UKC

I have two bikes: a lightweight trail/mountain bike for off-road stuff and a decent gravel bike, which I mostly use for road riding. I went for a gravel bike rather than a road bike, simply because of the more upright riding position, which suits my ageing and sore lower back better. However, despite swapping out the original handlebar stem on the gravel bike for a shorter and more steeply inclined model and positioning my saddle as far forward as possible, I think I’m coming to the stage where I have to admit that drop handlebars really don’t suit me.

Therefore, I’ve decided to do a drop bar to flat bar conversion, which means buying new flat bar brake levers, a gear shifter and, of course, the handlebar itself. I’ve had several fantastic customer service discussions with Sram to identify which flat bar components are compatible with my Force 1 (1x11) system, meaning, in theory, I’ll only have to buy and fit the brake levers and gear shifter, rather than replace brake callipers, hoses and rear derailleur.

I’m going to try to do the work myself and maybe my biggest concern is reattaching the brake hoses to the new levers. If possible, I don’t want to cut the hoses down, just in case I discover that the flat bar setup feels even worse than the original and want to revert. However, I’ll probably need to replace the barbs and olives and bleed the system afterwards (although opinion on this after only disconnecting the upper end of the hose seems to vary from what I’ve seen on the internet).

Anybody have any relevant suggestions?

Pete.

Go for a proper bike fit by someone that knows what they are doing

Might be worth having a bike fit with someone who really knows what they're doing before heading down a flat bar route?

Hydraulics are a lot more of a faff to do than cable, it's true. You could try carefully putting some PTFE on the current olives to avoid cutting them off? I don't know anything about how the hoses fit into Force to know if that would work.

Asusming you've not got one already, try an anatomic saddle (e.g. ISM) that support a lower position. Invest your effort (10-15 mins every other day?) into gaining and maintaining some additional flexibility, mobility and strength. This will not only help with your cycling!

Don't forget that drop bars have more hand positions for comfort compared to flat bars.

I popped a disc in my back a few years ago and have since found that I need to run my saddle either dead flat or, ideally, with the nose slightly down. It it's pointing up, my lower back rounds and the disc plays up. Could be worth checking?

Obviously you can play around with spacers under the stem etc, but it sounds like you've already done that. You might find you need to mess around with stem length if you're going from drop to flat bars too.

With the brakes, you *might* get away with reusing the barb and olive by just removing the hose from one lever and reattaching it to the other. (Technically, you shouldn't do this.) Do everything up and give the brakes a load of hard pulls in the garage while keeping a close eye on things and you should be able to spot if it's leaking or not.

As for rebleeding, if your new lever comes empty of fluid, you're going to need to do a full bleed. If it's full, you might get away with it. It just depends on if you manage to keep fluid in the hose and lever while fitting them and whether you introduce air or not. (It also depends on how fussy you are about having a slightly spongy brake that pumps up slightly.) I generally see how it feels and then maybe do a lever-only bleed. Rarely needs more than that.

Obviously, it's better to replace olives and barbs and do a proper bleed.

Edit - on the flat bars vs drops for multiple hand positions thing, you've still got loads of options on flats. You've got the grips, you can hold the ends of the bars (or, horror, fit bar ends), rest your hands over the body of the brakes (Sram brakes are great for this) and so on.

Do you know if the screw fitting into the brake lever is the same for both your drop bar lever and the flat bar lever? If so there's a good chance that you won't need to cut the hoses at all and that the olive will seat properly in the new lever housing. Try it first anyway, before cutting anything. I wouldn't do as somebody has suggested and put PTFE tape on the olive itself - the olives are designed to seal by deforming slightly and adding PTFE tape will likely not solve anything but could potentially make things worse. I have seen PTFE tape on the thread of the nut that holds the hose in place, but really this is not doing much or anything - if oil leaks past the olive then it'll likely get through the nut with or without tape on the threads.

When you come to swap things over, try and keep as much oil in the hose as possible - a bit of masking tape to hold the hose in a vertical position while you get the bars, levers etc set up is useful. And take the wheel out and also remove the pads if you think there's a danger of getting oil anywhere near them. I would recommend it.

A good bleed kit is worth the fairly small expense.

Bars like this may get you up to the height of straight bars while saving the cost of new components...

https://www.wiggle.com/p/prime-orra-gravel-handlebar?color=black&roadHa...

Hi Jim,

It might work, but I have reservations. I've tried altering all the easily adjustable stuff, but not managed to achieve a position that doesn't result in lower back and neck pain.

