dbrown417

I'm in the market for a new commuter, looking for a solid 90's rigid frame mountain bike to convert into a road-worthy commuter bike. Think Specialized Hardrock with fat roadie tires, rear rack with panniers, and drop bars. I need something sturdy that can take rough roads yet still carry a quick cruising speed when I manage to find some smooth asphalt, and will also be comfortable for a 30 mile weekend ride. For me, that means swapping from flat bars to drops, which poses a dilemma. Most MTB's from this era seem to have the twist-grip shifters, which obviously won't work with drop bars.

The stem is another issue, but its secondary. I'd be fine using the drops on a stock gooseneck style stem as long as the fit was right. I'd like to go with some "anatomic" drops like these (not exactly, just for shape reference):

On a bike like this:


I'm interested in seeing what some of you have come up for drop bar/shifter/stem solutions. I could always just resort to buying a new bike with the setup I want, but I take great satisfaction in building things myself, and I feel like I can have as much bike (if not more) for much less money. Not to mention, it's keeping another old bike on the road.

Andy_K 

1989 Specialized Rockhopper

I used a set of Tiagra components. These components came on my Kona Jake, and have been on a few bikes since as I tinkered and upgraded. Using STI shifters, you need a road front derailleur. Bar end shifters eliminate this problem and save money, but I like STI.

The "stem" is a Velo Orange threaded-to-threadless adapter with a stubby (80mm) Profile Design Aris stem. The VO adapter has a flange that is meant to work with a stem that has a 40mm stack height. The Aris is about 41mm, so it has a bit of a bowl effect, but I can live with it. VO sells matching stems, and Ritchey stems also fit well.

Another potential issue, depending on the age of the mountain bike, is rear spacing. My '89 came with 130mm spacing, so off-the-shelf MTB wheels don't fit and the original freehub wouldn't take an 8/9/10 speed cassette. I could have cold set the frame, but I decided to build custom wheels with Mavic XM 317 rims and Tiagra hubs instead.

If you get an old enough bike, it will have cantilever brakes, which work nicely with road brake levers. On the other hand, if you get a bike with V-brakes, you'll need Travel Agents (unless you swap in cantilever brakes). Mine came with cantilever brakes, but I switched to V-brakes with Travel Agents.

I also replaced the original bottom bracket with a cartridge. The crank, headset, seat post and saddle are still original.

pyze-guy

All my mtbs have had drop bars on them. I have dirt drops on my s/s mtb and used them on a commuter bike as well. There are several challenges to converting, which have been covered. I used bar end shifters, cheap and easy to setup with my deraileur, and isn't sensitive to cassette sizes, and it also allows for v-brake specific road levers. I have tekros, work awesome. I set my bars high, but I only use dirtdrops so riding the drops is the main position. Generally speaking a shorter, higher stem is used.



And my mtb with v brake levers.

Novakane 

Here's my run-about mountain bike... I just converted it last weekend (still haven't put the rear brakes on in this photo, it was after a test-ride to the store).



This is a 2001 bike so it still uses the stem-quill system. I was going to get a Quill-to-A-Head converter to use a modern universal bar clamp which you likely will need for modern bars.
Instead (in my case) I found that by prying open the stem clamp slightly (carefully) and sliding in aluminium drop-bars from an old Raleigh 10-speed I was able to achieve the right fit.
Any sort of this kind of conversion generally means replacing v-brakes with center pull cantilever's - IMHO. Check Sheldon Brown's website for a description as to why (mechanical advantage differences) - https://www.sheldonbrown.com/canti-trad.html
The basic summary is you need to match the right brake levers with your brakes - with cantilever's you can match them with standard road levers, none of my bikes have disc's but they may need special considerations as well. There are road levers for v-brakes or you could use a travel-agent device but I found it's just simpler to put in cantilevers and be done with it.

Anyways, it's a blast to ride this bike and the multiple hand positions/dropped riding style suites me much better. Straight bars always cause discomfort in my hands/wrist after an hour or so on the bike.
I used it to haul some stuff today (one of it's many functions) with the saddle bags on the rack and it still handled great.

For shifters I clamped a set of Suntour downtube shifters (from the same Raleigh) on ahead of the original cable bosses (so it can't slide back) and routed the cables as normal. This wouldn't work if you have a bike with top-tube cable routing. If you are using indexed shifters you might have issues trying to get that working, however the deraileurs will still work fine if you switch to friction-shifters of any sort.

I spent a lot of time on Google and rummaging my parts bin as well as pestering the several LBS in the area for odd parts and pricing... It's best to have a plan before starting as these projects can escalate in cost rapidly if you don't.
For example, it's fine to put cantilever's on a bike that had v-brakes but you're going to need to add center-pull cable hangers... I added the down-tube shifters but because of the difference in tubing width I needed a slightly longer bolt to attach them.

As already mentioned, you're likely going to need your bars set higher, and with a shorter stem than you would with straight bars.

Here is what the bike looked like last year with 'normal' bars, shortly after being used for a bike move (after the trailer was unhooked naturally):

Fizzaly

1987 Kuwahara Panther 26" Fits a 2.1" just fine could probably go bigger it I wanted.

bigbenaugust 

Paging 65er... he has a few of these.


https://velospace.org/node/20686

I built it with a flat bar in '07 and rebuilt it with drops in early 2010. I have much love for this setup.

