Fitting drop bars to a mountain bike

[vbplease]

I understand this is going to sound like a complete bodge.. but.. I really like my mountain bike and I can't really justify swapping it out for a gravel bike at this point in time. The thing I like most about it is the front suspension which I need for the 160km Brisbane Valley Rail trail.

I'd just like it to have more speed and I understand that the hierarchy of factors for speed for gravel, according to Dylan Johnson is:
1) Aero 2) Rolling resistance 3) Drivetrain efficiency and 4) weight

So in an attempt to get more aero, I'd like to have a more aggressive geometry, thus wanting to put on drop bars. I've looked into the Surly corner bars, but think the aero advantage is only marginally better than the standard flat bar which is on there..

I have a spare drop bar waiting to be put on, and assuming there is enough cable length to fit the brakes/gears onto the drops (the diameter of the componentries seem compatible), the only other negative I can see is the compromised handling going down to 42cm wide bars.. but wouldn't a gravel bike have 42cm wide bars, which isn't necessarily considered a negative for a rail trail?

Any other negative issues you can think of?
Thanks

[Retrobyte]

wouldn't a gravel bike have 42cm wide bars

My Norco Search has 44cm flared bars - XS and S come with 42cm and XL and XXL come with 46cm

[bychosis]

You want to put MTB flat bar gears on a drop bar? Might have trouble getting the clamps along past the bends, unless the clamps open up.

Y my brake levers aren’t going to be in a good wide position like on the MTB for when the going gets tight and you need to manoeuvre effectively.

No harm in trying I guess.

[MichaelB]

Heaps of info in these two threads of exactly what you want to do and some of the pitfalls

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=102567&hilit=Xizang

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=102293&hilit=MonsterCross


Happy to answer any questions.

I used the 42cm wide bars on mine

[vbplease]

You want to put MTB flat bar gears on a drop bar? Might have trouble getting the clamps along past the bends, unless the clamps open up.

Yes, this is the first hurdle I’ve come across. I just tried to put them on and the bar ends are more like 23.2mm.. they’ve put a lot more carbon layup in a vertical direction to give more stiffness.. will have to confirm the diameter on the next bars I get..

[vbplease]

Heaps of info in these two threads of exactly what you want to do and some of the pitfalls

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=102567&hilit=Xizang

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=102293&hilit=MonsterCross


Happy to answer any questions.

I used the 42cm wide bars on mine

Thanks, I’ll have a sift through them.. in the meantime I might make an offer on some cheap 44cm wide bars on fb marketplace

[warthog1]

I still fail to see the point of really wide bars on a gravel bike.
My Revolt came with 46cm bars on it with I think a slight flare.
Never, ever needed them that wide and I am 184cm tall with reasonable shoulder width I guess.
Swapped them out for bars that are 40cm at the hoods and flare 12° to 45 in the drops.
Heaps better. Doesn't seem to matter how rough, I don't need wider. Tbh they could run less flare in the drops I reckon but cbfed changing them again.
Don't know your height and body type but can't see 42cm being too narrow for many in terms of bike control.

[vbplease]

On my new road bike I run 40cm and still use 38cm on my old roadie..
but if I’m being honest, my handling skills, or lack of, are quickly exposed on the mountain bike. When I pick up speed I find the extra handlebar width comes in handy..
Having said that, in the interest of increasing ave speed, it may pay to run narrower bars (40-42cm) for the aero gains for 90% of a trail, and then take it super cautious for the other 10%, fast/chunky sections?

[nickobec]

My Norco Search has 44cm flared bars - XS and S come with 42cm and XL and XXL come with 46cm

My Norco Search also came with 44cm flared bars and is now running 38cm flared bars, it far more comfortable for me to ride. Still deciding if I need the flare, but the 38cm are staying and I ride mainly fairly rough double track and a little single track on it.

The issue with the OP idea of trying to keep the original MTB shifters and brake levers with drop bar means you can't brake or shift with you hands on the drop or even in the "hoods" position.

If you want to go faster on an MTB and not have your hands near the brakes or shifters, get aero bars. Faster than drop bars on long flat sections. Dylan Johnson would approve

[RonK]

Negative issues? Well for one, MTB controls are incompatible with road bars. And road controls are not compatible with MTB brakes and groups either so mixing of components is not possible and very like will dictate a complete overhaul of components.

As far as geometry goes - MTB's are typically much longer in the top tube than road bikes.Since the fashion in MTB is for ultra short stems, fitting a drop bar may result in an impossibly long cockpit.

