Convert Hybrid to Road bike
 

I have 2009 Raleigh Cadent FT1 bike and planning to convert it to road bike.I had a Shimano ST-2203 3x8spd shifter/brake bought it from my friend w/o cable and a 42cm 31.8mm road dropbar bought from ebay.Can i change the mountain brake caliper to road bike caliper which fit to my bike.Any idea or suggestion what brake caliper is the best ?

Should work fine. From the pictures of the bike, it looks like it has v-brakes on it. Those will work fine with STI shifters like you bought. Those brake calipers should have good stopping power so no need to replace them if you don't have to spend the money.

thank you knobster..but in the future if i want to change it,what road brake caliper should i use ? Because i'm afraid it will not fit on my bike if i buy a wrong road brake caliper later

i think my bike is similiar with 2009 Raleigh Grand Sport http://www.raleighusa.com/bikes/road/2009-road/grand-sport/?page=overview the only diffrence (i think) is handlebar,crankset and brake/shifter.Can i follow this setup ?

Possibly. They are different bikes and use different components. Your bike has studs on the fork for the brakes where the Grand Sport only has a hole for the caliper. You probably have the same hole, but then you'd have two empty studs on the fork. The back should have a brake bridge on your bike, but again, you're using studs for the brakes on your bike since you have v-brakes. It may very well work but I doubt I would go that route. I converted an old mountain bike with cantilever brakes and 26" wheels to 700c wheels and caliper brakes. If I could do that with my bike, you can definitely do it with yours.

Fromt he picture on the website, the bike has standard V-brakes, although the component list suggests they are "mini-V" brakes. Mini Vs should work fine, but standard length Vs will not. You might be able to set them up so they stop the bike, but they will be a pain to adjust and probably feel mushy as hell, and possibly constantly rub due to lack of clearance. Road bike brake levers are designed to pull less cable than is necessary to properly operate standard V-brakes.

Also the STI road levers probably won't work well with the Shimano Altus front derailleur - you need a road derailleur to work properly with road shifters.

You can possibly mount road caliper brakes on it, but Vs or properly set up cantilevers have more stopping power than calipers.

What kind of front derailleur should i use ? Still waiting for the brifter and dropbar(take quite long time to receive the items nearlly 3weeks :( ).

there's a thread in the Hybrid section about this. Lots of good details there.

From experience (I converted a Specialized Globe Sport Disc) I would just sell the bike and buy a road bike. I have had quite a bit of trouble and the fit has never felt 100%, I think I am getting close now but it has taken quite a bit of time!

Similar experience to the guy I am referring to at the Hybrid section where he converted his trek 7.5fx with road bars. I think it was quite well done. However he sold it and got a CX road bike instead.

The issue with linear pull brakes is they require more cable pull than STI brake levers produce. If you set them close enough to your rim that your lever doesn't bottom out, you won't be able to open them to remove your wheel. Mini V's will probably work if you use a 23 mm or narrower tire but you'll have to fiddle with a barrel adjuster or make some other modification to get them to work with anything wider. (How wide are your rims?) I hate mini V's.

Most folks report that STI's don't work well with mountain front derailleurs. If your bike has top tube cable routing, that's a whole additional issue to solve.

Honestly, when you start adding up the cost of converting to dropped handlebars, buying a whole new road bike starts to look cost effective to me.

This advice is golden. Do you think after the conversion that your 2009 Raleigh Cadent FT1 is going to weigh the same as or have as nice of components as a road bike that costs as much as your bike plus conversion costs? I will answer it for you. NO.

My build is here: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=513356 after many fit issues I shortened the stem and now it is feeling better. I don't like the bar ends so am now going with some campy levers and a shiftmate - this will also probably require travel agents for the brakes. However for me to get what I wanted in a road bike it would cost me at least £1100 this bike hasn't cost that yet. I think this will be the last thing I do to it though - I start work soon so that will be able to fund another bike which I will probably buy near the end of the year and it'll be exactly what I want! That'll be the last for a while (I know I know I say that now...!).

If you want some mechanical experience then by all means go ahead, I learnt a lot from doing it. If it is too much hassle for you to sell this bike and buy a new one, then go for it (both of these were my reasons for doing it).

But bottom line is don't expect it to feel like a road bike, my road bike feels very different but I still enjoy riding both.

I agree with daven1986 as road bikes and hybrids typically use quite different frame geometry. You can change to drop bars and brifters but it will never feel like a road bike. Most hybrids have overall geometry closer to that of older drop bar touring bike frames which means designed for comfort and stability even when carrying a load while a road frame is designed for fast handling and manuverability.

Amazing how small changes in frame angles and wheelbase can change the feel of a bike. Normally a conversion such as you want to do is more due to rider preference in riding position and handlebar type but the result will never really feel like a proper road bike would.

Yep tatfiend is right, the geometries are different. However I will always keep this bike as something to carry larger loads (I have a rack on it). Like I said though, do it for the right reasons not because you want a road bike.