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Having watched my brother at a local cross race, I have been tempted to give it a try myself. But rather than simply buy a new cross bike, I have been considering turning a mk1 Cotic Solaris frame, which currently sits in the shed, into a drop bar cross monster with a 470-490mm rigid fork.
Has anyone done anything similar? Would it be terrible to ride?
The reach is about an inch a bit longer than an equivalent size drop bar frame. I'm not sure you'd want that. I don't think a shorter stem works the same way on a drop bar. The stack might work in your favour though.
it'll be fine, do it
Did the same thing with an old 26'' hardtail, 70mm stem and didn't die. Bonus - no toe overlap.
short stem, short drop bar and some spacers but do it proper monster cross
https://flic.kr/p/2f5mfCZ
I attempted to 'drop bar' my Trek Superfly, but in such a way that I could still use the MTB controls. Didn't actually look massively different to rocketdog's, except instead of STIs I just had V-Brake levers, so no hoods.
It wasn't really any better than my chopped down flat bars, with the added drawback that the drop bar setup was heavier and looked awful.
(hasty edit: not suggesting Rocketdog's bike looks awful, mine had suspension and something to do with the geometry required a 45 degree stem to get the bars in the right position...)
Am now back to racing cross with chopped down flat bars. In order to really chop them down I actually went back to 25.4mm clamp and stem, the narrower diameter gives you more space to slide controls further inboard. Bars are approx 520mm now, so still not sure why the commentator at each race picks me out for special mention every lap for having the narrowest bars on the course, they're probably still amongst the widest 😆
I think I will cobble something together with some of the spares that are lying around and see how it turns out before I go buying any new things for it. Good to hear other people have done it before though!
Comparing the Mk1 Solaris with the current Escapade on Bikegeo the stack and reach figures are close, assuming a 100mm stem on the Escapade and a 70mm stem on the Solaris. But that was using a 760-780mm bar on the Solaris when it was built up compared to a 460mm drop bar.....
I stumbled across this curious thing MTB Cross Thing
Do the rules mean you have to have a dropbar?