Hi guys,
I own Marin DSX, which is advertised as a flat bar gravel bike,
but to me its basically old school mtb bike with refreshed
geometry. It rides great, is very universal, but l've always
been attracted to drop bar bikes that lean more into mtb
side. I think DSX may be great platform for such project, as it has that kind of geometry, and can fit tires up to 2.1"(Mezcals ftw). Recently, I've realized that DSX frame is almost the same as Santa Cruz Stigmata, except Stigmata has shorter
headtube, but the rest is basically the same(DSX family is undersized in my opinion). I'm riding DSX with longer stem,and I feel good, so my wild guess is that drop bar might be nice too.
Do we have any users of Stigmata, or other gravels with longer reach or MTRish characteristics that can share their view?
by Top-Discussion-8054
3 Comments
I’m no expert, but looking at geometry it seems like it’s gonna be uncomfortable to ride with drop bars. Tube angles are made for more upright position.
Overall returning to the topic of old mtb bikes, it’s not great idea to convert them to dropbar too. I’d recommend either changing the bike or using some kind of “alt bar” or narrow flatbar, something like 560mm
Might look cool. Almost certainly not a good use of funds.
Maybe try a corner bar for some of the look/feel without having to change anymore components
Before you put hundreds into that conversion, look where your hands are now in relation to the steerer and estimate where they would be on the hoods with the shortest stem and short reach drop bars.
If you wanna be faster on roads/flats, aerobars are a much better option.