bsjassal

Hello to all. Firstly Sorry if its repeated questio. I am very new to bike. Purchased Giant Escape 2. Going to to Seattle to Portland ride. Like to do drop bar on escape 2. I know thing I need drop bar (lol) cables and shifter. But dont k wo what kind of shifter ( combination of break and gear ?) I need.

If any one can guide me to right direction. Will really appreciate

AnthonyG

May I suggest that you consider fitting Butterfly/Trekking bars instead of drop bars to get some more hand positions. The conversion is a straight forward process of changing the bars. All levers and shifters will fit straight on.

here's what they look like fitted,



The Tourney 3 x 8 drivetrain you have is OK but only just above the bare minimum. You could go to quite an effort to find and fit some 8 speed brifters that also handle v brakes and you would still just have a Tourney drivetrain. Butterfly bars are very good for touring and long rides.

bsjassal

Can I install just breaks on drop bar and install gear shifter on top of bar?

mcours2006

Doing a drop bar conversion, if you don't already have parts in had, is going to be a lot more costly than you think, especially if you want to have STI/brifters,. which are likely going to be the costliest part of the whole thing. If you are going to do it, you can probably source the parts off of Craigslist to save yourself a few dollars. Your Giant is probably a triple, so you'd need a set of 3x8 or 3x9 shifters. You're probably looking at older Soras or Tiagras. You might be able to reuse the cables and housings, and the derailleurs should work fine assuming the pull-ratio are the same.

You'll also need a set of drop bars. You could probably use the same stem, though the angle of rise might be a tad high.

Then there's the issue of the brakes. If they are linear-pull/v-brakes, regular STI brifters probably aren't going to work. If they are cable discs, that should be fine. If they are hydro discs, well, that isn't going to work either, or could, but a lot more costly and hassle.

mcours2006

You can do a simpler conversion using drop bar with bar end shifters. They you'd just need a set of drop bar brakes, which are relatively inexpensive. That'd be the most cost-effective way to do it.

AnthonyG

The short answer is no.

Shifters won't fit the drop bar diameter. If you insist on drop bars then the simplest solution is to get v-brake specific drop bar BRAKE levers and bar end gear levers. Anything more is going to get compicated. Butterfly bars are by far the simplest solution for more hand positions and honestly they are very good in use.

BobbyG

Instead of drop bars, adding bolt-on aero bars may be an easy option. Then there are bar-ends, which if moved inboard, can approximate riding on the hoods.

Here's a photo of my MTB based commuter/winter bike. In my 40s I needed to add more hand positions. This was a relatively simple solution. It looks horrible, but works great. I love flying down long flat runs stretched out on the aero bars (aided by much higher than stock gearing).

My other two bikes are regular drop bars.

BTW, I swapped out the bar ends in this photo for slightly shorter straighter ones last year as my hands and wrists become even more "troublesome" approaching 60.

The next step is to replace the whole jungle-gym with butterfly or trekking bars...or get a drop-bar winter bike from the get-go.

fietsbob

No, because road bar tubing is bigger than straight bar tubing.. , so levers wont fit.. + they're the wrong shape ..