Drop bar conversion - Giant Rapid 1

sharepointalex

Hi Guys,

I'm new here having recently got into cycling due to not being able to drive for a while. I bought a Giant Rapid 1 thinking this would be the perfect commuter bike for commuting to and from work. That is is however i've now got into road cycling so want a road bike!

Selling and buying a road bike isn't feasible and I've managed to source some parts for free so will be carrying out a drop bar conversion.

I'm planning on buying and fitting the below -

Drop bar & Stem - 3T 90mm (to account for the fact that the Giant has a 2cm longer top tube) and Ergonova compact bars
Shifters - ST-R405 Tiagra (shifters only)
Calipers - http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shim ... prod119978 x 2 due to the Giant frame being post mount not flat mount
Discs - re-use existing Tektro discs
Brake pads
Bar tape

Is there anything I've missed or that won't work? The shifters are yet to be released (next month now apparently) and according to Shimano, those shifters are compatible with those calipers.

Cheers

Alex

Semantik

If you are after the Tiagra hydraulic levers you will find they won't be cheap. Not sure who sells them atm but imagine with the calipers you will be paying best part of £350 for your conversion. And your top tube (unless you bought a smallish frame for your height) will,as you say, be too long.Is it really worth doing? You could keep your hybrid and have a brand new Defy 3 or 4 for £400 that fits correctly.

sharepointalex

Semantik wrote:

If you are after the Tiagra hydraulic levers you will find they won't be cheap. Not sure who sells them atm but imagine with the calipers you will be paying best part of £350 for your conversion. And your top tube (unless you bought a smallish frame for your height) will,as you say, be too long.Is it really worth doing? You could keep your hybrid and have a brand new Defy 3 or 4 for £400 that fits correctly.

Fair comments but the levers on their own should be reasonable RRP - i'd imagine not much more than the RS685's - http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shim ... prod119979.

The calipers I require are about £30 each.

The stem and bars are free and the shorter stem will account for the longer top tube.

As for a brand new Defy 3 or 4, the Rapid 1 is a better bike in terms of spec anyway so when converted it would be more like a Defy Disc.

sharepointalex

Meant to add - part of the reason for the conversion is that it will be a one of a kind bike as well which I quite like the idea of.

daniel_b

I bought a pre-converted Marin Highway One - not sure if they still make it, but it was a top of the line Marin hybrid, around £1000 worth, carbon forks, rear stays, and 10spd Shimano 105 - a very nice bit of kit, but admittedly not that light.

I have made it fit me with a 60mm stem, and inline seatpost, but the frame geometry has never quite been ideal, but I didn't realise that until I bought a roadbike that fitted properly, which was a revelation, both in terms of comfort, and speed to a lesser extent.

I'm now sending the Marin to Mauritius (Goes on Wednesday) so I have a bike to ride when I go to see my parents.

Personally, having ridden a converted bike, I would say to save your money, and either keep it AND buy a pukka road bike, or flog it and buy a road bike, though I do appreciate the idea behind a unique bike, but equally if you want to do that, you could buy a frame, and spec all of the components individually?