Tested these really quickly for like 2 minutes and thought it felt really interesting since I’ve never ridden anything but flat bars before.
Unfortunately, they don’t fit since my shifter cables are way too short. Now I have to decide if I want to give up and go back to the flat bars, or learn how to redo shifter cables.
by Audi_R8_
12 Comments
Redoing shift and brake cables is really easy. Made slightly harder with internal cable routing but its still not that hard. In terms of bike maintenance I would consider it slightly easier than changing a tube and significantly easier than setting up tubeless. Definitely switch the cables.
Also consider compressionless housing, slightly more expensive but increases your braking power with mechanical brakes compared to standard housing. I recommend Jagwire.
Once you do it once you will realize it will be no sweat to switch back and forth from flats to these corners and vice versa.
Worth learning how to redo cables and housings. It’s not too tricky, but fine tuning indexed shifting takes just a little practice. It’s a very good skill to have though, I would try to do it.
Yes, get compressionless housing. This should’ve been factored in to your bar change. You will also need zip ties, and something that will cut the cables/ housing
Swapping cables/ housing is pretty easy. I did it for the first time a couple months ago and it came out great
Change the cables! It’s fun to learn new things. Plus you can pick a fun color for the new outer shift cables. I recommend Park Tool, they have loads of tutorials on YouTube. I’ve been slowly building up my tool collection and mechanical knowledge and soon will be able build a complete bike.
I have an older rim brake fx-1. They are really good bikes, but not up to hard use
ive seen guys run the levers on the lower part of the drop also. with those extra short grips you have it appears you would have plenty room and may be less obscure of a reach.
You could put on a shorter stem and move a could of the spacers above the stem. Ride it for awhile, then decide if you want to re-cable.
When you do re-cable, make sure to make them extra long.
Where did you get the bars?
Change the cables. It’s easy and cheap. Buy yourself more housing than you think.
I have the exact same setup. Except i’m an FX2 with better components. My cables seem fine.
Very cool setup! I have an older FX1 with rim brakes. I set it up to be kind of a flat bar gravel bike. It’s been great over the years.
I like the bars, change the cables they’re a wear item anyways and cheap/easy for a new set.
I recommend to use new cables and housing and put a v-brake noodle where the housing leaves the levers. Check out the Trek 970 build on my profile if you’re unsure what I mean.