Camilo

Why? there are not downtube shifters installed or being used.

Kapusta

Wut?

70sSanO

It was more of a snarky response to the statistical 99.9% of recreational riders ride on the hoods.

And part of it was the generations of recreational riders that ride/rode downtube friction shifters.

Sorry to have confused everyone.

John

Bigbus

You want inline brakes installed on the straight part of your bars like I did to mine. Here's a pic. It's real easy to do and the Tectro's only cost about $25.US The hardest part I had was feeding the rear brake cable back through the frame. I currently live in a high tourist area with lots of traffic and pedestrians and I find the need to be in the upright position frequently and found I didn't like having to reach down for the brake all the time. This works great for me even though I prefer riding in the drops. HTH

TravelBiker

For lightness, i posted this on my other thread, so you may have missed that note, the reason i need a lightweight bike is because i suffer from pirformis syndrome or something else close which causes nerve pain when im moving the bike around like up the stairs or the airport. Second reason is that im a traveler fulltime so its easier and for me to move it disassembled like inside an airport or bus station and this allows me to put some other clothes inside the bag where i store my bike, the extra 8 lbs would be worth a lot when paying for luggage charges.

70sSanO

If the OP wants a drop bar road bike he should buy one. If he wants inline/interrupter brakes on the tops then he should have them installed.

Most of my braking is from the hoods, but going downhill, especially, I’m in the drops. Braking in the drops with traditional cable side pull calipers is more positive than from the hoods.

Braking from interrupter levers is more positive than from the hoods. It is quite similar to flat bar levers.

John

mack_turtle

Braking from the top of a drop bar is nice sometimes, but it's a narrow stance that provides poor stability and no access to shifting. If OP can't stand drop bars and wants all controls on the flat part of the bar, he needs a flat bar bike.

mack_turtle

Alright, that makes sense. That's the first I have heard of your issues. Just wanted to know if you're going to marketing that tells you that you "need" the lightest bike possible to crush the other Freds.

You didn't answer my question: how light is light enough for you? Can you put a NUMBER of a specific weight? And your budget? Lighter bikes tend to cost more. It should not be difficult to find a flat-bar road bike that's under 20 pounds if you're willing to shell out $$$ for it.

How do you feel about a bike with slightly bigger tires? 38-45mm touring/ gravel tires? If you're not totally committed to a road bike, there are lots of fairly lightweight fitness, commuter, and gravel bikes that might suit you, perhaps with some simple modifications. Swapping a drop bar for a flat bar is expensive relative to the bike.

79pmooney

An awful lot of opinionated posts here!

I ride drop bars exclusively, Do half my riding on fix gears, all with regular, good brakes, levers and hoods. I have extension levers set up on one (geared) bike. They also work very well.

My strong opinion is that if you are riding with brakes, they need to be in at least a position where they are instantly available in the most down/forward hand position that will ever see use. Why? Because in panic situations, getting your hands back and up to a brake very quickly is near impossible. I've heard too many incidents of crashes where the user had good levers on his handlebar tops. Now they will never say they were in their either horns or drops and couldn't get to them but it is hard not to see the pattern. However, sliding your hands fast down to a lower brake position can happen very fast. Curve of tops to hoods. Road racers have been doing that forever. Not as good as starting at the brake, but not far off. Our weight (and instinctive deceleration if riding fix gear) means that as soon as we loosen our grip, we are sliding to the brake. We don't slide uphill!

So, do anything you want, but make me happy and put a good set of levers in that most down/forward position. Please. A fellow poster hit a truck in an intersection at the bottom of a hill using just levers on his tops. He lived and recovered but that wasn't a given. I want you around and don't want to hear stories from other sources.

TravelBiker

Heres my budget, thats a constraint, as well as the size and weight. So budget was originally $300 plus what i get for selling my Trek FX 2 disc which is another $300, so low, but i think if i see something i really like i could swing $600 plus the $300 proceeds so $900 total, and im totally fine with either getting a used carbon bike or even buying something like a Twitter bike and modding out some of the cheapie components that might even save me more weight. Of course if had $4000 theres cannondale supersix Evo on fakebook marketplace that weighs 11 lbs, but i dont have that much cash. I was looking to get something that weighs 18 lbs or less ideally 16, but i would also consider a 20 lb if it was something i really liked, then i could trim off something to make it 19 or 18. A few other things i prefer the look of disc brakes as opposed to pads but thats optional also i like something in triple black, so im a bit picky on looks also, i dont want something that looks too cheesy looking lol. You are welcome to recommend various models. Tire size im fine with anything really as long as the tires are not too unwieldy like mountain bike tires.

