Drops on a mountain bike

Joel Solomon said:

I have a nice cromoly Trek 930 mountain bike with a rigid
steel fork. It's from around 1998. I primarily ride a road
bike and just use it to ride slowly with my kids. I have
never ridden it off road. I am starting to think that it
would be cool to turn into a 26" touring bike... a budget
Thorn, if you will. Would it be a big deal to put drop
bars on it and switch to either bar ends or STI shifters?

Not really a touring bike but I have fun on this drop bar
mtn bike: 2fortheroad.netbikes.htmlOpen ↗

I'd go with bar end shifters as STI will need a workaround
to work with cantis or v-brakes. Diacompe makes aero levers
that work with cantis or v-brakes.

Greg

Joel Solomon said:

I have a nice cromoly Trek 930 mountain bike with a rigid
steel fork. It's from around 1998. I primarily ride a road
bike and just use it to ride slowly with my kids. I have
never ridden it off road. I am starting to think that it
would be cool to turn into a 26" touring bike... a budget
Thorn, if you will. Would it be a big deal to put drop
bars on it and switch to either bar ends or STI shifters?
I have bar ends on it, but have never found the riding
position to be quite as comfortable as that of my road
bikes. It has a quill stem (1" I assume). Would it be
really expensive? I would probably lean towards having my
LBS do it, optimizing my fit at the same time. Or would I
be better off leaving it alone and putting the money
towards a Jamis Aurora or a Fuji Touring (Thorns look
really cool, but the exchange rate is frightening at the
moment).

Joel

I had considered this as well. The only problem for touring
is that the shorter chainstays make your feet hit the
panniers. You can get the Jandd Expedition rack and use
small panniers, though.

It seems like a great way to get a cheap cross-bike as well.

-Collin

Joel Solomon said:

I have a nice cromoly Trek 930 mountain bike with a rigid
steel fork. It's from around 1998. I primarily ride a road
bike and just use it to ride slowly with my kids. I have
never ridden it off road. I am starting to think that it
would be cool to turn into a 26" touring bike... a budget
Thorn, if you will. Would it be a big deal to put drop
bars on it and switch to either bar ends or STI shifters?
I have bar ends on it, but have never found the riding
position to be quite as comfortable as that of my road
bikes. It has a quill stem (1" I assume). Would it be
really expensive? I would probably lean towards having my
LBS do it, optimizing my fit at the same time. Or would I
be better off leaving it alone and putting the money
towards a Jamis Aurora or a Fuji Touring (Thorns look
really cool, but the exchange rate is frightening at the
moment).

It would be quite cheap, and worthwhile if the frame and
fork have sufficient braze-ons for mudguards (fenders) and a
rack. Measure the reach of your road bike to work out what
length stem you need, and bear in mind that road quill stems
usually have negative rise, where MTB stems have zero or
positive rise - so your bars will be lower.

Bar-end shifters are a better idea for touring than STI
because they're less vulnerable to damage, but they take a
little getting used to. You must hold the bar as well as the
lever when shifting, otherwise the bike makes a dive for the
gutter or the middle of the road! If your bike is 8 or 9
speed then Ultegra or Dura-Ace bar end shifters are easily
available, as are down tube cable adjusters (recommended).

Thorns (at least those with quill stems) have rather long
head tubes to keep the bars at a sensible height:
peeble.combikes.htmOpen ↗

Dear Joel,

I would suggest leaving it alone and putting the money
toward a real touring bike. In my experience, it is quite
expensive to go the route of having the LBS do major
upgrades simply because buying the parts at retail and
paying a competent tech to install them is much more
expensive than having a new bike built in a production
factory situation. Nothing against the LBS here, think of
what it would cost to have your mechanic build your car from
purchased parts. (industry estimate: $150,000-$250,000)

Ultimately, you would spend a good deal of money and still
not have the bike you are looking for. If you wanted to
maintain your off-road option, a cyclocross bike has drop
bars and larger tires than a roadracer. They are over all
beefier than a road racer, but not as rugged as a mountain
bike. I don't know about braze-ons, but I noticed that
Performance had a very sharp looking Fuji 'Cross bike last
time I was in.

I hope these thoughts are useful.

b maytum proud father of a 2-time women's junior state
cyclocross champion

"Joel Solomon" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have a nice cromoly Trek 930 mountain bike with a rigid
steel fork.

It's

Quoted message said:

from around 1998. I primarily ride a road bike and just
use it to ride

slowly

Quoted message said:

with my kids. I have never ridden it off road. I am
starting to think

that it

Quoted message said:

would be cool to turn into a 26" touring bike... a budget
Thorn, if you

will.

