Go On, Show Me Your Drop Bar MTBs*

hairy, you’ll want that 650b xs Peregrine, then!

I’m just building a Salsa Fargo up, Nick.

Umming and erring over medium or large, went with the latter which means no doubt I’ll be selling it for a medium in a few weeks… 🙂

Was planning on making it a cheap build and then before I know it I’ve bought a Rasta King headset, some Crossmax 29ers and other inappropriate bits. I’ll never learn. Pictures some time next week before taking it to the Lakes for a week once it’s finished.

[/url] swift bull [/url] by matt hampshire[/url], on Flickr[/img]

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swift with woodchippers[/url] by matt hampshire[/url], on Flickr

Almost forgot I had this for a while too.

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2008_0810fodniche0056[/url] by singlespeedstu[/url], on Flickr

There’s an article on the web that often gets quoted whenever someone asks “why drop bars”. IIRC the guy who wrote it was advocating them on Sus-forked and FS bikes.

TBH I’d just do it, the bike is so rarely the limiting factor for most people IMO 😎

drop-bars and a lefty just looks plain odd (from that angle)

I’m going to regret this, but….

Purely out of academic interest what’s the cheapest you reckon I could build up a Singular Griffin with gears? Never done a build but somehow have become strangely captivated by these funny looking things and quite fancy something that I could use for a mixed on-road/off-road commute.

Was thinking about Boardman CX but these just look so much more interesting… Loving the pictures!

Umming and erring over medium or large, went with the latter which means no doubt I’ll be selling it for a medium in a few weeks…

Well I’m def after a large so if you find you want to sell it then let me know 🙂

what a bunch of munters.

Build cost of a Gryphon – not sure but a few hundred more than a regular 26″ frame build as the particular components are in less supply and tend to be a touch more.

Careful secondhand and classifieds buys would make a big saving. But, again, the stuff you’d need comes up a bit less often.

Superstar do some of the cheapest (and so far fine) 29er wheelsets that I found.

STI’s are rather expensive and their cable pull means you either have to buy road cable disc brakes (IIRC Tektro or Avids). Alternatively any old road brake levels and go SS (not for me) or bar end shifters (cheaper than STIs).

Normal MTB cranks, rings, cassettes and BB’s all work

At least you’re saving money on the build (compared to a 26″) by not needing suspension forks.

Factor in funny bars as well like Luxy’s or Woodchippers.

There’s secondhand 29er tyres to be had as well. Plus tubes, bar tape etc.

Don’t let it put you off. So far mine’s been great fun. It is handy to give it a long build time to source the best and cheapest bits though. Otherwise buying new, off the peg stuff would probably be (guessing wildly) £1,200.

Cheeky’s assessment is probably pretty accurate. If you wanted to work through me or one of my dealers I’d also be happy to put together a quote on a full build for you. Around £1000 should be achievable, but would mean some pretty basic lower end parts for things like stem saddle and seatpost, as well as entry level drivetrain and groupset components. If you are interested drop me a line, I may also have some lightly used or shop soiled bits floating around I can do at a good price.

Sam, is there a frame suitable for a 5’7″ shortie? Just curious at present but as the future seems much brighter than ever before… I have the vast majority of bits (wheels, brakes, chainset etc) so it’s just a frame I would be looking for (hypothetical only at present).

Hairy, yes, an S Peregrine would likely work, certainly an XS but that may even be too small. You may well squeeze on to an M Gryphon as well.

Thanks, Gryphon seems ugly as hell, Peregrine looks nicer IMHO but is so much more expensive 🙄
Back to considering what should happen were I able to…

Why would you want one of these??

they look great 8)

Perhaps my not being British makes me understand the word “great” somewhat differently to you. Each to their own, I suppose 😀
They’re dog ugly in most cases on those pictures but they might be night club girl-like (once you hop on you don’t notice the looks).

Those bikes look awesome!

^ NOT ^

Don’t know if a Roadrat counts a a MTB
but here it is anyway

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P1030654[/url] by eastham_david[/url], on Flickr

My Pug wearing drops and skinny slicks(2.5 hookworms)for summer 😀

^^^ Almost a racer 😀 ^^^

Nice Pug Ferrit – a bike for all seasons 😉

weirdos

Funny how appearance is so important to the posturing fashion following pseudo XC trail park racers. You think they would be more concerned with function.

If you haven’t ridden a properly setup dropbar bike offroad you don’t know what you are talking about.

I won’t enumerate the advantages myself because it has been said better by Shiggy.