Geepig

Have you checked out folding bikes? They have come a long way since the 1970s and are generally easy to fold and move around airports. Not all of them are step-thru designs either.

Of course, the other way to achieve lightness is to remove or cut the excess:


Lightness...

mack_turtle

have you ever heard the expression "champagne taste on a beer budget"? a bike that light is easily going to cost four times or more of your budget.

crazy suggestion you can take or leave: buy an old aluminum mountain bike with a lightweight rigid fork. put some light, smooth tires on it. make sure it fits you comfortably. I worked on a neighbor's mid-'90s Cannondale the other day and it was easily under 20 pounds with a suspension fork. the fork was a OLD Manitou with elastomers instead of a spring and damper system, it it was LIGHT. if he put a few carbon fiber parts and some Rene Herse tires on it, it would be a feather-weight.

the smaller wheels and flat bar will make it easier to pack, and the fatter tires (26x1.5-1.75 should work) means the bike be be ridden confidently on dirt and gravel but still be pretty swift on pavement. it does not sound like you're racing, so the weight is more important then aerodynamics.

mack_turtle

there are some fairly light, simple folding bikes and "minivelo" bikes available. worth considering.
it seems like you started with the wrong question. yes, you can put brake levers on the tops of a drop-bar bike, but your reason for wanted a drop bar bike is that they tend to be light. so you need to reframe your question. it sounds like your priorities are:

1. budget under $1,000—this leaves you with entry-level new bikes and used bikes
2. lightweight and easy to transport—road bikes tend to be lighter, but that's not always true. you can get a bike that suits you and is very lightweight that is not a genuine drop-bar road bike, which might not suit your riding anyways.
3. a bike that suits your riding, which is a mystery to me at the moment.

I might have missed it, but what kind of riding are you doing?

• distances
• intensity
• terrain

regarding your medical issue, you don't sound like you have had it formally diagnosed. I would think that most riding done on a road bike would also aggravate spinal issues, which leads me to believe that a road bike, flat bar or otherwise, is not going to work for you. I've suffered a lot of spine issues and found strength training and chiropractic care to help a ton. when I am on top of that, I can ride hard for long miles and it does not bother me. when I don't keep up on my exercise and treatment, my riding abilities suffer. I'll leave that to your medical professional to handle, but know that it's very likely that you can overcome that issue if you choose to. otherwise, that's on you that you live with pain.

TravelBiker

Lol yes these would be good to fit inside of a piece of luggage that is not oversized, but the problem here is that they are too funny looking when they are at full size. LOL one other idea for this, i could have someone cut my current frame and install levers to allow it to detach this would be fabulous but it would need to be done by someone who is totally legit.

TravelBiker

Greetings, i am a city rider mostly, so my speed stays round 5 to 15 MPH most of the time. I am from NYC so the streets and bike paths really suited my style, now im in Phnom Penh, Cambodia but as a traveler, i could be somewhere else next month, but mostly city rider. I got on a Giant TCR the other day and i didnt really like the hunched over position that much to be honest.

mack_turtle

If that bike ever forced you into a "hunched over" position—which is a bit subjective—then the bike never fit right in the first place. You probably had a frame that's too big and/or a handlebar and stem that is too long and too low. There is a wide range of ways that the human body can fit on a bicycle from sitting straight up chair-like on a beach cruiser to aero tuck on a time trial bike. Advice you find here might give you some ideas of what to look for and how to engage your proprioceptive abilities, but you need to visit some bike shops and ask a fitter some hard questions. You need to acutually ride some bikes. Asking strangers on the internet and buying a random bike is like gambling.

I still think they are plenty of old aluminum hybrids and old mountain bikes around that will suit your needs. Worth considering: a lot of touring bikes for exotic place exploring are made with 26" tires because tubes and tires for them are easier to find in less developed places.