Putting drops on a flat bar

BapperNI

Hi everyone this is my first post so I hope someone can help.

I have a 10 month old ridgeback flight 01. I bought it as I didn't think I was ready for a drop bar, but now I can see that I may have made a mistake.

What's the general opinion on me putting a drop bar on it but keeping all the original shifters and levers.

I'm thinking this is a bit more cost effective to see if I'm comfortable with the new bars rather than changing everything and paying around £250 for sti's and everything else.

I have toyed with getting a new bike but at the minute it's just not financially viable but hope that changing the bar would be a good stop gap.


Any thoughts on this would be great.

Thanks

simon_masterson

It can be done, but it's a royal pain in the neck, and usually costs more than you might think. If you did manage to get the existing shifters and levers onto a new set of drops, it would be a bodge job.

It would also change the handling - drops are great but they work best on frames with geometry designed for them. I'm not saying it wouldn't work on that bike.

Initialised

I've seen that done on a flight, nearly bought it!

You'll need:
Front Shifter
Rear shifter
Rear Mech
Cassette

Might as well go 9 speed (an 8 speed hub will take it)

tincaman

When you fit the drop handlebars, your reach will change quite a lot, it may feel like the bike is now too big for you.

holiver

Yeah bikes designed around flat bars tend to have a longer reach. If you put drop bars on a bike that fits as a flat bar it is likely to have too large a reach.

markhewitt1978

BapperNI wrote:

What's the general opinion on me putting a drop bar on it but keeping all the original shifters and levers.

Two main issues there. Firstly that drop bars are generally use wider tubing than flat bars, so your shifters and levers won't necessarily fit. So you'll have to find a drop bar which is narrow enough to take them.

Secondly, the main riding position on drops is on the hoods, which puts you in the right place for braking and shifting etc, obviously you wouldn't have any hoods as you're using your existing equipment, that just means you'll be riding on the tops which is just the same as flat bars, or on the drops, but that would be dangerous because you'll be nowhere near your brakes!

That's a really nice looking bike btw

lostboysaint

Easiest way to find out whether it's REALLY for you is to put some "bullhorn" bars on and get used to riding on those - the position of the horns will be similar to the hoods on drop bars. It also means that you can continue to run your existing shifters/brake levers on the flat section. Something like the Charge Slice or the Deda Crononero (low).

BapperNI

That's a really nice looking bike btw [/quote]


Thanks for the advice guys I'm going to try and get rid of it and i am leaning towards a Scott speedster 60.

Even though i will be really sorry to let it go