Going to experiment with building my Stooge up as a monster cross. If I get on with it I’ll buy a vagabond frame.

Few questions-
1. What bars do people run? They appear to have more flare than normal Cx bars? The alpkit ones look interesting.
2. Stem length.. not even sure what to get. 50mm okay to use?
3. Thinking of running BB7s, just for ease of use with setting up with levers.
4. I’ll be running 1×11 xt m8000, I can’t seem to find any levers or shifters that I can run? Anything out there to make it compatible?

Any other general advice would be appreciated.

Hi, about to convert my Swift into a monstercross.

Going for Midge flare bars &105 Brifters. Stating the obvious but make sure the BB7s are road version as MTB and Road levers have differing pull lengths.

I’d use whatever stem suits you!

Just my 2p worth.

Cheers

Chris

Shifters going to be a problem on drop bars with xt rear. Only one i am aware of that will work is gevenalle, Charlie the bike monger stocks them. Jtek or other company might to a adapter you could use on more normal brifters, or change derailleur to road one.

I used a 31.8 front mech mount to get a trigger shifter on my Cx/gravel/road bike.
Paul components make a similar mount for Sram shifters, but there’s nothing (that I could find) for Shimano as each level shifter uses a different mounting method.
I’ve also go a set of the alpkit Lovemud bombers, which have a great feel, but the drop section needs to be another inch or two longer (especially if you have big hands).
If you want to run road levers / shifters with an x rear mech then Linderets make the tartan to convert the leverages. link

Cowchipper bars here – really like them
I run a very short stem
Hylex hydro brakes which are also great
and the Gevanalle shifters, they do a conversion for the hylex (or you can do Jtek/ Wolf tooth tanpan adapters for STI’s)

Thanks all! Very helpful comments.
Yeah, it’s the mtb gears I’ll struggle with. £40 is a fair bit of money for troubleshooting the issue. I might be able to run SRAM GX instead of XT if there’s

Monkeyboy- any chance you could post up how you made the shifter adapter?

For some reason photobucket won’t let me upload pics at the moment….

But.. Essentially I bought the 31.8 version of this from eBay for about £3

Then hacksawed the Shimano clamp off the shifter, leaving the thread-in part on the shifter – bolt through the front derailleur hole and job done.

Hopefully THIS link to a photo will work

BTW if your after some drop bar break leavers I’ve some Cane-creek ones in the buy/sell for sale (brown hood version of the ones in the photo). Pm me if you’re interested.

Nice thinking monkeyboyjc – I did a similar hack with a spare exposure light mount I had. But it didn’t work quite as well as yours so I ended up spending £40 a secondhand set of SRAM bar end shifters. Wish I’d seen this post first!

TBH I kinda stole the idea from a guy who’d used a 31.8 seatclamp – but he’d had to do loads of grinding to get it to work, I think it was on mtbr.

Cowchippers are very expensive, especially if they turn out that you don’t get on with them. Anyone know a cheapish source? Apologies, I didn’t intend to hijack the thread!

Cowchippers are very expensive

That why I thought I’d try out flared bars with the Lovemud bombers first – only £25 – now I’ve tried them I’d like to get something similar with a longer drop section.

Woolf tooth tanpan will let you mix xt with shimano road shifters, it’s what I use. Xt clutch mech and ultegra shifters with a big cassette no problems

Great info, cheers Monkeyboy & everyone else!
I’ll take MBs route then. Do you find the clamp secure enough? Does the one bolt not want to make the shifter rotate?

If you’re looking to get rid, I’ll take the Lovemud bombers off you? Might be interested in your Canecreeks too, though was looking at the black version.

Ritchey now do cowchipper-esque bars, the cheaper ones are about half the price. I like them alot on my cross bike. 9 speed mtb mechs will work with at least 10 speed road STI units. Otherwise use a road mech with the goatlink adaptor, tho I’d worry about the leverage on the hanger in case of a crash.

I might be able to run SRAM GX instead of XT

If buying SRAM’s an option, Apex/Rival/Force 1 marries 1x MTB-range derailleurs with road shifters.

Those particular 10-42 capable derailleurs use road pull ratios, so you can use any SRAM road 11 lever (drop bar STI or bar-end shifter).

But a GX derailleur won’t run with 11 speed road unless you use a jtek style pull ratio adapter, similar to XT.

If you’d had 10-speed SRAM stuff lying around you would have fared better, as the MTB and road pull rations were the same.

I started mine off with midge bars, I ended up swapping them for Cowbells (probably would have gone for cowchippers if they’d been available then). I found with the midge bars that you can set them up to be comfy in the drops or comfy on the hoods, but not both. Same issue with woodchippers.

Something closer to a traditional road shape gives you more options for hand placements, which is one of the best things about drops in the 1st place.

Do you find the clamp secure enough? Does the one bolt not want to make the shifter rotate?

It is secure, yes it does want to rotate a little, but nothing major that you’d notice during use. The clamp does put the shifter a little further forward than the Shimano one.

If you’re looking to get rid, I’ll take the Lovemud bombers off you?

They are staying for now I’m afraid (can’t justify more ££ on bikes for a while).

Might be interested in your Canecreeks too, though was looking at the black version.

Pm me regards the Cane Creek levers. I also swapped them for a black pair as I couldn’t find hoods (the hoods are also booming tight so I don’t think that they are replaceable).

Mine runs inverted Soma Sparrow with a 100 mm stem and standard mtb brakes. Singlespeed stans crest and CX Pro tyres tubeless (26″ wire bead tyres)

Probably not a solution for you but I came up against the same problem using an XT rear derailleur on my Surly Crosscheck. As I was just experimenting I decided to try out some down tube shifters and I’ve never looked back. I thought it would be a bit precarious off road but it’s really not a problem. I got some Sunrace ones for about £20 and they’re really solid bits of kit with a lovely ‘snick’ to them.