So this is an old bike i had standing around in my basement for a while. I am more into bikes now and would like to learn more about working in bikes but doing some fun stuff with this one. (I also recently got an expensive road bike, which I wanna use the learned skills on.)
So I wanna make this into a bit of a gravel bike. It's only 26" wheels, but i dont mind too much, the frame isn't too small at least.
I would like to know if there is any way to fit a drop bar onto this with the groupset (SRAM MRX). What i am struggling with is to understand the stem. On new road bikes the stem is mounted to the top part of the fork, but here it seems like the stem goes all the way to the top of the steerer tube. To get it off do i just loosen the screw of the compressor and the top one of the two ring on top of the steerer tube.
Also is this compatible to any other stems? otherwise i'd just try to fiddle in a drop bar into this stem.
Thanks for any help!
🙂
by squeaky_brakes78
3 Comments
To remove the stem you just loosen the one bolt on the top of the vertical stem piece. You’ll most likely need to give it a tap with a hammer to free the stem wedge it connects to. Don’t fiddle with the ring/nut at the top of the headet.
You can put drop bars in that stem (with matching diameter) but that might put you too far forward. Or get a different stem and drop bars.
Hey,
In general, converting a bike to drop bars is tough for two reasons: 1) the geometry of the bike is usually optimized for the type of handlebar since a drop bar is further away from the saddle and lower than a riser bar. Thus the bike might not end up being very comfortable. You can mitigate that with stem length, saddle position etc. and the bike might already have a short reach so your mileage might vary. 2) you usually have to change not only all the brifters, shifters, levers but often also the derailleurs / general transmission. But you seem to have accepted that.
Got your other question: forks come in two variations, threaded and threadless. You have a threaded fork that has a thread on top of the steerer which just comes out of the head tube enough to tighten it with two flat and very big nuts. The stem for these types of forks include the actual angle and insert into the hollow steerer fixed with an expander via a screw you usually see at the top of the extended steerer. Threadless forks are cut to length and go up all the way and the stem is fixed on top of spacers directly to the steerer so the angle is largely in the mount. I have never tried to find a replacement stem for a threaded fork so I am not sure there is a big aftermarket, in those times, the stem was more part of the bike than a component but maybe there are some.
I recently converted a bike like that by buying a new threadless fork and a new headset so I had more choice to adapt the stem to my geometry but the head tube on my bike was big enough to fit a 1 1/8 diameter steerer and the right bearings, older models might have too narrow head tubes.
Good luck, I love reviving old bikes even though it might not always make financial sense