Your help please!

Billy94

I'm new to this forum and fairly new to cycling in general so please excuse my lack of knowledge. I've been wanting to buy a road bike for a while so we went to Halfords (first mistake!!!) to look for a bike for christmas. I had a budget of £350 and had my eyes set on a Carrera Virtuoso. The guy in the store managed to persuade me to buy a Carrera Gryphon instead (very similar just with flat bars) as he seemed to think it would be better for my use and a better way to get me into cycling as drop-down bars can be hard to get used to. I've already purchased the bike so I can't change that now but I'm having second thoughts about the flat bars and I wondering if I could switch the flat bars to drop-down road bike bars. I've heard this is very expensive to do as you have to change the shifters. Would I have to get new shifters etc. if I chose to keep the gears and brakes on the top of the bars as this is the riding position I will probably use most?
Thanks in advance.
Billy.

sods_law

If you have yet to recieve the bike, I would ask Halfords to stop the order, and exchange for the Virtuoso. Say you were talked into something you didn't want to hindsight. The bikes are stock bikes, not specials, can't see it being a problem.

I started road cycling earlier this year, and it took maybe 20 mins to get used to using road bars? After that, they are much more comfortable for longer rides.

It depends what you intend to use the bike for?

Billy94

sods_law wrote:

If you have yet to recieve the bike, I would ask Halfords to stop the order, and exchange for the Virtuoso. Say you were talked into something you didn't want to hindsight. The bikes are stock bikes, not specials, can't see it being a problem.

I started road cycling earlier this year, and it took maybe 20 mins to get used to using road bars? After that, they are much more comfortable for longer rides.

It depends what you intend to use the bike for?

Well the bike is mainly for simply riding to school in the weekdays (approx 3 miles) and then longer rides at the weekend, ranging fomr 15 to about 50 miles. The bike has been picked up I'm afraid.

ride_whenever

has it been used?

It is doable, but it will be very expensive unless you go for bar end shifters, you'll struggle to get the flat bar shifters round the curves of the bar.

Billy94

ride_whenever wrote:

has it been used?

It is doable, but it will be very expensive unless you go for bar end shifters, you'll struggle to get the flat bar shifters round the curves of the bar.

No it hasn't. I'm debating whether to take it back or not. I only gave it a quick ride in the shop so I'm not sure how I will get on with the flat bars to be honest. If I buy some bar ends then this will give me a different position when needed. So, the problem will be trying to get the shifters around the curves of the bar. Correct?

John.T

Flat and drop bars are a different diameter so the shifters and brake levers will not fit. Bar ends or new shifters and drops are the only option.

skyd0g

Billy94 wrote:

ride_whenever wrote:

has it been used?

It is doable, but it will be very expensive unless you go for bar end shifters, you'll struggle to get the flat bar shifters round the curves of the bar.

No it hasn't. I'm debating whether to take it back or not. I only gave it a quick ride in the shop so I'm not sure how I will get on with the flat bars to be honest. If I buy some bar ends then this will give me a different position when needed. So, the problem will be trying to get the shifters around the curves of the bar. Correct?

Take the bike back with your receipt ASAP & ask them to exchange it for the Virtuoso model with drops. There is no cheap way to convert the gear levers from flat bars to drops. A bike with drops will be far better suited to the longer rides that you intend to do.

It is possible the sales guy 'guided' you into getting the Gryphon, because they didn't have stock of the Virtuoso. If they don't have the Virtuoso in stock in your size when you go back, ask for a credit note instead.

Lycra Man

Billy,
I agree with the advice above, that you should definitely get the bike you want, whether it has flat bars or drops.
If you chose flat bars, don't think that will limit you to short rides, because I have ridden several 200k and 300k Audax rides on my Ridgeback Meteor which has flat bars and bar ends.
There is a lot of snobbery about bikes with drop handlebars. Just make up your mind as to which you find more comfortable. It's you going to be riding it, no-one else.
Lycra Man

Billy94

Lycra Man wrote:

Billy,
I agree with the advice above, that you should definitely get the bike you want, whether it has flat bars or drops.
If you chose flat bars, don't think that will limit you to short rides, because I have ridden several 200k and 300k Audax rides on my Ridgeback Meteor which has flat bars and bar ends.
There is a lot of snobbery about bikes with drop handlebars. Just make up your mind as to which you find more comfortable. It's you going to be riding it, no-one else.
Lycra Man

Thanks for your help. I think, I will stick to the flat barred bike and see how I get on with it for now, I might really like it! I spoke to the store and if I really don't like it, they would be happy to let me upgrade. Also, I found these handy drop-bar ends, I don't know how well they would work but I'm thinking of adding these to the flat barred bike as it is essentially a road bike just without road handlebars. This could be a way round it if I wanted an easy drop down bar solution. I know they aren't going to be the highest quality, but they'll do!

jgsi

Just fit some bar ends like these
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/speciali ... 32608.html

They will give you at least one other hand position and are not going to break the bank...
Putting those curved ones tho' are going to make your bike look a bit of a mongrel

macondo01

Yep get the simpler looking ones suggested by JGSI - those others are overly complicated and will look odd. Others are much cooler!!

