Evening all, to explore the local-ish bridleways and byways means quite a bit of road, so my vague plan is to convert my underused hardtail to drop bars, smoother tyres etc.
Is there a rule of thumb regards stem changes?
It's got a 90mm flattish stem at present, given I want to be able to ride on the hoods is a shorter stem in order? When in rigid fork guise the front end is a bit low for my creaky neck these days, so maybe some serious rise too?
I'll probably put Crossmarks on it to start with, what else is out there more road biased?
Then I'm just needing some Shimano hydraulic brake levers (any really, I'm keeping it singlespeed) and I'm away, unless I've forgotten something?
That's gonna be a fair outlay, just for a different hand position.
Putting drop bars on a bike does not suddenly make you/it faster on the roads unless you plan to use them to contort your body into a more aero position by spending a good chunk of your time on your drops. Given the neck issues and desire to put a riser stem on, I'd say that is unlikely to be your thing.
I'd just leave it as a mtb as nature (it's geometry) intended; maybe go a bit old school with a flat narrow bar and bar ends and work your magic with faster rubber. Much less faff and expense and I suspect a better ride anyhow.
@nobeer; Only the levers, I've got the tyres, various stems, found some bars for £15, hopefully one of my LBS's will have some levers with broken shifters going cheap.
@convert; It's never going to be an exercise in saving money, but as the bike is unused anyway and I fancy a tinker...
Inboard bar-ends (I know that's a contradiction in terms but don't know how to explain it better) is what I used when making my mountain bike more suited to gravel.
And it would seem that I'm not the only one.
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/inboard-bar-ends/
For me though, a modified mountain bike is nowhere near as quick (or fun) as a cyclocross type bike for easy-ish off-road riding.
I'd just put the crossmark tyres on the MTB and leave it at that.
From my experience of dabbling along similar lines that gives a much more versatile bike.
Agree with didnthurt, I fitted some Vittoria Terreno XC tyres (the extra fast TLR ones 😉) and stuck some relatively long bar ends in board of the grips which more or less replicated the position of the hoods on my gravel bike.
It felt ideal for rougher/steeper gravel jaunts, still fast rolling and comfy and not averse to TTing along the road bits, at least until you ran out of gears...
at least until you ran out of gears…
Which given this is a singlespeed further reduces the need/advantage of twiddly bars. Assuming you a keeping the gearing bearable for the off road bits you are not going to be a speed demon on the tarmac.
I also looked at more 'alternative' bars for my Stooge recently, mustache/touring/M type bars. On-one did have a selection of these for not a lot of money. This way you get to try something different whilst keeping the same brake levers, grips and gears (optional obviously for a SS).
https://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/components/finishing-kit/handle-bars
https://www.cyclingabout.com/list-of-alt-touring-bikepacking-handlebars/
Nicked off an old thread off here.
http://yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/stem.php
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/bar-height-and-reach-calculator/
If you do go to drop bars, then the stem length is likely to be ok, or at least worth trying first. Having your hands closer together will reduce your reach anyway.
All good points made, but I'll end up with a hybrid.
Which whilst it is what I recommend to most people who ask me what bike I reckon would suit them, I'm a rufty tufty mountain biker, the shame!
Being very lazy here, but what high and stubby tri-bars would fit my 31.8 bars?
I could fit some old bar ends too for the full reverse-sweep of cool points.
Planning on going dingle speed so I'll have a road/byway ratio as well as the existing off road gear. How do I jiggle the teeth numbers to match the chain length, is it as simple as matching the total tooth count?
I'm using a Trickstuff excentriker so a tensioner isn't on the cards, pure vanity but hey 🙂
