Originally Posted by
Dave Mayer
I spent much of yesterday helping customers that had existing performance bike achieve a more upright position, and lower gearing. This involved changing out the drop bars for flat bars, adding short riser stems and replacing the brifters with flat-bar shifters. Some derailleurs had to be changed because of shifter/derailleur incompatibilities. Cassettes were replaced with pie-plates, which involved changing out the derailleurs and the chain.
So a minimum of a few hundred dollars of parts per bike, and up to several hours of shop time.
I figure the racey-type bikes we worked on cost on average $1,500 when new, and then we added roughly $500 of parts and labor. The owners of these bikes could have had a more appropriate bike and better overall ride experience if they had originally bought a $1,000 hybrid, which they've now almost ended up with.
This doesn't factor their inability to use better brakes (such as V-brakes), and fatter more comfortable, flat resistant tires.
Yup ! I see it all the time. I ride a Rivendell Sam Hillborne I built up myself from the bare frame. I still ride in a bent forward position, but not like I did on drop bar road bikes.I see people all the time on high end road bikes riding a more upright position than me.
My bike is more comfortable , but heavier and has all the mounts for anything I want to add. To each his own. I ride alone and no longer care about the high end speed and longer distance. I still climb anywhere I want because of the nine speed triple.