Old 11-10-17, 12:31 PM
  #14  
cooperryder
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Originally Posted by ldmataya
I frequently do this kind of conversion when someone needs an inexpensive but capable city, trail, or campus bike. I look for an mtb with a good rear derailleur, functioning brakes, wheels that won't have to be rebuilt, and hopefully a useful flat bar - to keep costs down. This bike I did is pretty typical. Go with tough street tires, replace shifters with one trigger shifter, remove front derailleur for simplicity if you don't need a climbing bike, add a chain guard if possible, put a hi-rise stem on to move the bars up.

Collect some hi-rise stems - they are very cheap. New trigger shifters are inexpensive and there are hundreds of 7-speed compatible derailleur bikes out there. Sram triggers for 9-10 are also cheap if that is what you end up with. Grab handfuls of MTB brake levers at the next swap as they are likely to be trashed on your donor bike. I really like to upgrade the crank if I can to a hollowtech or gxp because I don't have to hassle with bottom brackets and the owner won't have crank issues. 110 bcd is really flexible on a city/trail bike, works fine with a mtb front derailleur. And there are now plentiful 104 bcd hollowtech cranks out there if you need a 24 tooth ring.
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That's a cool Bianchi.

A friend and I have done a few of these for others that needed a decent around town type bike
fairly inexpensively.

At my large LBS the starting prices on hybrid or city type bikes are around $450.

One of these can be done for quite a bit less and I like the look of these re-purposed vintage mtb's a lot more.

Of course you can also spend more if your get carried away by too many new parts.

I figure I spent $80 to $120 or so on several of my cockpits but the upright position works for me these days
and if you find a worthy frame cheap enough you still wind up with a great bike at relatively modest price.

Also the tires can be more investment if you go with a better tire.
I have Compass Rat Trap Pass for one bike
but find better tires add to the enjoyment of riding.

I have been pleased with the Tioga Power Blocks so for and they are not too terribly expensive.
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