would you convert this to drops?

[GazK]

Have you thought about butterfly bars?

I'm very happy with mine.

It crossed my mind, but - and please don't take this the wrong way - I know my bike is no oil painting, but to my mind they are the wrong side of the attractive/fugly line. I'm still hanging on to my teenage dreams of being the new Eddy Merckx and I'm not quite ready to take that step yet.

 

[GazK]

Thanks for all the advice so far. I blagged an old pair of drops on freecycle, just to get an idea of fit and whether it would look bonkers. Here is the result:

First of all, I was surprised by how unbonkers it looked. Kind of audax-y.

As far as fit goes, when I first got on it felt as though the long stem plus the additional distance to the hoods was putting it too far forward. On my second go sitting on the bike, I'm not so sure. Perhaps I should do the bar conversion and keep a shorter stem as an option if it feels too long in practise?

I was intending to use Dia-Compe V-compatible levers, but this leaves me with a shifter problem. Can I fit MTB shifters on the flat part, or am I looking at bar end shifters? I rather like STI and I'm not sure I want to go back to all that 80s friction nonsense.

PS how do you like those suicide levers? I sense a retro trend...

 

[Norm]

I love suicide levers. For moderating / modulating speed, it's great having them placed for use on the tops. IMO.

 

[GazK]

I love suicide levers. For moderating / modulating speed, it's great having them placed for use on the tops. IMO.

I am seriously thinking about fitting a pair of the modern (safer) version of suicide levers if I go dropped:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=27933

 

[Norm]

Yup. The last time I was in my LBS I asked them to keep hold of the next set that they remove so I can fit them to my Secteur. I have them (I think they are called interrupters now) on the Tricross as well as a proper old set on my steelie.

 

[andrew_s]

As far as fit goes, when I first got on it felt as though the long stem plus the additional distance to the hoods was putting it too far forward. On my second go sitting on the bike, I'm not so sure. Perhaps I should do the bar conversion and keep a shorter stem as an option if it feels too long in practise?

I was intending to use Dia-Compe V-compatible levers, but this leaves me with a shifter problem. Can I fit MTB shifters on the flat part, or am I looking at bar end shifters? I rather like STI and I'm not sure I want to go back to all that 80s friction nonsense.

PS how do you like those suicide levers? I sense a retro trend...

I'd guess you'll probably want a shorter stem, at least until you start to get used to a more stretched out roadie style position.

Tektro RL520 are the other V-compatible drop bar brake levers. They have been getting better reports than the Dia-Compe 287V

MTB shifters won't go on drop bars as the clamps aren't the same size (22.2mm vs 24mm, iirc). The simplest option is to use bar-end shifters. The rear is indexed, the front isn't (an advantage IMO).
If you went STI you'd need to get a road front mech to match, and getting the front shifting well set up is pretty fiddly.

Crosstop/Interrupter levers work well, unlike the old suicide levers (which attached on the side of the main lever pivot and reached round to the tops).

RL520 and bar-end shifters is the cheapest and simplest way to convert an MTB to drops

 

[MacB]

Tektro RL520 work well with v-brakes

I can only find two types of crosstop lever that are V compatible, the Pauls Engineering lever, £42.50 each from Freshtripe or the Tektro RL740, much cheaper but only available in the US via Rivendell bikes. That said I now have two bikes with v's and drops and I may not bother getting crosstop levers. Depends on what drops you use and how you set them up, but the hoods work well in traffic. You can buy the Pauls lever individually so maybe just get one for the top for modulating when riding there.

Gear shifting, I went with the Dura Ace 9 speed bar end shifters and I'm delighted with them, front shifting is much easier now. You can modify MTB shifter pods by filing the inside of the clamp and get them to fit round on to the flats of drop bars. I have a set of shimano 9 speed triples that I did this for and they work fine. However my drop bars are setup for a lot of riding in the drops so the bar end shifters are better for me. If you position your bars for tops and hoods then the shifter pods may suit you better.

You can see pics of some of my experiments in my albums. If you'd like to try the enlarged clamp shifter pods then PM me, they've got cables etc. If you want to keep them then we'd need to work out a price, if you break them you pay, but if they don't suit just send them back. Easier and cheaper than mangling a set yourself just to find out they don't suit you.

A little search on here under my username will turn up a mind numbing amount of garbage on bars, stems, what fits what, etc

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

I think anybody who is considering using suicide levers should consider this also. It is light (150g excluding the cabling), very well made and I think incredible value. But the bar must have a 132mm straight section with no bent each side.

 

[piedwagtail91]

in the opening post you say the bar ends are too far apart for comfort, why not cut the bars down in width and give that a try.
the first thing i did when i got my charge duster ss was to cut 2"-3" off each end of the bars, which brought it nearer to the width of bars on my fixed bike.

 

[GazK]

I think anybody who is considering using suicide levers should consider this also. It is light (150g excluding the cabling), very well made and I think incredible value. But the bar must have a 132mm straight section with no bent each side.

I have spent 5 minutes staring at the link, reading and re-reading the description to try to work out what they are and how they work. I have failed. Please help a thickie by explaining!

 

[GazK]

I have spent 5 minutes staring at the link, reading and re-reading the description to try to work out what they are and how they work. I have failed. Please help a thickie by explaining!

OK, so I downloaded the instruction manual, and worked it out. Twist-grip brakes! Whoda thunk it? Do they work? Does anyone have them?

 

[andyhunter]

make sure you have the correct bike postion and posture before changing bars.

 

[MacB]

OK, so I downloaded the instruction manual, and worked it out. Twist-grip brakes! Whoda thunk it? Do they work? Does anyone have them?

They work the same way that cross top levers do, ie they push on the cable housing, in the existing cable run, to activate the brake. I've not used them but can't see any reason they would work, the inline setup is actually the same as a crosstop. It's just the actuation is via twist rather than lever.

 

[GazK]

make sure you have the correct bike postion and posture before changing bars.

I know I have seat height and level set up correctly, but I will try moving the seat forward a little. I'm a drops man at heart though

 

[MacB]

I know I have seat height and level set up correctly, but I will try moving the seat forward a little. I'm a drops man at heart though

I'd definitely go for the drops but I've certainly found that my preferred saddle height, level and horizontal position is the same across all my bikes. This doesn't include anything that's functionally specific, like time trial etc, where you may want to alter the saddle setback.

I certainly wasted some money and time working from bars backwards. Getting the saddle spot on first will avoid having to buy extra stems etc.