I actually own a drop bar MTB. It's a Salsa Fargo and its geometry is very specific - it has a very tall stack and a short reach, and uses a MTB specific drop bar - to put the drops at a similar position as flat bars would be.

While it's possible with plenty of finagling to make this conversion it's likely to be much more expensive than you expect.

[MichaelB]

Negative issues? Well for one, MTB controls are incompatible with road bars. And road controls are not compatible with MTB brakes and groups either so mixing of components is not possible and very like will dictate a complete overhaul of components.

...

I'll argue the highlighted point above.

In my GT Xizang Monstercross build (and others) have used 4 pot Shimano calipers with road levers with many different combinations, got MTB cranks to work with Road levers, got a top pull MTB FD to work with road levers. Have gotten a RX805 RD to work on an 11sp 10-42 SRAM cassette without issues

It isn't always simple and not always cheap, but there are solutions that work. Note the above is with Shimano.

[jaseyjase]

Any other negative issues you can think of?
Thanks

As mentioned by RonK, using mtb controls and the top tube geo is gonna be the biggest hurdle i think.

If your frame is older, then geometry might be ok. In my experience older mtbs seem to have shorter tubes in comparison to modern frames.

How do you plan on setting up the brakes and gear levers? are you running hydro ? or cable brakes?

Ive done something similar, ie hardtail mtb with dropbar conversion, however i did use brifters and had a rigid fork.

[vbplease]

The issue with the OP idea of trying to keep the original MTB shifters and brake levers with drop bar means you can't brake or shift with you hands on the drop or even in the "hoods" position.

I was wanting to do a pretty simple (bodge) by just putting the MTB brake/gear levers on the bottom of the new drops.. the plan is to set up a comfortable geometry where sitting in the drops 90% of the time is ok, thus having easy access to the gears/brakes.

[vbplease]

Negative issues? Well for one, MTB controls are incompatible with road bars. And road controls are not compatible with MTB brakes and groups either so mixing of components is not possible and very like will dictate a complete overhaul of components.

As far as geometry goes - MTB's are typically much longer in the top tube than road bikes.Since the fashion in MTB is for ultra short stems, fitting a drop bar may result in an impossibly long cockpit.

I actually own a drop bar MTB. It's a Salsa Fargo and its geometry is very specific - it has a very tall stack and a short reach, and uses a MTB specific drop bar - to put the drops at a similar position as flat bars would be.

While it's possible with plenty of finagling to make this conversion it's likely to be much more expensive than you expect.

Thanks Ron.
From what I can tell the MTB controls should fit onto the drops provided I can find bars with a true diameter of 21.8mm. Hopefully just making it a very simple bodge of keeping the same controls and putting on the drops..

Yes, I noticed the top tube is longer.. lucky I have an M frame, where I normally ride L..
I find the stack height on the MTB overly high, so in the interest of getting more aero, the drop bars should fix this, and I anticipate I'll still be in a very comfy position 90% of the time, considering the current stack is so high..

[vbplease]

In my GT Xizang Monstercross build (and others) have used 4 pot Shimano calipers with road levers with many different combinations, got MTB cranks to work with Road levers, got a top pull MTB FD to work with road levers. Have gotten a RX805 RD to work on an 11sp 10-42 SRAM cassette without issues

It isn't always simple and not always cheap, but there are solutions that work. Note the above is with Shimano.

This is getting a little complicated for me.. but if the ergonomics suck of having the brakes/gears on the drops I'll see if I can swap out to brifters to put on the hoods. I'm running Deore (shimano) components..

[vbplease]

As mentioned by RonK, using mtb controls and the top tube geo is gonna be the biggest hurdle i think.

If your frame is older, then geometry might be ok. In my experience older mtbs seem to have shorter tubes in comparison to modern frames.

How do you plan on setting up the brakes and gear levers? are you running hydro ? or cable brakes?

I'm running hydro brakes.. the cable lengths seem to be ok to just put them on the drops for now.

Ive done something similar, ie hardtail mtb with dropbar conversion, however i did use brifters and had a rigid fork.

Awesome looking bike! Did you make the fork rigid? How come?

[jaseyjase]

Awesome looking bike! Did you make the fork rigid? How come?

I replaced the original forks with a carbon rigid set up.

The build was more for gravel grinding, so a suspension front wasnt really required for the riding i planned to do.

Its a little (alot) overkill, but the chunky tires help when it gets a little gnarly. At the cost of speed though.

[Calvin27]

From what I can tell the MTB controls should fit onto the drops provided I can find bars with a true diameter of 21.8mm. Hopefully just making it a very simple bodge of keeping the same controls and putting on the drops..

