My wife rides a pinnacle neon 2 hybrid. She finds the flat bar position makes her wrists uncomfortable, and wants to try a drop bar bike. How easy would it be to convert her bike? It has a shimano claris groupset. Would it just be a case of buying a set of shifters, a drop bar, and swapping everything out? Or am I missing something?
Converting flat bar to drop bar
- Thread starter rivers
- Start date
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vickster
Legendary Member
She may well find it too big as a drop bar bike, but could go for a short stem. I went the other way from drops to flats and even with another 3cm of stem it was too small!
Has she tried narrower bars, ergo grips, bar ends tweaking stem length, etc? Is it the right size?
Has she tried narrower bars, ergo grips, bar ends tweaking stem length, etc? Is it the right size?
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
The break pull on stis is less than vbrake shifters. This can be over come in part with Problem Solvers Travel Agents but its still not ideal IME.
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
What brakes has it got at present.
vickster
Legendary Member
That bike looks to come with Tektro RX1 mini V-brakes
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Mini V's will work with STI levers then (pull is the same) or with standard 'drop' levers.
Honestly might be cheaper picking up a B'Twin Triban 3 type roadie for what it'll cost you to convert the flat to drops. I had a similar idea many moons ago and this was the recommendation - basic Shimano Claris levers will set you back ~£90, set of bars maybe £20, perhaps a new stem £20, tape £10, Wires £10, Routing £10 add just over a hundred quid more and you've got a fully-functional road machine with none of the hassle.
My two cents.
Edit: not to mention the cassette on your current machine is an 8 speed; finding levers that cater for 8 speed is (from my experience) a farking pain in the arse.
My two cents.
Edit: not to mention the cassette on your current machine is an 8 speed; finding levers that cater for 8 speed is (from my experience) a farking pain in the arse.
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raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Butterfly bars?
the stupid one
Über Member
- Location
- NWUK
Seconded. I put mine on only yesterday to alleviate numb hands, and haven't had time to ride more than half an hour with them, but first impressions are positive. Well worth a try - mine were an inexpensive eBay find, I moved the brakes/shifters over from the straight bars, put some old grips on next to them, and wrapped some bar tape (not expensive) the rest of the way.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Or North Roads, flipped if you want a lower position.
The other cheap fixes not replacing the bars are ski-bar ends (upwards or downwards) or Origin 8 drop bar ends - but she won't have quick access to brakes/shifters from the drops, so use with a bit of caution.
@vickster speaks sagely about the bike size/length being different as a side-effect of changing bars!
They're still fairly common, as long as you don't want your brake levers doing your gears
gaijintendo
Veteran
- Location
- Scotchland
I put a slightly rising stem and ergo grips on my flat bar and that completely fixed things. The only thing in addition to this is, perhaps better cushioned gloves?
They're still fairly common, as long as you don't want your brake levers doing your gears
True, but experience in getting brifters limits you to Sora or Claris if you're looking at Shimano components. Or MicroShift if you want something cheaper. I'm not saying it's impossible but it's a helluva lot of work for something that might be better achieved by purchasing a road ready bike
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
(emphasis mine) - it depends what you think better is. Keeping a bike you enjoy might be "better" for some. I'd agree that it's not simple, quite a bit of work and may not be successful, though.I'm not saying it's impossible but it's a helluva lot of work for something that might be better achieved by purchasing a road ready bike
Also, that should probably be a "ready-made road bike"... most bikes are ready for the road.
I can certainly offer advice if @rivers wants to go ahead having had the internal struggle about going flat to drops in the past. If his better half likes the geometry of the Pinnacle then i'd say fire away - it's a nice looking model with the potential for upgrades on the components.
On the other hand it's likely to be costly and time-consuming to get it done. Furthermore the bike is through-routed which may cause further issues if brifters are the preferred option.
I think we need input from OP before we can go further!
Sorry, I've been at work at all weekend! The bike is the right size for her, and besides irritating her wrists after a couple of hours, she finds the bike very comfortable to ride. Her other option is raising the stem a bit (which would be cheaper and quite a bit easier, but as she has expressed an interest in potentially converting to a drop bar, so thought I would ask). She also seems oddly excited about potentially switching to a drop bar... If we were even remotely the same height, I would let her have a go on my bike, but I'm 5'2" and she's 5'8"... She's not set on brifters, and quite happy to go for a cheaper option.
