Convert Drops to Flat Bars ?

[Carbon]

A colleague of mine recently purchased a Specialized Secteur Elite 2010 Road bike (from Evans). He is riding the Tower to Tower July this year so is putting some serious training in at the moment. However he has a problem, previously he rode a Hybrid with flat bars and is really struggling with the drops on the Secteur. The main issue is that he suffers with some sort of tennis elbow and is finding the riding position of the drops especially braking is causing him great discomfort, this is on the hoods / drops and even on the tops because he has to twist his arm to reach the levers...
I did suggest flipping the stem and rolling the bars up a bit might help but I think he's lost all confidence in the drops and is asking about converting from drops to a flat bar config.

Question is how feasible is this and what else is he going to have to replace to achieve this, obviously new bars / levers and shifters but is there stuff out there compatible with the Shimano 105 (triple) front / rear mech on the Secteur or is he looking at new mech's as well?

Any help / advice much appreciated.

Sounds expensive to me!

Cheers.

 

[Rob3rt]

He could get some cross top brake levers cyclocross style.

They sit somewhere between your STI brake and your caliper (somehow, I dont know the specifics), allowing you to brake on the tops as well as on the drops and hoods.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

As Rob3rt said he can consider introducing a pair of CX crosstop brake levers such as the Tektro's RL720 on the flat section of the bar.
It is also possible to go the whole hog and switch to flat bar (check out Shimano's compatibility doc here), he needs:
1) to choose a 22.2mm flat bar he likes that is the right size at the stem
2) to get some good flat bar grips given his condition (I recommend Ergons, they are fab!).
3) a pair of R770 road shifters (since he has 3x10 speed)
4) a pair of R550 or R770 road brake levers.
5) a R773 R770 compatible triple front mech

The conversion is not cheap. I believe Microshift sells a set of Shimano compatible 10 speed flat bar shifters for half the price of R770, but no idea if they are any good.

ps It appears Microshift TS 74-10 e.g. have trim function for the front shift, so they are not only cheap but should work with the existing front mech.

 

[Carbon]

Thanks for the info guys, as I suspected going the whole hog to flat bars is going to cost him an arm and a leg

.

He took the bike back to Evans last night and I have to say I'm impressed with the service, they are fitting him a pair of cross levers on the tops for £11.99 + vat per side fitted.

Think that's a pretty good deal and hopefully will do the trick and save him a few bucks......

Cheers.