Not sure what you mean by this, but the ergonomics are going to be royally munted imo. No one does this, and for good reason.

In terms of getting low, you are better off getting something like surly molokov bars and tucking in. Your stack height is a bit higher, but the width is actually less than a drop bar. You can keep your controls with this as well.

[vbplease]

Not sure what you mean by this, but the ergonomics are going to be royally munted imo. No one does this, and for good reason.

Yes, point taken.. I was hoping this wouldn't be the case i.e. the ergonomics would be stuffed.
At the risk of asking for advice then appearing to ignore it.. I may still take the punt. Its only $40 for another (secondhand) drop bar.. I just need to see and try for myself

In terms of getting low, you are better off getting something like surly molokov bars and tucking in. Your stack height is a bit higher, but the width is actually less than a drop bar. You can keep your controls with this as well.

Yeah I looked into the Surly bars.. it really is the stack height I'm trying to resolve which I don't think the surly bars will do, but failing the crazy drop bar experiment, I'll settle for the Surly bars.

[RonK]

In terms of getting low, you are better off getting something like surly molokov bars and tucking in. Your stack height is a bit higher, but the width is actually less than a drop bar. You can keep your controls with this as well.

A set of aerobars with tall risers is a popular and cost effective solution for many flat bar bikepackers. This improves the aerodynamics and provides hand relief on long rides.

[robbo mcs]

This is getting a little complicated for me.. but if the ergonomics suck of having the brakes/gears on the drops I'll see if I can swap out to brifters to put on the hoods. I'm running Deore (shimano) components..

Have a look at Surly corner bars. They have been designed as a way to use MTB brakes and controls to get something approaching a drop bar.

https://surlybikes.com/parts/corner_bar
https://www.commutercycles.com.au/produ ... orner-bar/

I don't know anyone who has actually used one. The bar is not cheap, but you could at least try it, and if you find it totally sucks, then you haven't wasted money on new brifters etc, etc

[robbo mcs]

I still fail to see the point of really wide bars on a gravel bike.
My Revolt came with 46cm bars on it with I think a slight flare.
Never, ever needed them that wide and I am 184cm tall with reasonable shoulder width I guess.
Swapped them out for bars that are 40cm at the hoods and flare 12° to 45 in the drops.
Heaps better. Doesn't seem to matter how rough, I don't need wider. Tbh they could run less flare in the drops I reckon but cbfed changing them again.
Don't know your height and body type but can't see 42cm being too narrow for many in terms of bike control.

I'm 99% in agreement on this. I have gone to 40cm standard road drop bars on my gravel bike, same as my road bike, and I much prefer how it feels and handles.

I do also have a flatbar bike I use for gravel. It is not a MTB, more a commuter flatbar hydrid with 580mm bar. Generally I do not find any major advantage on the gravel from that setup.

The one pretty infrequent situation where the wider bars are helpful is when you are almost stationary, trying to pick a way through rocks etc, almost doing a track stand. The wider bars give you a little bit more finesse. However, that is a pretty infrequent situation for me. For most gravel riding there is no difference.

[warthog1]

I'm 99% in agreement on this. I have gone to 40cm standard road drop bars on my gravel bike, same as my road bike, and I much prefer how it feels and handles.

I do also have a flatbar bike I use for gravel. It is not a MTB, more a commuter flatbar hydrid with 580mm bar. Generally I do not find any major advantage on the gravel from that setup.

The one pretty infrequent situation where the wider bars are helpful is when you are almost stationary, trying to pick a way through rocks etc, almost doing a track stand. The wider bars give you a little bit more finesse. However, that is a pretty infrequent situation for me. For most gravel riding there is no difference.

In hindsight I could have done that too.
Might pull the bars off the Cervelo and scrap it at some point.
Has no tyre clearance and I never ride it now.
They are 40cm carbon bars.

[MichaelB]

This is getting a little complicated for me.. but if the ergonomics suck of having the brakes/gears on the drops I'll see if I can swap out to brifters to put on the hoods. I'm running Deore (shimano) components..

Have a look at Surly corner bars. They have been designed as a way to use MTB brakes and controls to get something approaching a drop bar.

https://surlybikes.com/parts/corner_bar
https://www.commutercycles.com.au/produ ... orner-bar/

I don't know anyone who has actually used one. The bar is not cheap, but you could at least try it, and if you find it totally sucks, then you haven't wasted money on new brifters etc, etc

Saw some of these on Facebook market place not long ago

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... tid=6ojiHh