Flat Bar Conversion Project

bendertherobot

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19642183#p19642183]Veronese68[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19642083#p19642083]bendertherobot[/url] wrote:

If I do go ahead how much would you want for that brake?

£20 plus post, I think I pay £3 for posting from here. I'll PM you.
Regarding your front mech you may have to use a road mech, but check if pull ratio is the same. I'm not sure on that. What do they use on things like a flat bar London Road with Shimano?

Ta again. So that's a brake sorted. I'm taking my time.

On the front mech, unfortunately, the London Road as a point of reference has SRAM road shifters (flat bar stylee) with an Apex mech.

I guess there's an outside chance that a Shimano XT shifter SHOULD move an Apex mech......

ugo.santalucia

I might be tempted to snatch one of those Hy RD you have for sale for my rear (if silver)... although at the moment I'm so skint that even new pads appear a luxury

bendertherobot

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19642979#p19642979]ugo.santalucia[/url] wrote:

I might be tempted to snatch one of those Hy RD you have for sale for my rear (if silver)... although at the moment I'm so skint that even new pads appear a luxury

Black I am afraid. (I don't like the black, to be fair..........)

veronese68

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19642974#p19642974]bendertherobot[/url] wrote:

On the front mech, unfortunately, the London Road as a point of reference has SRAM road shifters (flat bar stylee) with an Apex mech.

I guess there's an outside chance that a Shimano XT shifter SHOULD move an Apex mech......

Stopped in Evans on the way home and noticed a bike with XT rear mech and a SRAM front using SLX shifters. It was an MTB with a 44 and an X7 MTB front mech though.
But that is no help at all.

bendertherobot

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19643255#p19643255]Veronese68[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19642974#p19642974]bendertherobot[/url] wrote:

On the front mech, unfortunately, the London Road as a point of reference has SRAM road shifters (flat bar stylee) with an Apex mech.

I guess there's an outside chance that a Shimano XT shifter SHOULD move an Apex mech......

Stopped in Evans on the way home and noticed a bike with XT rear mech and a SRAM front using SLX shifters. It was an MTB with a 44 and an X7 MTB front mech though.
But that is no help at all.

Don't worry. Worst case I'll end up with a 105 mech or something.

handful

Cable pulle on the front mech on SRAM is the same as Shimano, rear derailleur is different, Shimano requires more pull. I use an Ultegra FD with SRAM shifters with no issue, with both STI and my flatbar shifters.

bendertherobot

Yeah, it's just a wire on the FD after all. Move it out. Locks it.

I'm umming and ahhing over the best method.

IF I went Shimano then I'd be completest and get XT rear and front mech and shifters. Cost, around £100. Obviously I'd sell my rear mech to offset (and am already selling the shifters).

So, on that basis, the SRAM doubletap 10 at CRC less 10% BC discount at £85 seem to be the sensible option. I know that they will work.

handful

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19643709#p19643709]bendertherobot[/url] wrote:

Yeah, it's just a wire on the FD after all. Move it out. Locks it.

I'm umming and ahhing over the best method.

IF I went Shimano then I'd be completest and get XT rear and front mech and shifters. Cost, around £100. Obviously I'd sell my rear mech to offset (and am already selling the shifters).

So, on that basis, the SRAM doubletap 10 at CRC less 10% BC discount at £85 seem to be the sensible option. I know that they will work.

I would say the "sensible" option would be SRAM SL700 for considerably less than that.

Seriously though, you would get used to them in about 5 minutes (or less) and they work a treat. :P

Ouija

I'd agree with that. Doubletaps increase the amount of work you have to do to change gears rather than decreasing it. Unlike SRAM dual lever designs which are more minimalist in operation.

bendertherobot

The problem being I don't like the way SRAM flat bar work. I had them on my MTB. Shimano is very natural. Push one to go up, pull back another to release and go down.

To avoid this SRAM had to do push to do both. So, where I'd use my thumb to go up on shimano and one of my other fingers to release (the 2nd shifter), on SRAM I find that I have to use my thumb for both, so for the 2nd shifter I have to move it under the first.

veronese68

Shimano now have 2 way release, certainly on SLX and XT, so you can use your index finger to pull or your thumb to push. Now that I've had it for a little while I do sometimes use the thumb to push. This works well, until I get onto my old Marin and try to push the old 8 speed levers.
I still think Shimano and ispecB is the way to go to minimise bar clutter. I'll post the brake today.

Ouija

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19644847#p19644847]bendertherobot[/url] wrote:

The problem being I don't like the way SRAM flat bar work. I had them on my MTB. Shimano is very natural. Push one to go up, pull back another to release and go down.

To avoid this SRAM had to do push to do both. So, where I'd use my thumb to go up on shimano and one of my other fingers to release (the 2nd shifter), on SRAM I find that I have to use my thumb for both, so for the 2nd shifter I have to move it under the first.

I get where your coming from but doubletaps, with only one lever, are even worse than dual thumbs for thumb movement.

For instance, i own double tap flat bar shifters and SRAM X0 shifters on some bikes (as well as Shimano Deore). Both have a big lever that is not a fixed part of the shifter but is actually held on by a compression ring and allen key allowing you to set where the big lever sits in relation to the bar (and the smaller shift lever in the case of the X0). You can set the lever parallel with the bars or have it sticking so far out it looks like it might impale you when you get out of the saddle. Bear this in mind.

