A bit OT really.

My GF was given a basic road bike which she likes apart from the dropbars and ergonomic issues with braking (long reach and small not very strong hands). It has caliper brakes and Shimano Soma combined shift/brake levers.

I was wondering about the possibility of changing to a flat bar which she will like, and what would need doing to re-use or replace the levers? Is it possible?

it is possible , but you would have to replace the brake levers and the shifters.

I looked into this for my CX when i was having issues with my wrist. As stan says, yo wil lneed new shifters and brakelevers, which will need to be compatible wih the brakes you have – or new brakes to match the levers. There’s always a market for roadie STI units though according to JOn who runs my LBS

If you go to a flat bar you’ll need new levers – how about bullhorns instead? You can keep the shifters but get a more upright position. I did that to my Peregrine as I was never happy on the drops that I had originally fitted.

Early Morning Ride by paulfulford, on Flickr

Some will say that you mess up the handling by putting flats on a bike designed for drops and vice-versa. I’ve never tried so I don’t know

It is possible and I did the same on my gf’s bike a while ago.

What you’ll need is something like a ST-R225 set of combined shifters levers. They work fine with calipers, cable pull not seeming to be an issue.

One thing to think about is reach. If the bike fits her with drops, it might be too short with a flat bar. Might need a longer stem?

I tried it with mini v’s and some halford V brake levers I had lying around. Worked fine. For shifters just some old MTB 9 speed LX stis.

i have never got on with drops. even the widest versions.
my current set up on my tourer is 700mm flat bars, avid vee brake levers, xt shifters and x-lite stubby barends, all wrapped in a nice comfy cork griptape.
very nice indeed.

Wikipedia:
Bullhorn bars may be constructed simply by cutting the drops off of drop bars and then mounting them upside down so that the remaining start of the drop provides a slight upward hook for resting the hands

Y’know, that might just work!

Just make sure that you leave enough of the ‘drop’ to mount the levers