Heckler1974

Bar ends and if you really want to you could clip on some aero bars and pretend you do triathlons:

http://www.discountbicycles.co.uk/biz/product.php/5148/4068/raleigh_triathlon_clip_on_bars/b752b7c17d06d30f9411277846915416

ride_whenever

in the lbs where i work sometimes, we have the mothers of all bar ends, they have to prongs, one going up like the JEJAMES link, and the other being a drop!

Billy94

Thanks for the advice everyone. I visited my cycle shop today and bpught some bar ends (as suggested by JGSI), I splased out a bit and bought some fancy carbon fibre ones! I think these on the flat bars will be fine for the riding I do, so I'll see how it goes on my Christmas Day bike ride! Thanks again.

HonestAl

Well done Billy94, good luck with your new bike, have fun getting out on it, sounds like you've got a lot of years ahead of you so plenty of time to get bitten by the bug and get bike after bike after bike with all sorts of shaped bars. Have a good ride Christmas Day!!!

Billy94

John.T wrote:

Flat and drop bars are a different diameter so the shifters and brake levers will not fit. Bar ends or new shifters and drops are the only option.

Just a question relating back to this thread . . . . what diameter are straight bars, and what diameter are drop bars? Surely there are ways for accomodating for each i.e. if the bar was fatter than the straight then you could bulk it out with tape, or sand it down if it was thinner. Sorry for bringing it up again, just a thought.

pianoman

You're thinking or the two options: Standard and Oversize. Standard bars are about 26mm in diameter and oversize are 31.8 (give or take 0.1 here or there). What bars does your bike come with? It's possible to get both diameters in flat bars too.

Billy94

PianoMan wrote:

You're thinking or the two options: Standard and Oversize. Standard bars are about 26mm in diameter and oversize are 31.8 (give or take 0.1 here or there). What bars does your bike come with? It's possible to get both diameters in flat bars too.

I haven't even recieved the bike yet as it's for a christmas present, and can't find any info on the net.

John.T

Billy94 wrote:

John.T wrote:

Flat and drop bars are a different diameter so the shifters and brake levers will not fit. Bar ends or new shifters and drops are the only option.

Just a question relating back to this thread . . . . what diameter are straight bars, and what diameter are drop bars? Surely there are ways for accomodating for each i.e. if the bar was fatter than the straight then you could bulk it out with tape, or sand it down if it was thinner. Sorry for bringing it up again, just a thought.

Flat bars are 22.2mm and drops are 23.8mm. Not sure why but it makes mixing things up a bit complicated. I can understand the thicker drop bar as it has a greater length but why the flat ones are not the same I do not know. At least they both come with 31.8 stem clamp now.

Billy94

John.T wrote:

Billy94 wrote:

John.T wrote:

Flat and drop bars are a different diameter so the shifters and brake levers will not fit. Bar ends or new shifters and drops are the only option.

Just a question relating back to this thread . . . . what diameter are straight bars, and what diameter are drop bars? Surely there are ways for accomodating for each i.e. if the bar was fatter than the straight then you could bulk it out with tape, or sand it down if it was thinner. Sorry for bringing it up again, just a thought.

Flat bars are 22.2mm and drops are 23.8mm. Not sure why but it makes mixing things up a bit complicated. I can understand the thicker drop bar as it has a greater length but why the flat ones are not the same I do not know. At least they both come with 31.8 stem clamp now.

Ok, surely I could manage to lose or gain a mm?

pianoman

You could gain a mm I guess, if a shim would permit you to do so.

You can't make a thick bar thinner though!

Billy94

PianoMan wrote:

You could gain a mm I guess, if a shim would permit you to do so.

You can't make a thick bar thinner though!

Well thankfully I only need to make it thicker, if it's only by a mm then a couple of layers of tape should do the trick or shim as you mentioned. If I was desperate to make it thinner then I could always try sanding it down

John.T

Billy94 wrote:

PianoMan wrote:

You could gain a mm I guess, if a shim would permit you to do so.

You can't make a thick bar thinner though!

Well thankfully I only need to make it thicker, if it's only by a mm then a couple of layers of tape should do the trick or shim as you mentioned. If I was desperate to make it thinner then I could always try sanding it down

You were talking of going from flat bars to drops. The drops are thicker so you would need to make them 1.6mm thinner. That much would remove about half the thickness of an average drop bar. Don't even think about it.