25.4mm diameter drop bars

[Oddsos]

Hiya

After the ice and snow this winter I've decided to sort out a bad weather hack bike. I'm converting an old MTB to road use and fitting ice tyres so I have plenty of clearance and a bit of grip in slippery conditions.

I would like to reuse the existing stem and fit 25.4mm diameter drop bars with V-brake compatible aero brake levers and bar end shifters. Does anyone have any recommendations for appropriate handlebars. I know Nitto do a variety of bars in this diameter, however I'd like to look for other options as well.

Are there any obvious problems I have overlooked in this plan?

 

[MacB]

just done this on my giant and used the On-One Midge bars, these are a wider flared drop, will post up some pics later.

 

[PpPete]

For a hack bike Nitto is probably too good?
I'd be looking for an ebay bargain basement bar.

Aero levers compatible with V-brakes? Not sure if they exist - but you could fit cyclocross brakes instead, they'll work with regular aero levers.

 

[MajorMantra]

How wide do you need? I've got some 25.4 Sakae road bars (classic bend) lying around you can have for cheap if you're interested. I can measure them when I'm at home.

Matthew

 

[MacB]

For a hack bike Nitto is probably too good?
I'd be looking for an ebay bargain basement bar.

Aero levers compatible with V-brakes? Not sure if they exist - but you could fit cyclocross brakes instead, they'll work with regular aero levers.

PP, now I know you don't read my posts, there are at least 3 aero brake levers designed for long pull v-brakes. There are also two cross top levers in the same vein.

My Midge bars(£25) currently sport Dura Ace bar end shifters(£55), Tektro RL520 aero brake levers(£20) for v-brakes and v-brake noodles with inbuilt adjuster barrels(£6 the pair). I have left scope for crosstop levers but the price, and not sure if I need them, is giving me pause right now:-

Tektro RL740(the ones I want) with QR buttons and barrel adjusters - $37 a pair from Rivendell Bikes but $50 international shipping. I can't find anywhere else that sells them. The main Tektro importer does not import them.

Pauls Engineering Crosstop Levers - these have a moveable pivot point so can be set to work with long or short pull. But they don't have a QR or adjuster barrell. They are also £85 for a pair from Freshtripe.

 

[PpPete]

Nah - just a brain fart. Of course you are right!
But you know I really don't like V-brakes. They just look ugly to me. OTOH Lots of people find CX cantis ugly.

How much would Rivendell charge to ship the RL470s to California? Expect to have to go to US some time soon on business so I could bring them home for you.

 

[MacB]

Thanks Pete, but I've sorted a deal for them to ship to Harris cyclery for me. Harris will then include them in shipping for another order so my overall shipping for everything should be about $35.

One thing for the OP to note, if you go for wider flared drops, like the Midge, then standard cables aren't long enough. The outers that came with my Dura Ace bar cons were about 60cm. I chose to run the cables all the way on the bars and ended up needing about 90cm of outer. I also needed tandem length inners to cope as well.

 

[MichaelM]

....... will post up some pics later.

let's be having them then !

 

[MacB]

Ok, you asked for it, here's 3 pics, only thing I'm not happy with is I've got the bar end shifters following the angle of the brake levers. I think that was a mistake and makes them more vulnerable(sticky outy) but can't face moving them yet:-

 

[MichaelM]

I do like the look of that set up, but not sure how the STI's would go on those bars..

I've got a nice Thomson stem I want to put on my Crosscheck, I think some Nitto from Hubjub could be the way forward.

 

[MacB]

I do like the look of that set up, but not sure how the STI's would go on those bars..

I've got a nice Thomson stem I want to put on my Crosscheck, I think some Nitto from Hubjub could be the way forward.

I've seen several pictures of people running STI's on these styles of bars and all reporting no problems. I intend to do so on a future build, though I think you'd need to make sure it was the paddle shift only, not ones with the thumb lever. As I had v-brakes already it was easier to go with aero levers and barcons. If building from scratch I'd be more likely to go with cantis or min v's and STI's. Certainly easier on the cable routing which I'm still not 100% on. I may yet revert to a more traditional cable exit from the bottom of the drop section. Also have considered mounting them on thumb shifter brackets on top of the bars.

Whatver you go with I don't think you'll be disappointed in the ride from the Xcheck, mine is very comfy.

 

[MichaelM]

I'm running STI's (105 - paddle only) with Froggs Legs cantis - it all works well enough, but it's a pain to release a wheel as there's no brake QR, this is directing my train of thought towards aero levers with a QR and some other shift system (have mtd shift pods to hand).

Crosscheck is comfy enough - just put on some 30mm Marathons which is noticably comfier than 23 tyres, but not noticably slower!

 

[MacB]

I'm running STI's (105 - paddle only) with Froggs Legs cantis - it all works well enough, but it's a pain to release a wheel as there's no brake QR, this is directing my train of thought towards aero levers with a QR and some other shift system (have mtd shift pods to hand).

Crosscheck is comfy enough - just put on some 30mm Marathons which is noticably comfier than 23 tyres, but not noticably slower!

Having not run cantis yet I'm only familiar with the struggle to release wheels via reading on the net. I have seen claims that even the QR at the cross lever doesn't always allow enough and you still have to deflate tyre. One inventive guy added an inline barrel adjuster above the straddle which he kept fully open(I think or I may have that back to front). Fine tuning he did via the cross lever barrel and just used the other one as a sort of quick release. I'm sure there are other solutions as well, but it is one of the things I like about v-brakes.

My Xcheck has only ever been run on 35mm tyres so that may well have a lot to do with the comfort, plus the Brooks saddle

If you're considering MTB pods then I assume you're aware that they are designed for 22.2mm bar diameters and drop bars have 23.8mm and so the pods won't fit on them. However I do have a set of 9 speed pods which I filed out and they will fit all the way round drop bars to clamp on the flats. I'm not using them as I've gone with the bar end shifters. But I still may switch the bar ends to thumb mounts and they'd effectively be the same sort of setup. You could then have braking, via cross levers, and shifting on the tops and braking only on hoods and drops. To make this workable you'd want drops with as wide a flat area as possible.

If you get inclinations to tinker in this manner I'd be happy to send you the filed out pods to test out. No charge, unless you were wanting to keep them permanently, so a lot cheaper/easier than hacking up a set yourself.

 

[MichaelM]

Interesting (or not) about the 22.2mm and 23.8mm thing. I just assumed now that there is a move towards 31.8 oversize that everything would be compatible. i wonder what the actual bar diameter of the 25.4mm clamp Nitto bars is then?

Thanks for the offer on the shifters, I'll bear it in mind for the future should I decide to fidget some more.

 

[MacB]

Interesting (or not) about the 22.2mm and 23.8mm thing. I just assumed now that there is a move towards 31.8 oversize that everything would be compatible. i wonder what the actual bar diameter of the 25.4mm clamp Nitto bars is then?

Thanks for the offer on the shifters, I'll bear it in mind for the future should I decide to fidget some more.

Apparently this is a well known fact, so well known that I wasted money on buying incompatible bits I've not been able to find a reason it's just that the standard for MTB bars is 22.2 and road 23.8, this doesn't relate to the clamp sizes just the rest of the tubing. Clamps were, as I understand, 25.4 as standard and seem to all be moving to 31.8. Though Italian road bars were/are 25.8 and 26.