Drop Bars On A Mountain Bike?

Can you just put the drop bars on and keep the MTB shifting/gearing the same? I know you can't put road bike shifters on a mountain bike due to the different ways the cables are pulled.

DH really likes his Mamba, but would like the Woodchipper Bars I have on it. I'm just not sure why you couldn't just put them on and work out a way to shift with the ones he has.

He really hates to spend a lot on a Fargo 2 since it has the 400 dollar shifters and can't stand the bar ends of my Fargo.

Mechanic got the Woodchipper bar on his Mamba, looks cool, but said it couldn't be done but didn't explain why. Made his day on a project to do though. January is a dead season.

Issue is MTB and drop bar diameters are different. If you swap from MTB to drop bars, you'll need brake/shifters that fit drop bars. Can be done, but you'll need to replace more than just the bars. Also, you may need to change out the stem since the MTB stem will be too long and make hood reach pretty bad.

I've done this on both of my Bridgestone MTBs.

I have not tried it myself, but the other issue that I could see would be getting the shifters around the bend in the handlebar. Hopefully your mechanic will find something that will work though!!


http://chasecyclery.blogspot.com

There's a guy who races MTB with drop bars - I'll have to google a bit to figure out who he is, but he was interviewed about it in the first Leadville 100 documentary. Guys being guys, I bet he's got a technical setup of his bike explained somewhere online (or if he doesn't, someone else does!) (Edit - here's one article, but I didn't read it all the way through. It ought to give you/your husband something to start from, though http://velonews.competitor.com/2009/...top-fuel_96645 )

What are they doing shifter-wise on the new Fargos? I've got the bar ends (and love 'em) but I know they decided to change that on the newer model.

Also, if you're talking the woodchipper bars, it can't hurt to email Salsa. I had some questions about swapping out stuff on my old Fargo and the mix of MTB/road parts was baffling me - they were really, really helpful when I wrote in.

My mechanic has been working with the idea. It just isn't going to work without some modifications that may or not work. I thought the bike had clamps for the brakes/levers you could just take off and then put back on instead of trying to slide back on.


The Fargo 2's have road bike shifters but the Fargo frame is based on a road bike since the cables go under. The stock shifters are 400 dollar ones. SRAM Apex Integrated w/Shifter. The Fargo 3's come with bar ends. The SRAM system brings the bike up into the 1700 dollar price range making it out of his price range for now.