Hackman61

I'm wondering what it would involve to switch from a flat bar 8 speed to a drop bar 8 speed with brifters? I really love the riding position of my Sirrus but really would like drop bars and shifters. Hand positions on the flat bar are limiting. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

Kapusta

Give specs on the current drivetrain and brakes. Hard to give advice without knowing that.

Hackman61

Good point. It has a 3x8 Shimano Altus with trigger shifters and your standard V-brakes. 11-32 cassette, 48/38/28 front rings.

clasher

Easiest thing would be to get it setup with cantilever brakes and Claris brifters. Depending on the crank and derailleurs the front shifting might be tricky to setup. I had a sirrus that I put drop bars on and it was a great bike.

Kapusta

Does that frame have stops for canti cables?

clasher

I used a tektro fork crown cable hanger and something like this doo-dad on the seatpost collar but I don't think it was the tektro model. Surly makes a slick little thing that can go onto an existing seatpost clamp. My bike got stolen a while ago so I don't remember the exact configuration.

Mini-v brakes are another way to go but I found them to be even more finicky to setup than cantis. I might have been using the wrong length of mini-v with my brifters, they come in a few slightly different sizes for that reason.

StormGoth

I'd just use it as a frame/wheelset and go 1*11: SRAM Rival 1 brifters (136€), Rival 1 rear derailleur (85€, better seals than Apex), a chinese crankset (love the zrace stuff, 750gr incl. BB: 70€) and cassette (11-46), either mini-v or (If you have disc brakes) just give it a try with the current brakes.
Even cheaper would be to go all chinese: get a sensah grx set for 220€, brifters, rear derailleur, cassette, chain, crankset and bottom bracket included, add a nice drop bar (i want to try the Rose gravel thing, the only one i know with front sweep) and some bar tape (Decathlon, 6€ or ordered from China).
If you are able to mount it on your own it's 270-360€, still cheaper than to get a new gravel bike and a lot of these fitness bikes have a gravel/endurance road geometry, esp. Serious used the same frame as their Roubaix bikes for the Sirrus in some years.

Kapusta

One thing to keep in mind is that putting drops on a frame meant for a flat bar will push you hand position much farther forward.

fietsbob

This ^^^ ... Making a shorter stem part of the shopping..

Cyclist0108

Another option to consider is Trekking bars, which have many of the same advantages of drops but are compatible with your current brakes and shifters. If the reach is too long (which it may well be, as the Sirrus is designed for flat bars), you can mount the trekking bars backwards. We just did this on my wife's Sirrus.

ShannonM

The front derailleur will not work. For some reason that has never been clear to anyone, Shimano uses a different actuation ratio on MTB vs road front derailleurs, so the front brifter won't index correctly. No, there is no rational reason for this, even if Shimano engineers have a 300 page engineering document explaining why they had no choice. It's always been this way, and it's always been stupid, and they'll never change it.

V-brakes and brifters is a problem, but it's a solved problem. There are adapters, and they work.

Your stem will probably be the wrong length and angle. Drop bars fit very differently. Nobody ever gets this right on the first try, so start with a cheap stem.

Nothing else should need to be changed.

--Shannon