i’ve seen a few ‘show me your dropped barred mtb’ pic threads here but wondering why folks recommend changing the stem when doing this?

I am swithering about doing this to my Inbred for the cross season but would need srop brake levers as well that would work my V brakes.

Any advice on converting appreciated

If you use the dropped part of the bar it can dramatically change the riders position on the bike – think dropped part about lower headset cup height.

Higher rise stems negate this issue.

Well thats my take on it!

Are you John Tomac?

If no, walk away…! 🙂

Road/cross bikes have shorter tt to accommodate long reach to drops. Hence need for short stem. Off-road riding in drops is more secure – need to get drops higher than on road bike results in need for high-rise stem. I converted an old Inbred 29er and loved it, but ultimately binned it as tt too long.

Ive put drops on my scandal and used a 80mm 35deg stem.
Still too low, so have added a 75mm steerer extender. It now feels perfect, but it’s now uglier than an ugly thing. But I dont care. Its making me go out and ride nearly every day at the moment. Absolutely loving it and it climbs like a goat.

Will take a pic with the extender just to make your eyes bleed, but here it is before beautification:

Ideally you need a drop-specific frame, which will have a shorter top tube. If you fancy trying out it on your Inbred anyway you want a very high-rise stem, and even then it may feel to stretched out and too low. Be prepared for an ugly set up!

I love riding on drops, just for something different, but I have a flat-bar’ed bike as well. I don’t’ think I would have drops on my only bike tbh.

here’s the beauty with the steerer extender

and what it does to the geometry when cmpared with my normal Ti29er, riser bars.
The extender has lifted the drops by 75-80mm

I love it. But like Vanessa Feltz, its best ridden after dark.

Stoner – you are not wrong, that is one ugly set up, but I bet it is fun. Bite the bullet and get yourself a Gryphon 🙂

My thinking as a rule of thumb was that the top of the bars had to be level with the top of the saddle … well thats the theory I am using for current bike i’m building.. luckily I am working with an uncut steerer so can just stack spacers under the stem.

What bars are those? I think I’d like a set on my roadrat.

On-One Midge Bars

http://on-one.co.uk/i/q/HBOOMI/on-one-midge-handlebar

Cool. Might look for a second hand set.

Just for the hell of it…my slightly-less-ugly drop bar 29er

[/url]

honourablegeorge – Member

Cool. Might look for a second hand set.

i have a set sitting spare. mail me if your interested.

cheers, that setup is indeed a touch, ‘face-only-a-mother-could-love’!! but who cares!

What brake levers are you using?

Ah, if we have moved into posting pictures of Gryphons … 😉

Drop specific frames do make the setup a bit neater, but even here I’ve got a bit of rise and some spacers – although it’s such a terrible photo it’s almost impossible to tell what I’ve done. (I’m very fond of my Gryphon, it’s a great bike – so much so I’ve got another one on my ‘geared 29er for 2012’ shortlist).

Um, I don’t want to appear picky, but those are not actually drop handlebars are they?

At the risk of Tomacing the thread, these are drops;

wtf are they then?

or do you mean they are not road drops?

At the risk of Tomacing the thread

the goodwins law of drop bar mtb threads.

Oh I dunno … I’d be fairly confident that Mr Tomac there would have ridden on Midge / Woodchipper / Luxy bars etc if they’d been available back in the day …

I suspect not. He used drops to recreate his road bike position on the mountain bike, not to be niche…

Well well, very interesting.

I wondered how you were getting on with your set up Stoner. I have a Scandal 29er (the other sample like tazzymtb’s) and had the same thoughts as you about drop barring it. Last week I sat on a Gryphon in Keswick which felt intriguing. Like you I have a steerer that’s cut right down (by Brant when he built the bike for the Haworth Mudman) and I didn’t even know steerer extenders existed until I saw a bike with one today!

Do you reckon it’s solid enough? There was some discussion about them here which was a bit off-putting. I can feel a winter project coming on 🙂

no idea if dangerous. Mine started to creak on this evenings ride so shall strip and remount tomorrow morning over a coffee. Theres a lot of metal and some big M5 allen bolts so if you keep an eye on it, have some mechanical sympathy and feel what the limits might be, I dont see why it cant be a fairly longterm solution.

Another cracking ride tonight. Its such a nice position to ride off road in.

PS TBH no one is going to have an uncut steerer long enough for that build.

I can see you’ll be getting a Gryphon. Perhaps we can persuade Brant to do an OO version.

To add to what crikey said above, re Tomac, he did it while still riding for the 7 eleven road team, on advice from his coach. He, Tomac, said it was a bad decision and wasn’t good for anything!

Stoner – can you see what effect this stem would have on the bar position? I’m thinking long but 50 degree rise. It does say not for DH or aggressive off road though 🙂

Also the OO Monsta project that never got very far http://www.flickr.com/photos/shedfire/6009074472/

Not really what Brant’s into these days but still . . .

I was considering one of those stems initially 🙂

as for geometry, Im not near a pad of paper and calculator so you can do it 🙂

Top blue circle on my diagram is bar centre for my normal MTB, hi rise easton bars, 90mm, 10deg rise stem.

Bottom blue circle is mid way long drops on the monster with 80mm stem, 35deg rise.

Yellow one is 80mm higher after steerer extender rise.

Ah. Thought you must have some fancy CAD programme or something 🙂

I’ve got Carnegies on with an 80mm 10deg stem I think so not quite the same starting point. Incidentally, Singular Sam has one or two paint damaged Gryphons (and peregrines) going slightly cheap.

Im holding out for the new swapout scandal.