And here’s mine just before the 12 hour StrathPuffer Lite. The dropbars made the fast descents on corrugated singletrack a lot more secure and I didn’t get sore wrists either. Vomit away 🙂

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needs a gold front hub and brown bar-tape all the way down. 😉
but I do like the drop-bar fat-bikes.

ir_bandito – Member
needs a gold front hub and brown bar-tape all the way down…

It’s got a gold hub on its normal wheel 🙂 (The fat front was an experiment for the race)

The black grip on the bars is nice and thick – need it for a 12 hour race with no suspension. I normally don’t tape the top, it’s just to keep the cables tidy.

Although the Singular Swift, Gryphon and Peregrine are all lovely (IMO, of course), that’s my favourite so far Epicyclo. What is it? Can I have a go please?!

To all – how are the cable discs?

And I still need to know how drops handle on a hardtail.

Cable discs are fine. They’re not as good as hydro’s (at least the ones I’ve set up aren’t 😉 However, they stop the bike and I haven’t clattered into anything yet so, IMO, a success.

And I still need to know how drops handle on a hardtail.

Err, not sure what you mean? Lots of the stuff above are drops on HTs. Unless you mean on a sus’ forked HT. If so have you read the article by some bloke called “Shiggy” that’s linked above. He seems to have managed riding in the latter case fine.

veedubba – Member
Although the Singular Swift, Gryphon and Peregrine are all lovely (IMO, of course), that’s my favourite so far Epicyclo. What is it? Can I have a go please?!
To all – how are the cable discs?
And I still need to know how drops handle on a hardtail.

1. Ragley TD-1 with a Ti fork and fat wheel. (An experiment 🙂 )
2. Cable discs can be pretty good if you get rid of all the flex and compression between the levers and the calliper. On my bike you may notice I have replaced the cable outer where possible with narrow bore aluminium tubing. It means that cable movement is not wasted on compressing the outer.
3. Very well. I think they are better than flats. I feel much more secure on them on fast rough downhills*. The only drawback for some is you can’t buy hydraulic brakes for them.

*Edit: just thinking about it. I’m not a fast rider, but on the View Rock long descent at the ‘Puffer I was only passed about 3 or 4 times in the race. I put that down to the control the bars give me, rather than skill.

If you’re thinking of getting a bike for dropbars, then you won’t go wrong with the Gryphon which is designed for that use – a lovely bike.

I only use BB7’s and set up properly on decent rotors, they are great.
I use LBS cable inners (Jagwire probably), and Goodrich cable outers which can make for slightly unconventional routing given their stiffness, but it gives great breaking.

Avid have not long changed the rotors they ship with BB7’s, and the new ones look/feel more substantial, plus the steel appears to be a ‘better’ steel (it feels like there is a better grain structure / and better HT’ing).

I could of course be talking rubbish, but they do feel ‘better’ rotors – so much so I’ll perhaps actually try them on my next build, not just put them in the spares cupboard without them ever going near a bike). 🙄

EPICYCLO your bike is awesome dude the dogs nutts 😀

Yeah, I meant HT vs fully rigid as most drop barred bikes seem to have rigid forks. There are some lovely bikes on this thread, and lots of good examples of the possibilities.

I’ll have a look at Shiggy’s article.

Bear in mind one of the advantages of dropbars is that you have less need for suspension.

Lighter bike, and avoid the need to spend several hundred £ on a fork that won’t improve your performance by much. (There’s no point in getting a cheap fork.) You may even be faster with the rigid – I am. What I may lose on the downhills I more than gain on the climbs.

epicyclo, are they the luxy bars?

they look like midge bars to me but I can be wrong sometimes. The ones on my Pug are Luxys

Why oh why are drop bar 29ers sized with stupid short seat tubes and stupid long head tubes?

You may even be faster with the rigid – I am. What I may lose on the downhills I more than gain on the climbs.

Have you proof of that? If so, I reckon you need to look at your riding, or the trails simply don’t need suspension!

I’m liking the idea of trying this on my rigid bike, I did after all start off road riding on a dropped bar bike. I’ve got a v rake at the back and a BB7 up front but will that work with drop levers or am I looking at having to get the road version of the BB7?

I’ve not tried a drop-bar lever on a mtb caliper, I suspect it will stop you but will rub and be spongey.

avdave, there are a couple of road levers that have a v-brake pull. I’ve got MTB BB7s with Tektro RL520 levers, which do the job quite nicely.

The hoods are just a little baggy on mine though, not a problem with medium thick tape, but might leave you with a small gap if you like thin tape. which you might ot care about.