Novakane 

I like the use of the adjustable stem-clamp to get the bars where they should be.

Novakane 

Has this bike been posted on the Internet before? I think I came across it when I was looking for pics of "dropped" mountain bikes last week. I recognize the "Suburban Pimpin" sticker.

bigbenaugust 

And they are in a great spot... MTB it over the rough stuff and get in the drops on the expressway. I get to do both every day.

I have considered stealing the entire drivetrain from my CX bike (except the brifters) and putting it on this bike and rusing it for everything.

groovestew

Here's my abomination, for what it's worth. Tectro linear pull levers with V-brakes. Excellent stopping power. Cheaper and easier than switching to canties.

dbrown417

I like this; road-ish type setup, but still looks very sturdy. Nicely done! Did you use a threaded-to-threadless adapter for the stem or swap the entire fork?

Very nice, I like the adjustable stem as well. I would think that is very convenient, being able to easily switch from a more upright commuting position, to adjusting the bars down some for longer rides in the drops.

Thanks for the input guys, keep 'em coming! My wish list is only getting longer...

bigbenaugust 

That stem is a Nashbar... just like the frame, fork, seatpost, and current tires.

I am in love with this thread... it's either like a support group or MTB-with-drops pr0n. I'm not sure which.

Andy_K 

I don't often hear "cantilevers" and "be done with it" used together like that.

The thing I like about Travel Agents is that the setup is simple and provides good braking. With cantilevers, even if the brakes are working well, I always feel like I could make them better with just a bit more tweaking. Plus, in my experience, it takes a lot of time to get a cantilever adjusted to brake as well as V-brakes with Travel Agents.

Then there's the fork shudder issue....

Novakane 

I understand what you're saying, I may have overstated the simplicity of cantilevers since I am well practiced at configuring center pull brakes. It's easy to take things for granted, I guess. My brakes are brand-new Tektro Oryx canti's "Quartz Series" (although I'm not using their pads or cross cable) and I found them to be far superior to the original cantilever's I swapped out originally. They have a nice tension and movement to them and it took me very little time to get them set up, compared to older canti's it's not nearly as finiky - again, IMHO.

Fizzaly

No I went with 1" threadless, and use a shim inside the stem.

Fizzaly

This things all over this forum, I also have few other bikes with the Suburban pimpin stickers too.

Doohickie

1994 Nishiki Sport XRS. A hybrid, not a MTB, but the process was pretty much the same as what you're looking to do. I used a quill stem adapter to adapt to a stem that would take a larger diameter handlebars (that I happened to have lying around). For shifting I went with an old pair of Suntour barcons I picked up at a swap meet. They are racheting friction shifters. The bike came with twist grip indexed shifters. Even without indexed shifters, the bike shifts very smoothly and reliably.

As bought:


Now:

Surrealdeal

That's a nice looking ride Doohickie!

Doohickie

It's a 1994 model that was still new when I bought it in 2008 (you can see the original price tags on the handlebars in the first picture). It's been heavily modified: The frame, kickstand, rear derailleur & cassette, and brakes are about the only original stuff left on the bike.

Novasteve74

Here's my 2001 Raleigh M50 with a 1994 Cannondale Pepperoni fork. Using V-brakes, Tektro levers, and a bar-end friction shifter on FSA Gossamer Handlebars. Recently rebuilt and I've been using it daily for commuting. Tires are 2.4" CST Cyclops, with room to spare. It's a little piggy with the huge tires, but it's a blast to ride and it can handle almost anything I throw at it. I've been thinking of trying out bars like the FSA Omega for a slightly shorter reach.

bigbenaugust 

Love the color.

dbrown417

There's some nice bikes in this thread, but man this is awesome! I love the color combo. This is very close to what I had envisioned for my build. What f&r racks are on there? The tires definitely look like they could handle just about any road or terrain short of a mud pit. Have you taken it off paved roads yet?

Novasteve74

The front rack is a cheap Sunlite Front Rack off Amazon (which I believe is identical to the Nashbar Front Rack). The rear rack, I was looking for a very specific shape at a reasonable price, and it came in the form of a Civia Market rack (also called the Hyland rack, as it's off their Hyland commuter bike). Both racks are nice and sturdy, though the build quality of the front isn't quite as polished as the Civia. The front rack also tends to sit a little high on most bikes, but with the huge tires (which end up with an O.D. of about a 700x28c) I think it fits pretty well. I did have to fabricate my own fork crown bracket to mount it how I wanted it, since the two supplied brackets are a little flimsy and are "universal." Also, the Civia rack comes in 700c and 26" variants, but again, I went with the 700c size due to the tire size.

I'm dying to take this bike on some fire roads, but haven't had the chance yet. I do commute by the beach, though, so I have run over some sand drifts on the bike path, but with the high pressure I usually run for commuting (50 psi), the tires get a little squirrely on the dry sand. I'm sure with some low pressure and a proper dirt trail, it would handle much better. Since it's all aluminum, it's really light for all the stuff it has on it, and the large tires negate most of the rigidity.

monsterpile

Here is my funky little Peugeot.

electrik

That bicycle is a monstrosity! How much does she weigh?