Quoted message said:

Would it be a big deal to put drop bars on it and switch
to either bar

ends or

Quoted message said:

STI shifters? I have bar ends on it, but have never found
the riding

position

Quoted message said:

to be quite as comfortable as that of my road bikes. It
has a quill stem

(1" I

Quoted message said:

assume). Would it be really expensive? I would probably
lean towards

having

Quoted message said:

my LBS do it, optimizing my fit at the same time. Or would
I be better

off

Quoted message said:

leaving it alone and putting the money towards a Jamis
Aurora or a Fuji

Touring

Quoted message said:

(Thorns look really cool, but the exchange rate is
frightening at the

moment).

Quoted message said:

Joel

On 22 May 2004 00:56:18 GMT, [email hidden] (Joel Solomon)

Quoted message said:

I have a nice cromoly Trek 930 mountain bike with a rigid
steel fork. It's from around 1998. I primarily ride a road
bike and just use it to ride slowly with my kids. I have
never ridden it off road. I am starting to think that it
would be cool to turn into a 26" touring bike... a budget
Thorn, if you will. Would it be a big deal to put drop bars
on it and switch to either bar ends or STI shifters? I have
bar ends on it, but have never found the riding position to
be quite as comfortable as that of my road bikes. It has a
quill stem (1" I assume).

Don't assume this! Measure it. I had a 950 from a few years
earlier and it took a 1-1/8" stem. I think Trek sets up
bikes like this with the possibility of taking a shock
later, so 1-1/8" is more likely.

I think this will create a new problem if you go to drops.
Most drop bars are 26.0mm in diameter while MTB bars are
25.4mm. I doubt that you will find much, if any, in the way
of stems with 26mm diameter *and* 1-1/8". So you'll need to
use a 1"stem and a shim to fit your 1-1/8" headset. Or a new
1" headset shimmed out for the 1-1/8" headtube opening.

Quoted message said:

Would it be really expensive? I would probably lean
towards having my LBS do it, optimizing my fit at the same
time. Or would I be better off leaving it alone and
putting the money towards a Jamis Aurora or a Fuji Touring
(Thorns look really cool, but the exchange rate is
frightening at the moment).

Joel

If you get this done at a bike shop, it will cost a fair
amount. Get an estimate and think it through. I'm planning
to do this to an older frame myself, but I have a few boxes
of stray parts and the mechanical knowledge to do it myself.

[email hidden] (Joel Solomon) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I have a nice cromoly Trek 930 mountain bike with a rigid
steel fork. It's from around 1998. I primarily ride a road
bike and just use it to ride slowly with my kids. I have
never ridden it off road. I am starting to think that it
would be cool to turn into a 26" touring bike... a budget
Thorn, if you will. Would it be a big deal to put drop
bars on it and switch to either bar ends or STI shifters?
I have bar ends on it, but have never found the riding
position to be quite as comfortable as that of my road
bikes. It has a quill stem (1" I assume). Would it be
really expensive? I would probably lean towards having my
LBS do it, optimizing my fit at the same time. Or would I
be better off leaving it alone and putting the money
towards a Jamis Aurora or a Fuji Touring (Thorns look
really cool, but the exchange rate is frightening at the
moment).

Joel

It works pretty well and people do it. One issue with
converting a mountain bike to touring is that most mountain
bikes have fairly high bottom bracket heights, whereas for
loaded touring you basically want it as low as possible. In
practice this isn't such a big deal though. Bar-end shifters
are preferable for this because getting STI to index in
front with mountain components that aren't made for it
usually takes some cable-mounting finagling and/or replacing
(Shimano STI and flat-bar front derailers have different
throw ratios). Bar-ends are better for touring bikes anyway
because they don't fail randomly. If you really want STI, I
recommend snagging one of the NOS 1997 RSX front derailers
from Sheldon's site, because they were made for this
purpose. You'll also need new brake levers, shift housings
(although you may be able to get the ones you have to work
with bar-ends), brake housings (although you could possibly
just use the ones you have, add on 2 shorter pieces for
where each lever's housing goes under the tape, and then
stick an inline barrel adjuster where the housing exits from
under the tape). If you had a shop do all this it would
still cost much less than either of the bikes you mentioned,
and you'd have a touring bike. Or you could do it all
yourself since really the only vaguely specialized tools
required will be for preparing the cables and housings.
Don't worry about taking this to a shop just so they can
"optimize your fit" - shops suck at optimizing fit and most
are especially horrible when it comes to setting people up
for touring, where the objective is to strike a very
personal balance between upright and stretched that also
takes full advantage of all the positions drop bars can
offer you. Good luck

Dan Daniel said:

Most drop bars are 26.0mm in diameter while MTB bars are
25.4mm. I doubt that you will find much, if any, in the way
of stems with 26mm diameter *and* 1-1/8".