With the X0's the amount of distance you have to push the big lever to go up the cassette is so small that i have the lever almost parallel with the bar. Consequently, i don't have to loosen my right hand and move my thumb back that far in order to push the lever, nor do i have to rotate my wrist down if i want to push the lever far enough to do jumps of four or five teeth at a time.

Compare this with the massive distance you have to push the double taps to change gears. The first click always take you down the cassette so you need to push further to do just one jump up the cassette. But even allowing for this the distances you have to push the lever for each individual change after that is still larger than on my X0's (and X9's, come to that). Consequently, you end up setting the lever sticking quite far out from the bar so that you can do one or two gear changes in a single push without having to twist your wrist down (as if you were revving a motorbike throttle).

So.. more effort involved going up the cassette to the bigger rings.

And then there is coming back down the cassette to the smaller rings.....

With the X0's, X9's etc the little lever sits right where your thumb tip is under the grips so you can move down the cassette without moving your hand at all. With the double taps you have to unhook your thumb from under the bar, pull your thumb all the way back (because we've set the lever far out from the bar, remember) and tap it to it's first position to do the shift before putting your thumb back under the bar. Which, again is more effort.

In fact, i can guarantee that after a couple of days you'll just leave your right hand slackly resting on the top of the grip and have your thumb permanently resting across the top of the double taps lever to prevent all this thumb waggling, leaving only your left hand gripping the bar and taking all the weight (causing your left hand to ache a lot).

Don't get me wrong, i love my double taps (got em new for £35 from a shop that didn't realize they cost closer to a hundred) but when in comes to economical use of your fingers it's definitely Shimano Deore, closely followed by SRAM X0 (due to the configurability of where big lever sits in reference to the little one), followed by SRAM X9 (the lever is where it is and can't be changed), followed by SRAM flat bar double taps (the most effortful shifters of them all).

bendertherobot

Right, I did it. I hope. Another Deore brake. A set of SLX dyna sys I spec shifters. All spec B. And a medium cage SLX mech. Will leave the Apex front on for now and see what happens. Ordered some bars from On One, cos they was cheap.

Hopefully report this weekend..............

bendertherobot

All the parts are in. Shifters and brakes installed to bars. Ready to go on tonight. So far ridiculously easy. Brakes should be easy to install. Ditto gears (!).

Inevitably the brake hoses will be too long. So off to the LBS to sort that one out I think.

bendertherobot

Well, it looks lovely, but the brakes are a pig to setup currently. Will leave that to the LBS. I'm sure they will work very well. Will sort the gearing out tomorrow.........

bendertherobot

Better now. Used TRP bolts instead of the Shimano ones (which are very long). Rattly but should be fettleable. Might need new rotors. Just in case. etc.

veronese68

Pictures?

bendertherobot

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19652048#p19652048]Veronese68[/url] wrote:

Pictures?

I'll do that once I've done the gear cables. It will look awful for a time because the hoses are so long!

veronese68

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19652163#p19652163]bendertherobot[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19652048#p19652048]Veronese68[/url] wrote:

Pictures?

I'll do that once I've done the gear cables. It will look awful for a time because the hoses are so long!

After several attempts at cutting hoses when fitting the Parabox and when building up the MTB I reckon there's a fair degree of luck in wether or not you need to bleed the brakes after cutting a hose. If you're very careful you might not have to. I think I had about a 50% strike rate. If you decide to do it yourself get a bleed kit from Epic Bleed Solutions. If you need more fluid Shimano fluid is the same as LHM which you can buy from a motor factors.

bendertherobot

Shimano lh shifter shifts an apex front mech very well. Brakes are fine, just need cutting. It feels lighter than it did. Much lighter.

bendertherobot

veronese68

Good, glad it all works happily together. Be interesting to hear how you find the ride on the same bike with flats as opposed to drops.

bendertherobot

A 20 metre ride around the street, hampered by loose hoses, felt very lovely. Will be an interesting experiment.

I can certainly see the flat bar attraction and, dare I say it, I could, at least in theory, see some advantages in converting my Flanders CX to a flat bar (given that I am always at the back and it all feels a bit more stable). Theoretically anyway.

bendertherobot

It's back. Pics soon. Brakes are excellent. Gears (shimano) took slightly more fettling than Apex. But ok now, I think.

Will try it for commute tomorrow.

One thing, on first glance, Deore brakes seem to be a smaller form factor than BB7/Trp Hy Rd etc and, I think, may be possible to fit the mudguards back on without any special bending or spacers etc.

zanelad

I like that very much. Can you post a picture of it with the brake lines sorted please.

Might one enquire as to the final cost of the conversion?

Thanks

Z.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Has anyone here converted a Specialized Tricross Singlecross to a flatbar?

Or perhaps converted the same bike to have a new disc fork and front disc wheel conversion?

bendertherobot

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19662418#p19662418]Zanelad[/url] wrote:

I like that very much. Can you post a picture of it with the brake lines sorted please.

Might one enquire as to the final cost of the conversion?

Thanks

Z.

Will do later!

Cost was: Brakes £23 plus £35 (one used, but you'd never know). SLX shifters £35. Bars, stem and grips £40. Mech £35. So, all in that's £168.

Sold, TRP's for £120, Apex shifters for £50 and mech for £35. So that's £205. Hence I'm actually up at that point. Sale of stem offset the LBS cost. Still have the bars. Could make another £20 there.

bendertherobot

apreading

That's looking pretty good!

bendertherobot

Goes well. Think I've ironed out the indexing. Not QUITE as easy as SRAM. But seems to be 99% there.