to the question. Has anyone converted there flat bar to a drop bar, but kept the rapid fire type shifters? I was contemplating keeping them, adding the drop bar and maybe doing drop bar brake levers with a set of inline brake levels, ala cross bikes.

I tend to like quirky, and had also contemplated swithing to Bull Horns, with TT style break levers and existing rapid fire shifters.

Thoughts, experiences?

MTB-sized components like shifters and so forth won't fit on road-sized bars. If I recall, bullhorns are road-sized. In addition, switching to drops may not work depending on your frame's geometry and your fit.

Several people here have done the conversion, but you'll want to go to STI-type shifters or bar-end shifters if you're trying to keep it cheap.

The general advice is that unless you have a lot of parts laying around or just plain love what you have, it's not worth doing -- just sell it and buy a road bike with drops.

I agree with this and I have converted my flat bar to drops. Buy another bike. Do a google search "site:bikeforums.net flatbar to drops" or something and find all the other threads that ask this question.

Do you specifically want a drop bar or you just want more hand positions? If you want more hand positions, I would consider switching to a Trekking Bar which gives you much more hand positions and should accept your existing shifters and brake levers.

I made the conversion and kept the rapid fire shifters for quite some time. I came up with a unique solution. I bought these: Origin 8

They're not quite as large as normal drops, but they hook right on to an exsisting flat bar. Eventually I decided to make a more permanent conversion, but I was happy with this product, and it required far less effort to than the later mod.

You can swap a flat bar out for drops but as stated you can not use your flat bar components. There are several threads on the subject in the hybrid forum. You are not without options if you to change out your bars and keep your components. I recently changed out my flat bar for trekking bars (Butterfly Bars) and used all my flat bar components. There are a lot of possibilities you can do with these bars but if you want to put drops on your bike it is very possible

I see the camera... do you have video of your commute.

No not yet, that is a new mount I am playing with. I have yet to really try it out on smooth road. I'm not sure if it will work out.

I'm happy with my conversion though I still consider it a work in progress.

Since you like quirky, you could use two stems on top of each other. The top one would be for the drops. The bottom would be for a length of MTB handlebar tubing on which you could mount the shifters. The idea would be to get a combination of stems that would position your shifters where you could reach them from the drop bars. It might even be possible to do it so they could be reached both from the drops or from the tops.

In order to get two stems on top of each other you need a steerer extender like this:

That thar is a busy cockpit!

Here is my old bike with a Trekking Bar. For the installation, I used the longest stem I could find so that the portion of the bar with the brake levers was close to their positions when they were installed on the flat bar. So with this setup, I have the standard flat bar position, the sides (my prefered position), the front "Superman" position and anything inbetween.

The aero bars & pads make it look busier than it is, for the most part is is pretty clean. The camcorder mount doesn't really work well where it is. I can not use a bar bag so the front rack and bag serve that function. My commute maxes at 18 miles each way & I am taking up distance riding this year. This is a work in progress

I did the conversion with an old hybrid that I bought. I got the drop bars from a co-op, $5 shipped for some ebayed Shimano Exage aero brake levers, and $20 for a set of bar end shifters. Chances are you wouldn't need to raise the drop bars too much to get where you want, and if you are converting a hybrid or mountain bike with a frame that's the right size for you anyway, the riser stem will get your bars about where you need them to be (seat height).

Oh yeah, the only thing I actually had to change about the bike itself (aside from the handlebars) is that I had to put a brake cable hanger on the front, as I could no longer go through the stem, as it originally was. I think it's a good conversion for $30.

I don't have any pics but I "persuaded" mtn bike shifters on to a drop bar once. A little filing and prying did the trick, that being said it is not impossible.

If you convert and are on a budget, just get some bar end shifters. Way easier then fiddling with trying to get MTB shifters on the bike and I find them easier to use then grip shifts or rapid fire shifters.

Did this to my sirrus.

Agreed, it's not at all difficult or expensive if you're willing to do some work. I converted this Crossroads that I found at a pawn shop to drops:





The hybrid's top tube was a bit too long to get comfortable, so I found a smaller one on craiglist. It's wearing mustache bars at the moment, but will have a set of VO porteur bars eventually:

I'm very happy with my conversion. I used STI shifters that I had laying around and BB7 road brakes.



That said, I have a set of old road bars that came off my '77 Gitane. These have a 25.4mm clamp diameter and a 22.2mm bar diameter, which happen to be the exact sizes used by modern MTB bars (except those that use the 31.8 clamp diameter). If you visit The Recyclery you can probably find a pair like this (or if you want a 38cm wide pair PM me). I'm not sure you wouldn't have issues getting the components around the drops, but they should fit if you can get them in place.

This is mine. I too had a spare set of STIs, otherwise I probably wouldn't have done it. I like tinkering though and it was a fun project. I'm now experimenting with some older (2000) Campy Ergo shifters I picked up.

yep! I just flipped those babies upside down and they work great!
- drop bars came from an old Ross 10-speed
- I required a 5" steerer tube extender to keep the drop bars 3" up where I like them
- I had to replace the right front brake cable cuz it needed to be a few inches longer
- the hard part was finding drop bars with a diameter close enough so that my stem and rapid fires would fit!!!!

BTW: this conversion was on a "hybrid" and this bike is now my most comfortable bike!

I went through a phase of trying drop style bar ends but that wasn't as good and going with a full swap. It took a while to get the fit right with the saddle and bar adjustments, but it's golden now! I commute on this bike and also rack up tons of miles during the warm months :-)

I'm a bit surprised to hear people saying they needed to raise their bars. I lowered my bars and they are still a bit higher than on any of my other road bikes. This is in agreement with the classic example of such a conversion:

This looks amazing. I want this for my soho 3.

ive seen drop bar conversion bar-ends on ebay. maybe you could go that way, would seem cheeper if you ask me.

https://cgi.ebay.com/Mountain-Road-Dr...item439d2fc57b

It depends on what you want and what you're starting with. I don't have a photo handy of the way my bike was before conversion, but here's one of the same type of bike:



Here's my bike:



The stem I'm using puts the bars at roughly the same height as they were but the reach is much shorter. That's because a mountain bike typically has a longer top tube than the equivalent sized road bike so I had to compensate. When you ride on the hoods, your hands are farther forward than they would be on a flat bar bike. Depending on the type of drop bars you have and how they are positioned, your hands maybe slightly lower on the hoods than the point where your bars are connected to the stem. Most "flat" bars aren't really flat. They often sweep back and up some.

If I wanted a really aggressive riding position like my road bike I could have used a stem with little or no rise but since I'm using this as a winter bike I didn't want as much weight over the front wheel. This is in order to minimize the chances of a front wheel skid.

The other thing I had to take into consideration is that the frame is a little on the small side for me.

Sure. I definitely needed a shorter stem, but I had to flip it to the negative angle side just to get the bars even with the saddle. I guess my bars were just really high before the conversion.

It's a lot cheaper but not really the same thing.