My wife isn’t getting on with the drop bars and 105 STI set up on her bike and would like to have them removed and replaced with a flat bar, mountain bike shifters and brake levers. The bike currently has 105 STI shifters, 105 double chainset/mech and 105 9 speed rear mech. The brakes are standard 105 road brakes as well.
(The very good – almost unmarked 105 shifters are about to be advertised in the classifieds for not much money).
What shifters and brake levers will work without having to fit travel agents, replace mechs etc?
Thanks

Mechs and shifters should be fine, you might struggle on brakes though.

Shimano do a range of flat bar road shifter and brakes too you know

Any shimano MTB or flat-bar road shifters should be fine

You’ll need special road caliper brake brake levers though, v-brake levers will have the wrong cable pull. Shimano make what you’re looking for, see THIS LINK HERE

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

V brake levers work fine with caliper brakes, they don’t work with cantilever brakes.

It will need a new MTB front mech will it not. I would maybe get Avid SD levers with the adjustment to get the right brake feel and something like SLX shifters.

If you leave the current levers/shifters on the bars they should sell complete for a good price. I sold some Sora 7 speeds on drop bars for £40 + postage on ebay when I did the above for my wife. Hopefully you can cover the cost of the change.

nmdbase – Member
V brake levers work fine with caliper brakes, they don’t work with cantilever brakes.

Incorrect – will still be wooden and lacking in power.

The front shifter will pull too much cable, but you can still set the mech to work OK, the cable will be slack in the small ring…or youy can get road-gear levers (sti versions may well work with road calipers too) but less around cheap or SH I’d guess.

Yes def use the R550 levers, nice and they also come with inner and outer brake cables + have the right pull for caliper and canti an are good value – plus youcan get silver and black

http://www.simpsoncycles.co.uk/product.php/568/shimano_tiagra_r550_brake_levers_for_flat_handlebar

these for shifters:

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/shimano-sl-r440-rapidfire-9-speed-shifter-pods-for-flat-bar-set-ups-prod5791/

some slightly inaccurate advice above…

RH shifter – any MTB shifter is fine (of the right speed of course…)

LH shifter – the SL-R440 shifter is the one if you want it spot on.
An MTB shifter pulls more cable – you can get it to work on a double though, as cynic-al points out, but you’ll need to adjust the limit screw on the mech to stop the overshift onto the small ring.

Levers – any cantilever or flatbar levers. V levers will not be a good idea with DPs due to having too much cable pull. You’ll have a hard lever and sod all power. Even the Avid SD levers on their ‘softest’ setting (smallest pivot length) are still fairly hard and weak.
Look out for some Dia Compe SS5 or SS7 – lovely levers.

link to the Shifters in Sales, please..

Oh and you might end up with something very uncomfortable as the frame will likely have been designed to operate with drop bars.

Thanks for the replies.

druid’s “proble” sorted with longer stem – though that may affect handling. If she’s not used to bikes then the shorter length may suit her fine.

“Shimano do a range of flat bar road shifter and brakes too you know”

I’ve only just seen this. ‘Kin ‘ell! Had you just sat on a drawing pin or something?