Bar End Shifters
 

I am considering converting my hybrid to drop bars. I notice bar end shifters are the cheapest way to keep my current gears without having to replace them. Are there any opinions on bar end shifters vs the shifters built into SRAM and Shimano brakes?

-T Ride

My road bike has SRAM shifters and my commuter/touring bike has bar end shifters. The bar ends weren't as awkward to get used to as I thought they'd be. Now I move from bike to bike easily. I prefer the SRAM shifters, but that's entirely a personal preference.

Okay, great. Does anyone have any cheap but cost effective set ups for v brakes and hybrid/mountain bike shifting?

Here are two V-brake compatible levers I know of.

http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...5&category=669

http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...0&category=669

I have seen both of those, I think I will be getting the tektro unless there is some substantial performance difference between the two.

I'd love to know what all you do to get it riding with drops. I have an old mtb I would convert to tinker with and try and get my wife on something other than her flat bar.

Well, it's actually quite simple. First, you need V-Brake compatible brakes, unless your wife has Mini-V or Cantis (which I highly doubt). You are going to need a pair like this.
http://www.amazon.com/Tektro-RL520-B.../dp/B001IORJVU

For shifting there are a few options, you could go with bar end shifters as discussed in this topic. You can also use downtube shifters or use something like a Minoura Space bar to just mount the shifters that she already has. There are some good articles regarding this topic. You can also use brifters( brake and shifter combined ) but I believe you need to switch out your brakes and gears, which is expensive, not to mention the brifters itself can cost over $400 for quality.

After this, wrap the bar with grip tape and you're good!

Hope this info helped,

-T Ride

Don't forget to swap the stem. In addition to the fact that drops usually have a different clamp diameter than most flat bars,you'll need to compensate for the different reach. Drop bar bikes usually have shorter toptubes than flat bar bikes.

read, elsewhere, here, the pivot pin fit is a bit looser on the Tektro than the Cane Creek ..

What does this mean performance wise?

If ignored , that pin could fall out, perhaps? that would definitely effect performance ..

DNF is a poor performance.

Okay, thanks for the heads up.