"Hybridized hybrid" "Über-hybrid" "Inbred?"

Show us your flat-bar to drop conversion

I'm just getting started with mine...inspire me!

Well, this isn't a conversion, it was born this way, but it is a hybrid with drops (a marriage made in heaven, IMO, so be inspired). Good luck with your project.

I'll play here is my '07 Sirrus Drop bar conversion.



Couple things to note: if you plan to use brifters and your hybrid has v-brakes you're going to need travel agents to have enough cable pull. Second you may require a front derailleur swap as well. Front derailleurs in Shimano's hybrid line don't play well with brifters. IRC's Alpina derailur does work though.

Otherwise your going to need Cane Creek's V-brake friendly levers and barcon shifters
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Isn't a hybrid with drops basically just a cx bike?

A drop bar hybrid. Bought in 2002, converted 2010.

I don't know much about cyclocross bikes, I think they have different geometry, probably tighter wheelbase, steeper angles than a typical hybrid. Lighter than the average hybrid too, they are meant to be race machines. Once you put a rack on a CX it becomes slightly hybridized in my opinion and the lines get blurred.

A hybrid drop bar conversion resembles a touring bike much more than it resembles a cross bike. Cannondale sold the same frame I have with drop bars and called it a touring bike.

The only picture I have of my drop bar conversion, a 1985 Ross Mt. Hood.


Yes it was a race bike, but also a city bike, etc. It even had fenders and generator lights on it at one point, and there probably was a rack on it when this picture was taken.

To get my hands in the same position as they were on the flat bars, I used a tall, short reach stem. Mountain bikes and hybrids have longer top tubes than road bikes and this should be considered if you don't want to change your position.

So glad to see another thread on this subject. It's heartwarming to see hybrids relieved of their hybridness. Salvation!

You must convert your first flat bar bike to drops.

It's a rule. I never rode the Ross with flat bars. I left the stock handlebar and the MTB stem, brake and shift levers in the store in exchange for credit towards the purchase of the bike equipped with touring bike parts.

I'm too cheap to buy bar-end shifters or STI shifters, so i just put my old ones on the drop-bars, total cost of conversion ~$50

I have other photos, but they are too large to upload.
Good luck with your project, and post some pics when you are done

i'm happy to see that the outcomes tend to look natural, not like a weird boxy frame with drops slapped on top...of course, n=4 (so far) Everyone seems to like an upward sloping stem..is that because you don't want to lose the upright-ish position?

MORE PICS!

OOOOH, NOW i see it. Shame it's so dark back there, but what can you do about a picture on newsprint.

Hummn! Hard to say entirely.. I see the whole thing as a Venn Diagram. With Hybrids inheriting the grey middle between all classic "Types" of bike.

Not in my case. It was because when I got the bike with flat bars, it fit perfectly right off the showroom floor, including the slight rearward sweep of the bars. With drop bars, though (and bullhorns, for that matter) the hand position on the tops is a couple inches forward from the center of the bars. When I did my conversion, I went from the original stem which was probably 110 mm to one that's no more than 90 mm and still has an upward angle.

Before and after:

Converted hybrids turn out to be really comfortable touring bikes. And a reasonable alternative to a CX. So there you go again, it pretty much handles all corners of bicycling.

Not really. Since people tend to spend most of the time on the hoods, or in the drops, the position is much more aggressive than before. That is the reason many people buy new, shorter stems on their conversion. I kept my stem, because I wanted to keep the price down and get a more aero position.

I'll be keeping mine, at least initially, for the same reason. But, once I have the conversion complete I may play with a shorter stem to fit. I know that the new position is more aggressive even with the old stems, but not as aggressive as with a new, more road-like shorter and/or downward slopping stem. Maybe it's a process? Do people start with the original stem and move to a shorter one later (like i expect to do)?

I had to start with a new stem anyway because this bike was the only one that had a 25.4 bar in the first place, and I had a handful of 31.8 stems and some bars on hand. But, I tried the original length, and switched to the shorter one within two or three rides.

Different bars, different position, so expect a different stem. I'd say the same thing about switching to trekking/butterfly bars, bars with a different sweep, etc.

I think the word shorter is being used in two different ways here, for reach and rise. Neither is wrong, but read carefully to avoid confusion. From the context, it's fairly easy to see what the word means in the above posts. Shorter rise = more aggressive position. Shorter reach = less aggressive position. If you have an aggressive position on your bike with flat bars (similar to a XC MTB racer), you will probably want to change your stem for one with a shorter reach and/or taller rise. If your bike with flat bars puts you in a more upright position (like a comfort bike), and you desire a more aggressive position, a stem change might not be necessary.

Be advised that a hybrid frame is typically longer that a road frame, so a road-like stem will put you in a more aggresive position than it would on a road bike. Looking at road bikes to determine what your stem should look like isn't such a good idea.

huh...hadn't thought of that. I plan to get my bike fit to me when i finish the conversion, i'm sure i can get a hand working out the details then.

More pics!

I've decided I'm going to convert my 2011 Sirrus after seeing a couple of conversion threads. They don't look nearly as weird as I thought they would.

blue dada dee dabba dai...

looks nice!

I use "shorter" or "longer" for reach. For rise, I would be saying "higher" or "lower".

It's pretty straightforward why I went with a shorter stem when switching to drops. With the Bianchi's original flat bars, which had a slight sweep, my hands were a bit behind the center clamp. With any drop bars or bullhorns, my hands would be ahead of the center clamp. To adjust the position to me, the shorter stem brings the bars' center rearwards, putting the hoods basically in the same place that the flat bars' grips used to be.

Exactly what I was trying to do with my drop bar conversion. Yours looks marvelous by the way!

Just made the decision today to learn to do my conversion myself (after getting a second quote on the labor at my LBS that was twice what they originally said). Anyone have any idea what special tools I'm gonna need?