Stems with proper removable faceplates rarely have a problem
with the .6mm difference, AFAIK.

Quoted message said:

So you'll need to use a 1"stem and a shim to fit your 1-
1/8" headset.

That would be a neat trick...isn't the OP's bike threadless?
It's a Trek MTB from 1998, so I suppose it be either one.

Can you shim 1" quills to fit 1-1/8" steerers? I never heard
of it, but I suppose it's possible.

Quoted message said:

Or a new 1" headset shimmed out for the 1-1/8"
headtube opening.

I'm pretty sure there are problem-solver headsets for this
purpose that don't need any shimming.

Of course, with a different sized headset, a new fork would
be required.
--
Rick Onanian

[email hidden] (Joel Solomon) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I have a nice cromoly Trek 930 mountain bike with a rigid
steel fork. It's from around 1998. I primarily ride a road
bike and just use it to ride slowly with my kids. I have
never ridden it off road. I am starting to think that it
would be cool to turn into a 26" touring bike... a budget
Thorn, if you will. Would it be a big deal to put drop
bars on it and switch to either bar ends or STI shifters?
I have bar ends on it, but have never found the riding
position to be quite as comfortable as that of my road
bikes. It has a quill stem (1" I assume). Would it be
really expensive? I would probably lean towards having my
LBS do it, optimizing my fit at the same time. Or would I
be better off leaving it alone and putting the money
towards a Jamis Aurora or a Fuji Touring (Thorns look
really cool, but the exchange rate is frightening at the
moment).

Don't forget that you'll need to outfit the bike with a stem
that's about 8cm shorter than your mtb stem.

Robin Hubert

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

In article <[email hidden]>,

G.T. said:

Joel Solomon said:

I have a nice cromoly Trek 930 mountain bike with a rigid
steel fork. It's from around 1998. I primarily ride a
road bike and just use it to ride slowly with my kids. I
have never ridden it off road. I am starting to think
that it would be cool to turn into a 26" touring bike...
a budget Thorn, if you will. Would it be a big deal to
put drop bars on it and switch to either bar ends or STI
shifters?

Not really a touring bike but I have fun on this drop bar
mtn bike: 2fortheroad.netbikes.htmlOpen ↗

I'd go with bar end shifters as STI will need a workaround
to work with cantis or v-brakes. Diacompe makes aero levers
that work with cantis or v-brakes.

_ V-brakes yes, canti's no. Cantilever brakes work just fine
with normal road levers. I made this tranformation to an old
Fischer Hoo Koo E Koo ( 1988 or so ) and it's a really fun
bike. Slow and somewhat heavy, but with fat slicks it
encourages you to just enjoy the view. One suprise is that
it's the best road descending bike I've ever ridden[1].
Those big fat tires give you a lot of confidence in the
curves. Mountain bikes of the late '80's have almost
identical frame geometry to the Thorn. I'm planning on doing
some dirt road tours on mine in the fall.

_ I'm not sure how well a more recent bike will work as a
touring bike. Bruce Gordon seems to think long rear
chainstays are pretty important.

bgcycles.combruce.htmlOpen ↗

_ Booker C. Bense

[1]- This is not a huge sample.

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"Booker C. Bense"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bruce Gordon seems to think long rear chainstays are
pretty important.

Does he have any opinion on the length of the front
chainstays?

Mark South said:

"Booker C. Bense" <bbense+rec.bicycles.tech.May.23.04@tele-
mark.slac.stanford.edu> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bruce Gordon seems to think long rear chainstays are
pretty important.

Does he have any opinion on the length of the front
chainstays?

Short as possible, as long as they are long enough to handle
the handlebar post and seat stem, while still missing the
front headset dropout.

Mark South said:

"Booker C. Bense" <bbense+rec.bicycles.tech.May.23.04@tele-
mark.slac.stanford.edu> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bruce Gordon seems to think long rear chainstays are
pretty important.

Does he have any opinion on the length of the front
chainstays?

Short as possible, as long as they are long enough to handle
the handlebar post and seat stem, while still missing the
front headset dropout.

various people wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>... <snip>

Quoted message said:

Can you shim 1" quills to fit 1-1/8" steerers? I never
heard of it, but I suppose it's possible.

Yep:
harriscyclery.netpage.cfmOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Or a new 1" headset shimmed out for the 1-1/8" headtube
opening.

Double-yep:
harriscyclery.netpage.cfmOpen ↗

Jeff "anything is possible" Wills