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Straight bars on a road bike! Shifters, brake levers?


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So I have someone wanting to buy some mtb shifters, cassette, derailleur and v-brake levers from me for a straight bar conversion a road bike and asking advice.

 

I have never owned a road bike, actually never even swung a leg over one, so am totally in the dark here.

 

Without getting too technical, what are the basic ins and outs here or is there a link to a topic where this has already been discussed?

 

I have told the gent that I won't sell him anything until he, himself can make sure what he is buying is correct.

 

I'm looking forward to learning something here...

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Any Shimano MTB shifters up to 9 speed will work with road dérailleurs and road cassettes. They all had a standard increment per gear. Above 9 speed they changed the "throw" on MTB shifters. Of course you can always use the shifters with the corresponding MTB dérailleurs and a corresponding road cassette for 10 and 11 speed

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Not sure what's the problem?  Even if the gent just wants to experiment, what's stopping you from selling to him.  For the record though it's been done many times as long as the shifters match the derailleurs and are the same speed as his cassette.

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Any Shimano MTB shifters up to 9 speed will work with road dérailleurs and road cassettes. They all had a standard increment per gear. Above 9 speed they changed the "throw" on MTB shifters. Of course you can always use the shifters with the corresponding MTB dérailleurs and a corresponding road cassette for 10 and 11 speed

"buy some mtb shifters, cassette, derailleur"

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Hell, Giant sells a lovely looking straight bar road bike: The fastroad comax.

 

FastRoad-CM-1-Black-Angle.jpg

 

Other than those bar-ends, I quite like it. :thumbup:

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I have done this for my wife's bike, Just make sure you get 2x shifters if you have a 2x crank, The distance the cable pulls from 1-2 is diffrent from 2-3, I think you must use 2-3 on a road bike setup if you have a 3x shifter, I used a XT rear derailer that I had,

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Hell, Giant sells a lovely looking straight bar road bike: The fastroad comax.

 

FastRoad-CM-1-Black-Angle.jpg

 

Other than those bar-ends, I quite like it. :thumbup:

Flatbars on road bikes is the next big thing :thumbup:

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Flatbars on road bikes is the next big thing :thumbup:

perhaps due to the increased interest in gravel grinding/cyclo-cross?

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Just remember that the brake pull on the road calipers is different to the linear pull MTB rim brakes.  Your braking is not going to be great.  If your shifters and brake leavers are separate units then rather get flat bar road brake levers.

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You can look for some adjustable levers, where one can adjust the pull ratio. Avid had some of those - I think the "speed dial 7" model had that functionality.

http://g02.a.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1cjZcGXXXXXcAXFXXq6xXFXXXb/221388681/HTB1cjZcGXXXXXcAXFXXq6xXFXXXb.jpg

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