Converting a Flat Bar MTB to Drop Bars
It's a fad.
tl;dr: sperging out about bike parts.
My drop bars and brake levers come in tomorrow and I'm so stoked. I already threw on some 38mm Gravel Kings and converted the 3x DT to a 2x. All that's left is the bars, and putting my new bar bag on the front. The bike is already fun with the slim gravel tires: it's super snappy and rolls very fast like my road clunker. I took it up a few trails this week to get it dialed in, but I have to wait for my bars to do the real tuning.
ALSO I got some bar-end shifters! I got a pair of the silver microshift friction shifters. Right for 8 speed and left for a 2x.
The bike was a Facebook Marketplace impulse-buy. It's a 2000 Cannondale H300. It's an old aluminum hybrid with a rigid fork. I copped it for $100. It's currently the nicest bike I own - It has almost no rust, and was kept in mint condition. The only gross parts were the seat (HUGE ortho-seat with squishy gel, for wimps who think that will prevent ass pain (it wont (it will chafe your gooch and balls))), and the derailleur which is slow on the up shift. I looked at some Sunrace ones, but they all come with a skewer mounted hanger, and I want a silver one that has a modern hanger screw. I loved the Sunrace shifters I put on the trek 500 I restored, and their derailleurs look so clean.
This will be my first time riding a bike with a modern road cockpit. I'm too wiener to ask a bike shop to try out a bike, so this is my trial. A few of of my parts are cheap amazon knock-offs, so I can safely see what I like and don't like.
I don't mind the aluminum frame, but as soon as I'm on a gravel trail, the rocks hitting the frame are like a bunch of tiny laser blasts. I want to cut up a tire and fit it to the bottom of the frame so the rocks stop hurting my ears :(
Steel is real, after all. The expensive bike will be steel.
This series of videos of a Bike Tour from Crust Bikes made me like this. I blame them for making this shit look so fun.
Watch Matt's whole tour from Crust - It's a wild ride, and will give you fomo.
Here's the whole playlist