louky

I got the first one done today. I went to the co-op and found this set of bars with the levers and stem for $7, and they threw in the set of grips (I will try to clean them up). I also got another set of similar bars w/o the levers for $2. The only other parts I used were a front and back cable. I used the old housing as they were a match to the shifter housings. I ran into a problem with a stiff RD but got that sorted on another thread. I am going to use the straight MB bars on the 2nd bike for a comparison to see how I like it. The bars are a big improvement over the drop bars for me, and I think it will be a better fit for the end user. Thanks for all the help thus far.

squirtdad

despite my previous why bother comments

kudos

for 7 bucks that is a good way to go, minimal change, you get the experience and nicely done

Kapusta

Ignore the haters

I would leave the shifting as is. Bar swap and brake lever swap should be pretty cheap and easy. Lots of old short pull levers out there.

I think you are totally correct in thinking that a flat bar will be more useful for the intended customer than drop bars.

robobike316 

Nice job, it looks great and now a functional, comfortable,vintagish, city bike soon to find a new owner that cost you what? Roughly $10 and a couple hours work.

louky

This is the stable mate to the bike pictured above. I decided to utilize the donated straight bars on this one. I had to purchase the stem adaptor to use the bars. I also bought a set of cheap levers from amazon as I am planning on donating both these bikes this Sunday. This puts the parts on this one at about $24. It is comfortable to ride, but slightly less upright than the mustache bars. I think I prefer the look of the first one.

grumpus

I'm surprised you managed to find short pull levers among all the lovely bargains on Amazon - most of the item descriptions don't seem very useful.