Hi

I currently have this road bike and have been thinking about converting it to drop bars.

Any reason why this could not / should not be done…?

Appreciated
Fleb.

It could be done, but it isn’t going to be cheap. £100 + for STIs plus bars plus new stem (possibly) plus new front mech (possibly).

I did it with a specialized sirrus (similar to the marin) a few years back, and it was OK, but the position was a bit stretched out.

It could be quite expensive – you probably won’t find a set of 9spd STI levers for less than £150, plus bar, plus tape, plus brake and shifter cables. And you may have issues with the brakes if they are normal V-brakes – the cable pull is wrong with standard drop bar brake levers. So you may need to swap them for mini-V brakes, or use some sort of widget to translate the cable pull.

So you may end up spending the better part of half the new cost of the bike if you’re not careful.

Also, you’ll probably find you need to loose an inch or so from the stem.

mail me at : thisisnotaspoon@yahoo.co.uk

I’ve just striped an entire 9s groupset off my road bike, all tiagra, cannondale (normal sized clamp) bars, white bar tape, cosmetic scuffage. £80 for bars, shifter, cables, tape etc?

I’d also advise swaping to a shorter stem as you’ll spend most of the time on the hoods or drops.

I recently went the other way

sold Tiagra 9spd STI for £70

and I still have a 42cm bar (31.8mm, white) which you can have for £10 posted.

Overall, my changeover cost was £40. Yours might be a bit more but maybe not much more.

[personally I’m no fan of drop bars for a number of reasons but each to his own and all that..]

hmmm interesting…thanks for the replies.

re: brakes then – so no issues with swapping the v-brakes for real road brakes? mounts are the same arent they?

re: stem – actually i will probably stick with the same stem length as i could do with a little more reach anyway as i bought a bit too minimalist on the frame size for my height..

plus new front mech (possibly).

Currently have a triple crankset so does this mean that my front mech would be different and as a result unsuitable for road shifters?? (sorry I am not as technical as I should be!)

re: drops – to be honest i have never felt safe or balanced in the past when tested bikes with drops but i reckon i would get used to it! maybe!?!

(sigh, anyone got a cheapish road bike for sale that they want to swap for a Marin flat bar road ish bike in white?!?!?)

Currently have a triple crankset so does this mean that my front mech would be different and as a result unsuitable for road shifters?? (sorry I am not as technical as I should be!)

It depends. An MTB shifter front mech can be bodged to work with road sti’s (something to do with how you clamp the cable IIRC), but when I did it, I bought a Sora front mech as I couldn’t get it right.

I think the tiagra shifters were non specific, theres just loads of clicks rather than 2or3 major ones and some minor ones so the mech should work.

Brakes, V’s can work with drop levers but you either:

Put up with them feeling very grabby and overpowered with little modulation, or fit ‘travel agents’ which replace the noodles that bend the cable 90deg into the brake but alter the pull to halve the ammountof cable it pulls (V’s oull about half the cable of road or cant brakes), or fit canti brakes (same fitting as V’s, same pull as road brakes). Road brakes fit with a single bolt above the wheel.