Road bike conversion to hybrid

[harry rope]

Hi,
Just bought a Boardman Road comp 2009 and would like to put flat bars on it for easy commuting and lazy riding. Could anyone give me some advice as to what shifters and brake levers I would need, I can't find anything that sounds as straight forward as I thought it might be...oops

Thanks

Harry

 

[Norm]

That's because it won't be that straight forward. Changing the bars, shifters and levers will be the basics (and could be a few hundred quid) but the geometries of drops and flats are different, so you might also need to change the stem length and angle too and you still might end up with something which handles wrong because your weight distribution is off.

My first suggestion would be to use it as it is. Dropped bars offer the same hand positions as flat bars, with three or four other options. If you really want flat bars, sell the Road Comp and go for a Boardman Hybrid or one of a gazillion alternatives from Trek, Specialized, Giant... etc

 

[chugsy]

Probably best to sell it and buy a Boardman Hybrid. Looking at the cost of a set of Tiagra trigger shifters alone would put me off: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=69502 although you'd probably recoup that from selling your existing STIs. Plenty of road brake levers for flat bar here: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/road/brake-levers/ and you'll probably want a longer stem too.

Give the drop bars a chance - riding on the hoods is just as comfy as riding on a flat bar. More so for me.

 

[chugsy]

Norm - your post appeared out of nowhere when I clicked post reply! Harry - what he said!

 

[HLaB]

Give the drop bars a chance - riding on the hoods is just as comfy as riding on a flat bar. More so for me.

+1. I converted a bike the other way (from flats to drops) it seems straight forward enough but the brakes were the biggest issue for me.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

According to thebikelist the 09 Boardman is a 9 speed with a double chainset, so for direct replacement you will have to get 9 speed flat bar shifters. However they are still not brilliant value and you still have to get flat bar brake levers that have the right cable pull for your road caliper brakes.

If I were you I would just get a pair of 8 speed flat bar road brifters and an 8 speed cassette, both can be bought for peanuts. Those brifters are great because the brake levers can be switched to suit different brake types.

Because drop bar bikes are designed to have top tubes slightly shorter than flat bar bikes, you might want to get longer stem as Norm said, unless of course if you are happy with a more upright riding position.

The only other thing I would add is most Shimano flat bar front shifters expect to work with mtb/flat bar front mechs. Since your front mech is a road one, the switch above is ok as long as you stick to a double chainset - those flat bar brifters won't work too well with the existing front mech and a triple due to cable pull difference.


9 speed shifters http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=30139

8 speed brifters http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=38724 or http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=38725

 

[harry rope]

Cheers all, I like the idea of flats on this bike and its comfy enough, i want more width from the bars as well as the lazy look. Thanks for the info. I think its gonna be an 8 speed, I can always put it back if it don't work out and flog the stuff on flea bay. Next is to find some wide nobbly winter tyres... I love this bike its just too flowery for winter riding. Flat bars 'n' Nobblies..

 

[HLaB]

Flat bars 'n' Nobblies..

Are you going to be riding in sand, Nobblies won't help with grip unless you are planning to go off road, in fact grip will be reduced on road as there's less rubber in contact with the road. If you want more grip on road, wider is the way to go. Good Luck :-)

 

[chugsy]

How wide a tyre could a road wheel accommodate? I though 28mm is the limit?

 

[harry rope]

I've got road slicks on at the moment, its scary riding at night in the wet, let alone when the ice comes, so just looking at tyres with lots of tread pattern to get rid of water through puddles etc.

Might want some ....(cringe) mudgaurds too.

 

[harry rope]

Those R221 Shimano gear shifters look perfect and price is very good, watching some bars on ebay ritchley ones, I could be rolling in a few days, thanks again for the pointers guys

 

[Norm]

I've got road slicks on at the moment, its scary riding at night in the wet, let alone when the ice comes, so just looking at tyres with lots of tread pattern to get rid of water through puddles etc.

Bike tyres are so narrow that they cannot aquaplane and any tread pattern will have the opposite effect to that you are looking for as it will put less tyre on the tarmac.

Bike tyres don't need tread to get rid of water through puddles - check out the width of a bike tyre compared to the distance between channels on a car or motorbike tyre, for instance, and you'll see that.

Different tyres, because of different compounds, may be more or less slippery but a tread pattern is not required on the road.

Riding on snow puts different requirements on the tyre, and nothing without spikes works well on ice, no matter how wide it is.

 

[HLaB]

How wide a tyre could a road wheel accommodate? I though 28mm is the limit?

It depends on the internal rim width and it'll depend on the frame clearance too; my 700c road wheels on my town bike came with 37mm tyres but they wouldn't fit on the 700c wheels on my drop bar bikes, the rims will be too narrow and there wouldn't be frame clearance anyway. From Sheldon:
Width Considerations

Although you can use practically any tire/rim combination that shares the same bead seat diameter, it is unwise to use widely disparate sizes.
If you use a very narrow tire on a wide rim, you risk pinch flats and rim damage from road hazards.
If you use a very wide tire on a narrow rim, you risk sidewall or rim failure. This combination causes very sloppy handling at low speeds. Unfortunately, current mountain-bike fashion pushes the edge of this. In the interest of weight saving, most current mountain bikes have excessively narrow rims. Such narrow rims work very poorly with wide tires, unless the tires are overinflated...but that defeats the purpose of wide tires, and puts undue stress on the rim sidewalls.
Georg Boeger has kindly provided a chart showing recommended width combinations:
Which tire fits safely on which rim?
[all dimensions in millimeters]

Note: This chart may err a bit on the side of caution. Many cyclists exceed the recommended widths with no problem.

 

[Norm]

It depends on the internal rim width and it'll depend on the frame clearance too...

Not meaning to detract from the techie details but I think it's just worth emphasising that frame clearance will be an issue on a Boardman Road Comp before you get to 57mm tyres.

 

[HLaB]

Not meaning to detract from the techie details but I think it's just worth emphasising that frame clearance will be an issue on a Boardman Road Comp before you get to 57mm tyres.

Yip, I maybe should bold that bit