Boardman Hybrid Comp with drop bars ?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

simonsimon

New Member
Location
Wimbledon
Hi all,

I've been toying with the idea of putting drop bars and sti levers on my Boardman Hybrid Comp. On the face of it, it seems pretty straightforward but I got to worrying that I'd shell out the cash and run into some sort of brick wall.

Are there any pitfalls I should know about ?

Thanks,
Simon
 
Location
Edinburgh
Don't forget to budget for replacement brake & gear levers. You may need to check the amount of cable pull that you will need for each of these.
 

GrasB

Veteran
Location
Nr Cambridge
You can generally get discs brakes to work with road leavers, however you'll need to tweak the cable tension & pad adjustment on the brakes far more than you would with leavers designed to use them.

Certainly Avid do the BB5 & BB7 in a short pull road variant. The downside is they're not quite as good as the long pull version but require less fettling.
 

HJ

Cycling in Scotland
Location
Auld Reekie
simonsimon said:
That's the sort of thing I'm worried about. The boardman has disc brakes and I've no idea whether STI levers can cope ?!?

STI's can't be used with Hydraulic disc brakes, but as you have Avid BB5 mechanical disc brakes you should be fine.
 
Location
Edinburgh
Oh, just thought of something else. Depending on your current riding position and the one you want to adopt with the drops, given that with drops your hands are further forward of the stem clamp than straight bars, you may want to get a different stem length.

Lots of ifs & buts and maybes in that, but only you know what you are comfortable with.
 

mattsccm

Well-Known Member
I've tried the same sort of thing several times as a cheap and easy way of building cross bikes. I do find that flat bar biks, especially hybrids that are "sporty" have a top tube that is too long when you thrown in the additional length of the bars. Consider a short stem and compact bars , both of which will shorten the reach a touch.
 
OP
OP
simonsimon

simonsimon

New Member
Location
Wimbledon
mattsccm said:
Consider a short stem and compact bars , both of which will shorten the reach a touch.

Thanks for the tip Touche / Matt. I've got an adjustable stem which I was hoping would solve the problem, fingers crossed :wacko:
 
Top Bottom