After riding the cross bike so much, road bars are starting to grow on me! I decided last night to toss on a set of road drops and brakes that were laying around.
The old set up
Man, taking grips off is about the worst thing ever. These grips are lock on, so it's just a simple matter of loosening a couple allen bolts and they slip right off, very slick! I would be hard pressed to put regular grips on any bike I thought I might have to ever change again.
A few considerations were cable housing length and cable end type. The flat bar brake levers used a mountain / BMX style cable, with a barrel on the end that was perpendicular to the cable. The new road levers use one that is parallel to the cable. The two are not interchangeable.
Two types of cable end
Additionally, the housing required was less for a flat bar. It pretty much went from the brake straight to the lever. With drops, the housing runs under the bar wrap and along the handlebar, and it needs to be about 12 inches longer. I bought new rear brake housing, and shortened the old rear housing for the front.
New set up!
Decided to go with grey for bar tape - have to say, after double wrapping my bars for so long, a single layer of bar tape feels really thin! Probably have an update to this post about unwrapping the bars, adding another layer and re wrapping them! Stay tuned!
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