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I ride Firefox Rapide 21S, a hybrid bicycle. It has factory fitted flat-riser handlebars with Shimano EF500 levers for V-brakes with gear shifter integrated.

I am an unprofessional rider, I always liked riding fast, I gained knowledge about dropbars and actual road bikes after getting this one, as I realized I needed more to go faster.

I was recently thinking about fitting a dropbar to it and then mount my existing levers onto the place of hoods, as it goes beyond my budget to purchase them.

Will it be a good idea to do so? Will it even work if I tighten it really hard so it doesn't slip? Or, just not get into this mess and I'll be alright with fitting them on the flat portion of the bar?

I'm also attaching images of levers, but not dropbar(I haven't bought them yet).enter image description here enter image description here

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    I personally don't think you will gain much possible speed just from switching to drop bars.. The only thing you will accomplish is a more streamlined position, but you will sacrifice safety and usability to do so. You would be wiser to look at different gearing through drive train upgrades in my opinion if top speed is your end goal. Or if feasible save up for a road bike. – Nate W Mar 5 '18 at 21:01
  • Just fit some barends for now, and look to buying a road or CX bike in the future. – Criggie♦ Mar 6 '18 at 3:04
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Sorry, but fitting drop bars to a flat bike is a no-go.

The flat bar levers will not fit properly on a drop bar. You will probably not be able to reach the levers easily which is dangerous ! Reaching the shifters will also be difficult if not impossible.

The other reason is that frames designed for flat bars are longer than those designed for drop bars, as the drop bars extend the hands further forward. You likely find that the hand position on drop bars on a flat bar frame is too far forward.

If you want to get a somewhat faster more aggressive position but retaining you brake lever and shifter hardware, consider replacing your riser bar with a flat, slightly narrower one.

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  • You can also sometimes tilt the riser bar forwards. The one on my hybrid has a bit less rise than the OP's and it's more comfortable as well as more aero going up/forwards at about 45 degrees (or slightly flatter) than straight up. I also took 25mm off each end of the bars on that bike after testing with the levers further in. Then I bought a faster bike anyway. – Chris H Mar 5 '18 at 20:15
  • Another downside - its gets very expensive, quickly. – Criggie♦ Mar 6 '18 at 3:03
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Yet another problem with this scheme is that, actually, riders with drop handlebars tend to spend most of their time riding "on the hoods", like this:

enter image description here

(Image source: posted to the site by Freiheit; apparently his own work.)

This would be impossible with your brake levers because that's where the shifters are. Having multiple different places to put your hands is one of the big advantages of drop handlebars.

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  • Ya, right. But what if.. what if I fit bar ends at the place of hoods? They'll look like bullhorns but will they work? – Rajesh Kharat Mar 5 '18 at 19:05
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    Even if that works for you, you'll still have all the other problems (not being able to reach your levers from the drops, not being able to reach the shifters from anywhere, etc.) – David Richerby Mar 5 '18 at 19:11
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    Wait, and how will you fit bar ends and brake levers. And, even if you can, won't that make the shifters even more inaccessible? Nor will you be able to reach the brakes from your "hoods". – David Richerby Mar 6 '18 at 2:47
  • No. I meant, I'll fit brakes/shifters on the straight portion of the bars and bar ends(bullhorn) in place where hoods are usually placed. – Rajesh Kharat Mar 6 '18 at 3:43
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    You may be able to exchange your current bike for a road bike through 2nd hand sites, maybe adding some money. Some bike shops will accept bikes as part of the payment. – gaurwraith Mar 6 '18 at 9:10
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You can't. The reason is that drop bars are thicker than straight bars, and levers that are designed to match the 22.2mm tube of straight bars can't fit around 23.8mm that is standard drop bar size. The top of drop bars is even thicker: 26 or 31.8mm near the stem.

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  • I checked the specs of the levers, it seems to fit onto handle bars of maximum 32mm(luckily). – Rajesh Kharat Mar 5 '18 at 19:01
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    The dropbar road levers use a semi flexible band to attach to the bar, the MTB shifters use a solid clamp, i don't think they will grip a curved bar enough to be sturdy or safe. – Nate W Mar 5 '18 at 21:03
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There's a few of things I think you will have problems with if you use that setup with drop bars.

  • While riding with your hands in the drops is good for downhill or when you want a more aero body position to go faster, what you might possibly find is that a lot of your riding will be done on the hoods of the levers. If you don't have the correct type of hoods/levers it will be pretty uncomfortable to ride that way.

  • The angle of the shift levers will be pretty extreme when mounted on the drop bars. Drop levers curve inward so they are easier to reach both from the hood position and from the drop position. Levers like these will either be too short to even reach from the drops, or they will bend out so far you can't reach them anyway. Not being able to reach your brakes when you are going fast is a bad thing. On the other hand, if you switch to actual drop levers you need to be aware that they typically don't have the right amount of leverage/pull to acceptably work with V-brakes.

  • It looks like your shifters are integrated into your brake levers. I really haven't tried, but I suspect that if you mount those like drop levers, you might have to use some funny hand angles to work the shifters.

  • If you move your brakes/shifters further out on the bars, you may run into some issues with the cables being a little too short so be prepared to have to do some recabling. This won't break the bank, but expect it to add some cost.

If you really want to move to a drop setup and don't want to have to replace a ton of things, you might consider sort of a compromise setup:

  1. Keep your shift levers where they are on the cross bars, but take as much of the existing brake levers off that won't mess up the shifters.

  2. Get a set of "cyclocross" brake interrupt levers (cheap ones can be $20 or less) and set them up in roughly the same place your levers are now, near the shifters. Make sure you get a pair that are meant to work with V-brakes. These will allow you to work the brakes from the same position on the flat bar, but you can also add an additional set of levers via a cable extension to the drops.

  3. Find a set of actual drop levers with hoods, that also have the right pull to work with V-brakes, and connect them via an extension cable to the interrupt levers.

Doing it this way will easily allow you to add proper drop levers without having to mess with your existing cable lengths at all, as well as giving you at least three good hand positions on your bars that you can still get to the brakes from easily.

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  • You missed the first reason why this can't be done: drop bars are thicker than straight bars, and straight bar levers just don't fit. It's also the reason why MTB levers can't be mounted at top of drop bar like you suggest. – ojs Mar 5 '18 at 18:31
  • @ojs to be clear, I have not suggested anywhere that the MTB levers be mounted at the top of a drop bar. That was what the OP was considering, and I was recommending alternatives to that for a number of reasons. The size mismatch is another good catch though. – Christopher Hunter Mar 5 '18 at 19:05
  • Sorry, I read "Keep your shift levers where they are on the cross bars" as putting them on top part of drop bar. – ojs Mar 5 '18 at 19:28
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I had the same idea as you, but the cost do this properly by a bike fitter was 500 pounds. You also have to think about the reach from the seat to the brake lever. So from a safety point of view I would say it's a no no.

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  • £500 😆😆😆😆😆😆 – Lamar Latrell Oct 29 '20 at 8:48

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