Converting a 90's MTB into a retro drop bar bike

[Andy in Germany]

I completely forgot these pics from the first session turning the Ugly Bike beautiful randonneur.

We’d decided to pull off everything we could with the tools we had in the drawer, up to and including a big hammer if the mood took us...

Elder Son began at the back end with chain and dérailleurs while I got to grips, ha, ha, with with the handlebars. The grips themselves proved immune to persuasion, WD40 and bad language, and I ended up taking a knife to them before dealing with the combined brake and gear units. Normally this would be an opportunity to whine about the evils of capitalism as evidenced by the practice of combining gear and brake levers, and forcing users to replace the lot every time one element failed, but on this occasion we were changing to V-Brakes and drops and the gear shifters were worn out anyway, so I just dumped them in the bin without comment.

We discovered that our tools aren’t the right ones to remove the crank and bottom bracket, but we changed the handlebars anyway, even though we’ll need a different stem, This was as much a statement of intent and a morale booster as anything.

Any suggestions we then coasted up and down the drive making ‘woosh woosh’ noises are pure fiction…

 

[Andy in Germany]

And typically I forgot something:

We now have the Braze-ons for the gear levers, and the levers themselves, and a metalworker willing to attach them to the frame. How do we figure out where the Braze-ons should go? Is there a 'standard' measurement or is it more where it feels best?

 

[Andy in Germany]

Frame and Braze-ons now delivered to the workshop to be attached together tomorrow ready for pickup on Monday. I got a message saying how far they should be from the headset and wrote the number down, but I can't find it now for the life of me.

Thanks to whoever posted it for the info...

 

[Andy in Germany]

Progress is slow but steady on this project. A while ago this dropped through the door, which caused much rejoicing:

Romania is apparently the only place in Europe where you can get old school braze-ons for traditional gear levers. This is the result of far too much thinking and a lot of online questioning after discovering the normal solution for fixing gear levers to the bottom bar -a collar clamp- wouldn’t be possible because the bar is about 1mm too thick.

My colleague tried to convince me to use Gaffer tape, but I wasn't convinced so the only other is to braze bosses onto the bike to take the levers. Fortunately at work we have a tame welder who was happy to do this for us.

We also ordered a set of levers from Elder Son’s employer, who themselves ordered them from the Shimano EU distributor. To my rather great surprise these fit the braze ons perfectly.

Now I have to work out how to get the frame and Braze-ons down to work for our resident metalworker to fit them together.

 

[mcshroom]

The brazing will mean you need a respray (or at least a touch up of the affected area). I'd be tempted to ream out the clamp on mount slightly, or get bar end mounts for the levers. I'm looking forward to the results whichever way you go though

[edit] how wide is the downtube? - Origin8 Down Tube Shift Adapter - 28.6-31.8mm

 

[Andy in Germany]

The brazing will mean you need a respray (or at least a touch up of the affected area). I'd be tempted to ream out the clamp on mount slightly, or get bar end mounts for the levers. I'm looking forward to the results whichever way you go though

[edit] how wide is the downtube? - Origin8 Down Tube Shift Adapter - 28.6-31.8mm

The bike will need a respray anyway: we're agreed that we're not riding a bike that colour.

We looked at Bar end mounts but they were coniderably more expensive than this method. That said, if we find we both like drops it may be that I convert ny commuter using Bar ends.

I recognise the adaptor you linked to, ut that is about 0.4mm too small from memory. For a carpenter 0.4mm is just a quick whack with a hammer and you're sorted, but my metalworking friends tell me it's more of an issue with metal.

 

[mcshroom]

Cool! If you're brazing anyway, it would be tempting to take the current cable stops off while you're attaching the new braze-ons. You can get screw on replacements if you ever change back, and it will look neater.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Cool! If you're brazing anyway, it would be tempting to take the current cable stops off while you're attaching the new braze-ons. You can get screw on replacements if you ever change back, and it will look neater.

I was tempted, but I didn't have the courage to be honest. I'll keep them on the off chance we want to extend the cables. If we don't, I've been making models for many years so I can probably cut, file and touch up pretty neatly.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Looks like great progress is being made. Looking good.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Looks like great progress is being made. Looking good.

Interesting project, but I can't help thinking it would actually be much easier and cheaper just to source a drop bar bike to begin with if that is what you really want. Tinkering about and mixing & matching parts is fine if you have a supply of donor bits/bikes kicking around but if you have to start buying stuff piecemeal then it is quickly going to cease to be a low-budget DIY build alternative to just sourcing a complete bike of the desired genre.

 

[roadrash]

quite a few people, for whatever reason seem to have missed or ignored one of the reasons for doing it, so I will quote my earlier post,

The op stated one of the reasons for wanting to do it....
It'll also give us both a lot of experience with more involved type repairs and maintenance and with Drop handlebar bikes, and more importantly, a project we can do together, possibly the last chance before Elder Son leaves home.

and that is something you cant buy......not even in germany

 

[raleighnut]

^^^^^^^+1

Plus you get to say when people ask what it is "Oh I/we built it ourselves"

 

[DCBassman]

In this one instance , @SkipdiverJohn, the economics really isn't the point at all. That's what your not 'getting'. I've done similar with my main working bass. Entirety possible I could have achieved something similar for less. Did it the way I wanted, ended up with the bass I wanted. Job done!

 

[Andy in Germany]

quite a few people, for whatever reason seem to have missed or ignored one of the reasons for doing it, so I will quote my earlier post,

The op stated one of the reasons for wanting to do it....
It'll also give us both a lot of experience with more involved type repairs and maintenance and with Drop handlebar bikes, and more importantly, a project we can do together, possibly the last chance before Elder Son leaves home.

and that is something you cant buy......not even in germany

^^^^^^^+1

Plus you get to say when people ask what it is "Oh I/we built it ourselves"

In this one instance , @SkipdiverJohn, the economics really isn't the point at all. That's what your not 'getting'. I've done similar with my main working bass. Entirety possible I could have achieved something similar for less. Did it the way I wanted, ended up with the bass I wanted. Job done!

All of the above (many thanks for the understanding @roadrash, @raleighnut, & @DCBassman, it's great to know that although I may be odd, I'm not alone...) Plus:

• Costs can be spread (and I do have a store of old bike bits, frankly it's good to be able to reduce it). The only real costs are new saddle, V-Brakes and new tyres. and I may even cascade the tyres. I would expect to buy a saddle anyway.
• Elder Son has an -entirely unjustified- lack of self confidence in his abilities as a bike mechanic, so the week before his exams I'll take him down to the garage and show him this bike (which by then will be mucky from many K's of successful riding), and say "You made this. From Scrap. You can deal with anything the exams throw at you."

 

[roadrash]

nothing odd at all, I prefer the term unique