Drop Bar Adventure, Part I

I am attempting to put drop handlebars on my mountain bike. This is a bike that gets used as a road bike would be used, so , I believe, the desire to do so seems — to me — to be natural and sensible enough, even though the aesthetics might appear a little unnatural. Which is one reason why I am opting for apple green bar tape on a frame that is predominantly yellow.

As I have stated before, I don’t ride my mountain bike as often as I should. Riding it would presumably give me a better workout due to it it being quite heavy. Since my riding time is limited and shorter in duration than I would like, getting a better workout with the time I have is — due to the extra and unwanted weight around my middle — of very high importance. But even though I know it should be ridden more, it almost never (well, at least until I made my road bike not so readily ridden) gets ridden. The biggest reason why was that after regularly riding a road bike, riding my mountain bike was just too darn uncomfortable.

I solved the biggest contributor to my discomfort by putting on a leather saddle that after a little over five hundred kilometres is becoming very comfortable. The last remaining area of discomfort is in my hands and shoulders, and that is a result of hand position. Putting in drop handlebars so that my hands and arms are in the same positions as they are on my road bike should, I hope, alleviate that problem.

The first step in doing so was to get brake levers/gear shifters for drop bars. That wasn’t as easy as it sounds, as my mountain bike has an eight-cog cassette and these days it is hard to find a road bike that doesn’t have ten cogs on the cassette so finding gear shifters to work with my eight-speed rear mech required some searching. Add to that the fact that most mountain bikes — mine included — have a triple chainset and most road bikes these days have a double and the process becomes a little more difficult. But in the end I did find what I was looking for, first from Sunrace and then from Shimano. I ended getting the ones from Shimano (ST-2303) which made me a little disappointed as the novelty and uniqueness of using something not from the big three of the groupset makers really intrigued me. But the truth is that going with Shimano is probably better as they are probably of better quality. (And the Shimanos have a gear indicator while the Sunraces do not, allowing me to see what gear I’m in without having to look down and back at the chain and cassette.)

The next step is getting handlebars. The clamp on the stem on my mountain bike has a smaller diameter (24.5mm) than a standard one on a road bike, so most bike shops here would not probably have them in stock. Coupled to that is the problem of not only finding bars with the diameter, but they also have to be the correct length. (For me, that is 42cm.) After that, and once everything — handlebars, brake levers/gear shifters, and cables — is installed, is the next — and biggest — problem: making sure the gear shifters work with the mechs on my bike. Road components are being mixed with mountain bike components; hopefully they will be compatible. If not, I will probably have to invest in new mechs. If so, I hope they are not too expensive.

My fingers are crossed that everything goes okay. Right now my bike is at my friend’s bike shop awaiting for the arrival of my handlebars and for him to have time to install everything and get everything working. Selling and working on bicycles is not his full-time job!