Hello everyone, I am a new user here, and just had a question about whether or not a set of shifters would be compatible with my current setup. I recently bought a Giant Rapid 3 https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-ca/...ow/5400/39715/ and it turns out the flat bar just isn't doing it for me. I'd like to convert it to a drop bar, but the integrated brakes and shifters are just too costly for me to consider right now.

Thus I've been looking at bar end shifters. The ones available at my LBS are only newer models and are still quite a bit more expensive than I'd like. They recommended I look online to see if I could find older models that would potentially cost less, and I seem to keep coming up with these Shimano 8 speed shifters https://www.jensonusa.com/store/produ...+Shifters.aspx

Would these have any problems with compatibility? I don't see why not but I'm still new to cycling and wanted some more opinions before spending about $60 on the shifters.

Your Giant is Shimano 8s, so you'll be good to go. You can find 8s Sora STI, but used, usually about $40-$50 on ebay. With the bar-ends you'll be able to trim the FD, something you can't do with Sora. Used Tiagra/105 8s will probably run you more than the bar-ends, but you might get lucky.

Thanks for the reply, but now I'm not sure what to do. On one hand the bar ends are nice because they're new and have the option to use friction shifting, but on the other the STIs are convenient and will take away the need for seperate brake levers. Well nothing will ship until monday anyway so I guess I have the weekend to ponder. Thanks again!

I had an old OCR3 https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/...ad/1243/29271/ which was 8 speed and had thumb shifters. You could look into what parts that one had? It came with a drop bar. I guess you would have been better off getting a Defy3? If your bike is still in like new (and re-sellable) condition, you could probably bring it back and ask to exchange and pay the difference.

It's been a bit too long now to think about exchanging and it's not quite in "new" condition, no damage, but have definately got some use out of it. I'm happy enough with the bike and it will cost pretty close to the difference of the Defy3 to get all the components anyway. In hindsight it probably would have been better to look at the Defy, but at the time I had never tried drop bars and figured that wasn't what I wanted. *sigh* I'm not too torn up about it however.

Consider the fitting issue before making that change. Flat bar rames will usually have a longer TT and more reach than a frame that's built to use drop bars.

You'll probably need short reach drop bars and a shorter stem to make up the difference in reach created by the drop bars and extended brake hood.

I had actually read this before but didn't think about checking the actual lengths. My current top tube is 59.5 and the similar model that comes with drop bars is 57.5. Keeping in mind that I have a fairly long reach, do you think this would make a huge difference?

if the STAs are the same, then obviously a 20mm shorter stem is needed.

That makes sense. I guess I can always try out the existing stem though to see if it's necessary. You're probably right, but I'd rather not spend the money if I don't have to.

i did the same thing you did. bought the rapid, loved the way it rode, then got road bike envy. in the end i got a 2nd bike but I can tell you that Microshift has shifters that are much less than sora and BETTER than sora that will work on your setup although no matter what set of shifters you switch too, you will need to change your front derailleur unless you decide to use friction on the front.

Also, don't be afraid to buy 9 speed shifters, you can make them work with your 8 speed setup or you can just buy a cheap 9speed casette to put on your rear wheel and convert to drop bars with 9 speeds. you can probably sell your old shifters and casette to recoup money on the swap.

So, a stupid question. Would the left shifter from this set https://www.microshift.biz/pviewitem1...ea=51&cat=175## be able to run friction? The price isn't terrible on these as it would cost about the same as getting the bar ends and brake levers anyway. Anyone else have anything good or bad to say about Microshift?

no modern "brifter" is designed to run friction. Only bar ends or some type of downtube/stem shifters give you the ability to use friction. If I went the microshift route, they are so cheap that I would either buy the 9 or 10 speed version and then buy a cheap new 9 or 10 speed casette. While many people feel that anything over 8 speeds in the back is really unnecessary, from a resale perspective, your going to be able to get more for the bike by saying it's a 27 or 30 speed than saying it's a 24 speed.

If you look at the reviews on nashbars website they are almost all positive. Nashbar is constantly changing the price on these. some days I have seen them there at $129 other days (like today) they are at $159. If you aren't on nashbars mailing list, you should do so, they are constantly having some type of sale, typically anywhere from 10-25% off sales, sometimes $20 off a single item and sometimes they have combo sales where you can use both. A couple of weeks ago they had 20% off any single item as well as 20% off all orders over $75 so those shifters could be had for about $100

So not to beat a dead horse or anything, but finally made the switch. I just stopped thinking about it for the past few months and one day found a new pair of Sora 3300s on ebay at around $70. Of course now it's pretty late in the year and will be putting this bike away when the snow actually sticks, but it's set for next year anyway. Thanks to everyone who posted

Well, now that you have me hooked to reading this soap opera, what did you go with for the bars and stem?

My apologies, haha. I ended up staying with same stem it came stock with (inverted to reduce height) and the bars are FSA Omega compact that I picked up cheap to get started with

Did the reach end up being correct with the stem? I ended up going about 2 cm shorter when I converted my city bike to drops.

I don't necessarily know about "correct" but I have no problems with how it's set up. Like I said before I have a fairly long reach and it didn't feel awkward or uncomfortable at all so I left it as is for now...