Converting my road bike from dropped bars to flat bars
Discussion
Evening,
I have a 5 year old Specialized Allez. I want to start getting out on it a bit more but the dropped bars put me off riding it and I usually end up on my mountain bike instead. I don't like the brake and gear levers being where they are and I never actually use the dropouts, preferring to use the flats instead. How much of a pain in the arse is it to change the bike to flat bars and what will I need?
Cheers,
Sammo
I have a 5 year old Specialized Allez. I want to start getting out on it a bit more but the dropped bars put me off riding it and I usually end up on my mountain bike instead. I don't like the brake and gear levers being where they are and I never actually use the dropouts, preferring to use the flats instead. How much of a pain in the arse is it to change the bike to flat bars and what will I need?
Cheers,
Sammo
nammynake said:
Or just sell it and buy a hybrid / flat bar road bike. Unless you enjoy spannering or have a reason to keep it.
Or if he sells the old bars and levers he could do the conversion almost for free!Is the Allez Tiagra? If so, there are Tiagra shifters especially for flat bar bikes.
gazza285 said:
Shimano is all interchangeable across the range.
I thought you couldn't run a road/MTB mix on rear mechs and shifters due to problems with the cable pull being different?I looked into it when I was building up my CX bike and that seemed to be the thing that most people told me.
09 Allez Compact did indeed have Sora/Tiagra 9 speed mix. Shimano SL-R440 shifters, Sora 3500 flat brake levers, a flat bar, some grips (I recommend Ergon GP2) you're good to go. You might need to flip stem up or mess with length too. And then sell you drop bars & shifters to pay for most of that.
You won't be nearly as aero though
You won't be nearly as aero though
neenaw said:
I thought you couldn't run a road/MTB mix on rear mechs and shifters due to problems with the cable pull being different?
I looked into it when I was building up my CX bike and that seemed to be the thing that most people told me.
No, all the same pull ratios. Our youth has Tiagra shifters and a Deore mech, I've got 105 shifters and an old 7 speed RX100 mech on mine and it all works fine.I looked into it when I was building up my CX bike and that seemed to be the thing that most people told me.
Can't mix Sram and Shimano though.
Sammo123 said:
Oh if it's that simple then that's great 
I had read things about road mechs not working with MTB shifters etc.
it's not that simple. Make sure you get a some road flat bar shifters - not MTB flat bar shifters. Pull ratios are different etc. I had read things about road mechs not working with MTB shifters etc.I used to have the SRAM double tap flat bar shifters which I really liked, again make sure all the rest of the gear matches up.
Edit to add- you can use SRAM cassettes/chains with shimano crank/shifters. it's the front/rear mech and shifters that need to match.
check 8/9/10 speed compatibility too.
Edited by Dr Imran T on Tuesday 11th November 10:35
richardxjr said:
09 Allez Compact did indeed have Sora/Tiagra 9 speed mix. Shimano SL-R440 shifters, Sora 3500 flat brake levers, a flat bar, some grips (I recommend Ergon GP2) you're good to go. You might need to flip stem up or mess with length too. And then sell you drop bars & shifters to pay for most of that.
You won't be nearly as aero though
What he said. Perfect advice there.You won't be nearly as aero though
Dr Imran T said:
it's not that simple. Make sure you get a some road flat bar shifters - not MTB flat bar shifters. Pull ratios are different etc.
I used to have the SRAM double tap flat bar shifters which I really liked, again make sure all the rest of the gear matches up.
Edit to add- you can use SRAM cassettes/chains with shimano crank/shifters. it's the front/rear mech and shifters that need to match.
check 8/9/10 speed compatibility too.
All Shimano stuff has the same pull ratio, road, MTB, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. All the same pull ratio, all interchangeable. I used to have the SRAM double tap flat bar shifters which I really liked, again make sure all the rest of the gear matches up.
Edit to add- you can use SRAM cassettes/chains with shimano crank/shifters. it's the front/rear mech and shifters that need to match.
check 8/9/10 speed compatibility too.
Edited by Dr Imran T on Tuesday 11th November 10:35
gazza285 said:
All Shimano stuff has the same pull ratio, road, MTB, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. All the same pull ratio, all interchangeable.
it might well have. but MTB shifters aren't the best shifters to use with a road front mech. I had this issue with mine when I used a compact chainset..I would still say for the best shifting, use flatbar road specific groupset throughout.
my 'pub' bike had a mis match of shimano road and MTB gear. I recently changed to some shimano claris road shifters that are 8x2 and had much better shift.
Barchettaman said:
The front derailleurs don't, so you're 50% right.
indeed - I went through all this malarkey to get my flat bar road bike sorted. The shimano flatbar MTB shifters did not work well the shimano road front mech I had. As soon as I matched the front mech [road] to road specific shifters it resolved the issue.
Bear in mind that a lot of road front mechs shift to a 50/30 big chain ring.. MTB biggest chain ring is much smaller and usually have a front mech to match.. or something like that!!
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