Robert C

I am looking at this bike:


I am thinking it would be a good (not great) touring bike except for the flat bar. According to the website, the current shifters are:
I am not familiar enough with which shifters are compatible as far as going from flat bars to drop bars.

Basically I am looking for a touring bike that is suited to frequent flying and gravel roads. It also needs to be affordable (complete kit should not exceed $1.500).

fietsbob

for You or me? I can use the LBS & fix stuff there, their tools + parts available ..

fork looks normal threadless .but sawn off rather short.. stem raiser will be useful.


big wheels make it harder to get small enough to not get the "it's a Bike, charge the fee" to happen ..

Ergon grips like GR5 is an easy change.. drop bars means all the controls have to be bought over, shift, brake , probably stem too.



My bike Friday pocket Llama is fine with gravel paths & roads.. you can get the same drive train, turning a 20" wheel the gears are lower.

invisiblehand

I didn't realize that there was a top pull front derailer for road shifters.

If you're OK with bar ends then the answer is definitely yes. Otherwise, I think you can do it reasonably with STI if it's the case that there are STI shifters with the correct amount of (brake) cable pull for the disc brakes.

bhkyte

I think if you put dropped bars on a montage they would fall off.......

radityajoko

it seems drop bar will make your life harder on the "frequent flying" part.
but yes, i think someone done it before on montague. also in this forum there is someone who modified his hummer with drop bars. i believe his username was Raxel

12boy

You can obtain drop bar bar ends and keep all your original brakes, shifters etc. You can take them off in seconds with an Allen wrench since they have no components on them. Paul Brathwaite in the Swift thread explains this although the thread is very long and you may have to look for a while. Certaqinly the cheapest and simplest way to go unless you have all the drop bar parts already.

fietsbob

A custom cut bar is one of Bike Friday's Features .. Sleeve tubes of aluminum go inside and out side the cut down the center handlebars .

Out side sleeve is split lengthwise , to compress with the stem clamp around the bar.

A 26 bar in a oversize stem would work Nicely. outer sleeve tube made to suit.

BruceMetras

Origin8 Drop Bars have been popular for years for adding drops to flatbars..very simple install..

thugpipe

well the issues with drop bar ends I see are that you have no access to the controls in the drops and if you like positioning your hands on the hoods you are kinda SOL assuming you are keeping all the original components. on a positive note you could get a set of Origin8 Stash Bar IIs with your drop bar ends and it would work out to almost exactly the same size as a normal set of 42cm drops but they would break down nice for travel although those bars do get crowded with levers and shifters installed. The flat bars standard to the bike probably would have to be cut down quite a bit to get a decent width for drops.

fietsbob

+ the grip over the clamp is painful, for your hands, the top curve of a drop bar is Not.

And I note in a reply in another thread, Your daughter did not find the fold size of her montague to be that convenient in actual Use .

bhkyte

Your better off without drops on folders for compact fold in most cases.

I use upside down drops, cut down to be low profile type bars. Sort of like a bulbar but with upright brakes.