Been handed a hybrid, project to road bike

[Angry Blonde]

Ive been handed a hybrid bike, whats peoples thoughts in turning it into a roadie type of bike, was thinking of a project, strip, spray, add pannier, add drop bars etc and turn it into a commuting road bike ! Bear in mind its more for something to do and a winter hack

 

[vernon]

I'd leave it as it is. If you put dropped bars onto it you will need to use brake/gear shift levers. They tend not to cope with the cable pull required by the v-brakes and you'd need to fit cantilever brakes - not so easy at the back of the bike in question. I'm not sure how many sprockets there are at the back - you might have difficulty getting brake/gear levers to work with the current rear derrailleur - I could be wrong though.

Getting transmission components to match has lots of pitfalls and you'll need to do some reasearch to see if the current mechs will work with your proposed brifter levers.

There is an alternative. Using bar end gear levers set to friction rather than indexed will work your front and rear derrailleurs and simple brake levers might be available that will operate the v-brakes. Once again you'll have to check this out.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Butterfly, or trekking bar will let you use your current group and give you lots of hand positions.

 

[helston90]

The bars on it at the moment look quite curved- I would get some flat MTB ones and stick some bar ends on (e.g. the Giant Rapid), stick on some slimmer tyres- maybe some 28s and have a look at the gear ratios.

 

[raleighnut]

^^^^^+1 that's probably what I'd do too, although anything is do-able it may be a bit of a faff. Flat bar is defo the easiest.

 

[mcshroom]

I'd keep it pretty much as is and go out riding on it

After replacing bars similar to those on my old Claud Butler hybrid a few years ago, I've actually now gone back to them. Otherwise flat bars and bar ends or butterfly bars are good options.

If you want to put drop bars on , then from experience it'll be a pain if you want to keep the gears. You can get v-brake pull drop bar levers, but they don't have shifters in them, and the trigger shifters from the current bars won't fit. To go the other way and fit Canti brakes, you would need hangers front and rear for them (rear one would be a seat post collar one).

The rear mech will be fine with either sort of lever, but the front one will be MTB specific so would need to be replaced. Also flat bar bikes have longer top tubes, so along with your bars you would need a shorter stem.

I did turn my hybrid into a drop-bar singlespeed for a while, but it's now back in flat bar mode. This was how it was set up: -

 

[vernon]

To go the other way and fit Canti brakes, you would need hangers front and rear for them (rear one would be a seat post collar one).

Have a close look at the rear brakes. You might have to revise your advice.

 

[mcshroom]

Have a close look at the rear brakes. You might have to revise your advice.

Depends on whether there;s a gap between the two seat stays at the top or not. That's a silly set up for cable run for v or cantilever brakes though.

Alternative would also be a mini-v if the cable run didn't work (could do this on the front as well), though you would lose tyre clearance and still need them set up very close to the rims.

... and yes I did just decide it would be the same arrangement as my bike

 

[Angry Blonde]

Ahh i think i will just put some flat bars on it and use it as a commuter with my pannier for crap weather, cheers for all the advice

 

[raleighnut]

You could change the stem as well if it's too 'sit up and beg' still.