Drop Bar Conversion

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s_casey99

Regular
Hello,
I'm looking to put drop bars on my 2011 Specialized Sirrus Elite.
Could anyone give me any advice as to what bars/components would be suitable for this bike please?

Thanks in advance.

Steve
 

Scilly Suffolk

Über Member
Have a search of the forums: this question comes up quite often.

The short answer is that while it is certainly possible, it is often more trouble, expense or both than it's worth.
 

Sittingduck

Legendary Member
Location
Somewhere flat
Brakes need consideration too. It's not as simple as you might think. I think HLaB of this parish did something very similar and will doubtless be along in due course to confirm :biggrin:
 

Andy_R

Hard of hearing..I said Herd of Herring..oh FFS..
Location
County Durham
WRT brakes, if you're staying with standard V brakes, then you need V-Brake compatible levers such as Tekto RL-520V or Cane Creek Drop V. Otherwise you'll have to change your brakes to either short v's or canti's. STI lever won't work with V-brakes so you may have to think about using bar end shifters or drop bar shifters if you don't want to change your brakes. Lots of variables.:wacko:
 
Brakes need consideration too. It's not as simple as you might think. I think HLaB of this parish did something very similar and will doubtless be along in due course to confirm :biggrin:
Yip ;) , the frame's a good one so the conversion is good that way and I was surprised it never cost that much relatively when I did (iirc £15 stem, £20 bar, £12tape, £99sti's and new cables circa £5) but the sti's pull half the amount of cable needed to operate the v'brakes, so they were very spongey. I went back and added problem solver travel agents (circa £15 x 2 ) and this improved things a bit but its still not as good as a dedicated road bike.
 
OP
OP
S

s_casey99

Regular
Thanks to you all, really helpful.
Ta.
 

lulubel

Über Member
Location
Malaga, Spain
the sti's pull half the amount of cable needed to operate the v'brakes, so they were very spongey. I went back and added problem solver travel agents (circa £15 x 2 ) and this improved things a bit but its still not as good as a dedicated road bike.

The other alternative would be to change the V-brakes for centre pull cantilevers, which doesn't have to be expensive in itself. I've got Tektro CR720s on my cross bike, and they're at least as good as the callipers on my old road bike (Ribble are currently selling them for about £12.75 each).

If you do that, you'll need a cable hangar, which is cheap if you can replace a headset spacer with one that incorporates a cable hangar. It's a bit awkward with some headset/stem combinations, though, because there isn't always a lot of room (as I found when I built my bike). The expensive option would be to change the headset for a CX one that incorporates a cable hangar.
 

Alun

Guru
Location
Liverpool
If you do that, you'll need a cable hangar, which is cheap if you can replace a headset spacer with one that incorporates a cable hangar. It's a bit awkward with some headset/stem combinations, though, because there isn't always a lot of room (as I found when I built my bike). The expensive option would be to change the headset for a CX one that incorporates a cable hangar.
Or one of these chaps http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b17s101p0 for the front, there are similar arrangements for the rear.
Mini vees such as the Tektro RX5's are effective and don't need that hanger nonsense, and they need the same cable pull as cantis, thus will work with std drop bar STI levers
 

lulubel

Über Member
Location
Malaga, Spain
Mini vees such as the Tektro RX5's are effective and don't need that hanger nonsense, and they need the same cable pull as cantis, thus will work with std drop bar STI levers

I read up on those a bit when I was researching my build, and some of the reviews I found seemed a bit negative. But then, if you go by the reviews, there's nothing as good as callipers for a road bike, so I wasn't expecting much from the CR720s either, but I've managed to lock the wheels with them a couple of times on clean, dry roads, so they can't be that bad.
 

Mr Celine

Discordian
According to this 2012 sora levers will work with any type of brakes, including Vs and discs.

I'm considering converting my 06 Sirrus to drops.
My dry weather bike hasn't been much use recently and the Sirrus has mudguards.
 

andrew_s

Legendary Member
Location
Gloucester
By far the simplest way of converting a flat bar bike to drops is to use Tektro RL520 or Dia-Compe 287V compatible brake levers with bar-end shifters.
If you want integrated brake/shift levers (STI/Ergo), you will have to change the front mech (to a road model) and brakes.

Bear in mind that the default "on the hoods" riding position puts the hand further in front of the stem than on flat bars, so you may wish for a shorter stem to compensate.
 

ishay

New Member
It's possible. I've gone from this
specialized-sirrus-comp-2011-hybrid-bike.jpg

to this
image.jpg

I had a few bits lying around (seat pin, stem, handlebars) and originally built it up with Campy Xenon and Mavic alloy wheels that I also had in the garage, but broken parts became good opportunities to upgrade and have caused me to outlay about £600 replacing the groupset to Centaur (less the mini-v brakes) and the wheels (chinese carbon). It's now a great training bike and being so laid back in the geometry means I can go to the other extreme with my other bike and get a full on race setup. The front mech broke the day I took this, and so is removed, it has since been replaced. This diet took it from 24lbs to about 18lbs.
 
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