I had a giant escape flat bar hybrid that was a little too short in the reach department so I decided to rebuild it as a more gravel style bike. I tried to do this pretty cheap. Ended up a little frankenbike but I think the conversion sans tires and cable was under $125.
Here's the build:
Giant escape V-brake frame
Stock Tektro V-brakes
Shimano Claris 2×8 brifters I found for 20 bucks used
Sunrace friction shifter to work with existing tourney fd and 3x chainring
Stock Altus rd
PNW Coast bar in 52cm
Gravel king ss 45 cm tires (should have went bigger)
I wanted to keep full size v-brakes and Problem Solvers has stopped producing the Travel agents that allow road bike shifters to work with long pull V-brakes. I went with a knock off from litepro which seems to work well so far.
by Redbookfur