Making a hybrid a bit racier

[heliosphan]

Hi,

I have a Sirrus Comp, which i have used for a couple of triathlons. I cannot afford new bike, and would like to make the current one a bit faster and more suitable for racing. My thoughts are:
23mm tyres (it came with 28)
Cantilever brakes (it came with V)
Bullhorn bars with
STI shifters
(and possibly aero bars)

The other issue is that the bracket that connects the stem to the handlebars is angled (upwards) to give an upright riding position. I have turned it the other way up, to lower them, but it is less than ideal. But I do not know if it is a standard size and shape.

I spoke to my local bike shop, and they were staggeringly unhelpful. Couldn't get past "we recommend that you buy a new bike". My plan was to buy the various bits and pieces online, either ebay or cheap websites, and have a go at putting the whole together myself. (I am not very technical and so would be cautious about ballsing it up) but seems to be the way forward!

What do you guys think? Would these things be the right things to do? Am I missing anything?

(The other problem with buying a second hand racer is that I am 6'6" tall, and believe it or not there are very few second hand bikes around that would fit me, even if I could afford one).

Sorry if these are all thickie questions. I have just got back into cycling (after leaving it for about 15 years).

All help and advice gratefully received.

Thanks all and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.

 

[02GF74]

ofcourse the shop want to sell you a new bike, that is what pays their wages but if your legs and lungs are good, then you can race on an inferior bike.

thinner tyres will make a difference, then look at getting lighter wheels - ebay would be good place to look.

V - brakes on a road bike or is it a hybrid?
cantilever brakes are generally inferior to v-brkaes unless they are correctly set up so leave those alone.

 

[palinurus]

You'll get most benefit from adding bullhorns and extension bars and changing the tyres.

STI shifters on the bullhorns would work but it would probably work out cheaper to have indexed shifters on the extension bars and brake levers on the bullhorns- although this might be inconvenient if you put the bike to other uses.

Like this

Not sure whether you'll need to change the brakes- it depends on how much cable your levers pull.

 

[palinurus]

You can buy stems with all sorts of different lengths and angles, and they are relatively cheap. You might need to mess around with your position once you've got your handlebar setup sorted.

 

[GrasB]

YMMV & it's not exactly elegant however I've converted a flat bar bike to bullhorns & TT brake levers with separate MTB shifters on the front of the horns & that works well for me. What is the reason for going to canti' brakes? Is it just so you don't have to use linear pull brake levers? I'm using SRAM TT levers with Shimano XT Vs front & rear without a linear pull adaptor noodle with no issues. For shifters I'm using the stock shifters which came with the bike.

As for the stem, what's not ideal about it? Most stems you can buy look like the manufacture knows people flip them over, your steerer is probably 1 1/8" but you can always take the stem off & measure it anyway. The biggest problem you may have is stem length if your bulls are quite long & your frame is about right now. But even problems like that aren't insurmountable if you think things through properly.