I'm currently putting together a bike and am a cheapskate and don't want to buy more parts. I really want to put drop bars on it, but the frame only really supports v-brakes, which I know are long pull. These drop bars I have are vintage and for some magical reason are 22.2mm throughout almost the entire length of the bars meaning I am able to pretty easily fit long pull mountain bike style v-brake levers on it. How completely stupid and dangerous is this? I've read that there are perhaps safety issues with how far from the bars the levers are (pic 2), but I feel as though I'm able to reach the levers quite easily. I can also put the brake levers lower and closer to the bars (pic 3). Furthermore, I don't tend to "ride the hoods" often when I use drop bars on my other bike, so not having that grip position due to using v-brake levers would not impact my riding much. Should I just swallow my pride and put flat bars on the bike? Thanks!
by LargeAmountofBees
18 Comments
Xbiking worthy
Only you will know if it was a bad idea or not.
Very bad. Levers aren’t very expensive
TektroRL520 – if you don’t want to buy them ($30), maybe try to trade some other parts you have for a pair? It will just make your life easier in every way.
Edit: Alternatively, you could trade your current bar for a mustache bar. Flip a high-rise stem and you could get hand positions pretty similar to a drop bar.
I do this and I have suicide shifters on my “road bike”
I’ve seen worse
a lot of fixie riders have their levers in the flat part of the bars. why not slide them up where they’ll be flat?
Yo mama
If it’s comfortable to you and the levers/housing/brakes are all properly set up, it’s fine. I had a similar setup once and quite liked it:
https://preview.redd.it/yqhko6en7dzf1.jpeg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fe230a0d345fc5d694545b9428cddd8c0c2585e
Iffin yr gonna do that, at least put the bars up DUI style. Make sure there’s a boating ashtray on a gimble mount next to the beer coozy.
Iconoclastic
I don’t see an issue. But I’d rather have drop bar levers for the sake of the hand position on the hoods.
https://preview.redd.it/t7be5s8vbdzf1.jpeg?width=2609&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b5fae5c6ad543881bad397ca8982b5d91719d5d0
Does this make you a believer?
Put the X back in X biking
Wouldn’t do it personally but what the hell bikes are fun to mess with
20 years ago when I was in college, long before xbiking was a glimmer in our collective eyes, my college roommate put drop bars on a mountain bike after a friend wrecked his road bike, and this was his exact brake set-up.
https://preview.redd.it/19eijto01ezf1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b5fed0c373d5952f47d0545746e6b3644aaf03d
Did it on my old BSO