It took longer than I expected, and required a mess of new parts, but it is finished. The biggest surprise for me was that I needed to replace the rear wheel entirely because the 7 speed cassette hub body was too small to put a 9 speed cassette on, and the hub body had a weird design/thread that wasn't easily replaceable without (presumably) lots of trial and error.

Sora STI 2x9 shifters (st-3400)
Sora FD
Tiagra RD
FSA Crankset (50/34, 172.5mm arms)
RPM BB (English 68mm)
Schwinn Bar
SRAM cassette (12-26)
KMC Z chain
Travel Agents
Bontrager Earl stem
Wheel


Lots of time and help from the local bike coop. In fact, I pretty much sat back and learned. (I donated all of my old components to the coop.)

The bike is super comfortable still, and I don't get hand numbness like I used to from the old bars. Plus it's nice to stretch out in the drops. The overall gearing is taller, not just from the gears, but also the longer crank arms. Previously, the small chain-ring went unused anyway, so the way it is now works beautifully.

Before:





After:





The rear travel agent did interfere with one of the rack seat post supports, so I tried to grind away enough support material for clearance. I ended up removing so much material, that I decided to just take off the support. The rack is still very stable as the support just prevented the whole thing from shifted forward and backward (The one remaining is plenty strong to keep the rack from moving.) The pictures above still show both supports in place.

For reference, I have an XL frame.

Looks great. Yeah there was a slight design change between 7 speeds and 8 speeds. I found that out too!

Thanks!

It was a bummer, because I spent nearly a month off the bike waiting on odd parts to get it finished. If I could have found a 3x7 set of brifters, this whole thing would have been much easier. I bought most of the components as a groupset off ebay from a guy that was parting out a couple of new bikes, so I was sort of locked into 2x9.

First, it looks lovely. Very nice job.

But I am also confused. Most folks do drops to get a more aggressive, and aero, riding position. By shortening your stem drastically, aren't you in the same riding position as the flats?

Looks nice.

Thanks!

I wish I had a better before shot of where the bars were in relation to the seat, they were basically even. Now the hoods are below the seat, and I should probably nudge the seat up a little more still.

I wasn't trying to fight the original geometry as it was very comfortable, so I tried to place the hoods in the same position as the old flats. They are a little lower and further out than before, but still close. As a hybrid, it already has a long top tube, so the overall reach is similar to that of a relaxed road bike. My gripe with the way things were with just flats, was that hand comfort wasn't good for anything longer than 5 miles or so. My commute is 9 miles each way, and at the end, my hands would be numb.

The bike is very comfortable right now in all positions and that's really all I could ask for. I rode about 27 miles last weekend and I didn't have any hand numbness. The drops also provide a nice stretch when starting to feel fatigued, so I probably spend more time there than on the flats. Obviously, the hoods are where I am the majority of the time.

Thanks

I just got rid of my 2010 Sirrus Sport, XL frame, and I had trouble getting the flat bars below the seat, so I know what you mean. I had stem flipped, flat bar (not riser like stock), and all the spacers up, and at best had an inch drop seat to bar. But the geometry was fairly comfy, and fairly stretched out. Mine spent its last year as a single speed, which was a fun incarnation. I had bar ends from the very beginning, so never really had an issue with hand discomfort.

Again, looks nice.

put it here https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...rop-conversion!