Thanks, Pete.

As I've just said to JimR, I've tried adjusting everything possible on the bike without reaching a comfortable riding position, so I'll not really sure even an experienced bike fitter could make that much of a difference. I think the main problem is the length of my legs compared to my upper body. The saddle needs to be high, meaning I'm already bending forward/downward more than I'd like to.

Pete.

Not tried the saddle you mention...

Re stretching, yes, I try to do a bit.

Not for me... I only ever use the hoods and maybe, very occasionally, the flats.

Pete.

What Jim says. It’ll take all the guesswork out of it and start from a position of best practise.

if you’re still in Sheffield call Skyhook coaching or BikeFly - they often work together and provide a really good service.

Give Steve at Skyhook a call and talk it thru on the phone with him. 

https://skyhookcoaching.com/

I've moved the saddle backwards and forwards and experimented with tilt. Like you, nose slightly downwards works best for me.

I'd pretty much taken it for granted that if I do fit a flat bar, I'll need to reinstall the longer/slacker stem the bike came with.

I'm slowly coming around to doing this, just to make sure I'm not cutting corners

All good advice...

Thanks,

Pete.

Not 100% sure. According to SRAM, all their 'Level' series brake levers are compatible my Force 1 calipers and cable, but beyond that I don't know. I bought a set of Level Ultimates, which will arrive next week. Not cheap, but if the flat bar gravel thing doesn't work out I'll use them to upgrade the bog-standard Level levers my Mountain bike came with.

Agreed, and many thanks for all your other points!

Pete.

Interesting, but I've already started the purchasing process!

Pete.

Hi Phil,

Currently in Catalunya so not possible to visit Skyhook in Sheffield at the moment.

Pete.

Have you thought about raising the handlebars with a raiser like this, for a £10 it might be worth a try??

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dymoece-Bicycle-Handlebar-Aluminium-Mountain/dp/B0...

Hmm… I hadn’t really considered this approach. I have a pretty nice carbon frame and forks and the current drop bar stem is fixed as high as it can be on the fork steerer tube.

Despite my discomfort, the bike handles beautifully, which I think might not be the case if I added this device…

Thanks for the suggestion, though!

Pete.

Most bike frames have specific geometries suited to flat or drop handlebars. If you appreciate the handling of your bike with drops (hands on hoods) then you might find that it's not so nice (more twitchy) with flat handlebars (depending on what happens to your weight distribution, stem length etc.)

As for swapping the levers - I'm no expert but I've managed to trim hydraulics (Shimano) without needing to bleed the brakes afterwards (probably because I bought a bleed kit which has now never been used). Just be careful to keep the cut ends uppermost.

This

Yes, I do appreciate that the frame geometry is optimised for drop bars, but I'm hoping that if I can add a bit more length in the stem it might not feel too awful/twitchy with a flat bar setup. I'm not looking to break any records on fast road descents, nor whizz around technical gravel courses, just aiming to reach a compromise between comfort and handling that allows me to do 40-70km rides on backroads and easy trails.

Good info… 

Thanks,

Pete.

Still looks like a pretty “aggressive” position! No wonder the drops weren’t working for you. The bars still look pretty low relative to the saddle. Might be worth considering lifting them by shifting round the last of the headset spacers…

With my long legs I have to have the saddle very high, so yes, even with these bars my position is probably quite "aggressive" even now. I only have a 1/4 inch spacer above the stem, so that's not going to make much difference. Re-fitting the shorter, more steeply angled stem that I was using with the drop bars is another option, but I've actually just come back from my first 35km mixed road/trail  ride on it and I'm pretty chuffed about how it felt. The ride and handling feels completely natural.

Pete.

Super. Sounds like the mods have been worthwhile.

There's lots of stuff on here.  I have only a few things to offer.  You may not use them, but drop bars do offer many hand positions and thereby allow a change of positions. If you only use the hoods and rarely anything else, but can't get comfy, that does ring some alarm bells for flat bars that offer little choice of hand position, and then only the equivalent of the tops that you avoid.

My wife had a range of problems with her neck and shoulders and her shoulders.  Her flat-barred bike was not comfy - we changed to some 'Mary bars' that provided an empire-conquering riding position with little strain on her.

There was faff with hoses - they were too short, and it ended in a replacement of everything except the disks for reasons that have nothing to do with what common sense would say.

There are lots available - start with Googling 'Mary bars bike'- they'll sit you up, bring the grips towards you, and ease the angle on your wrists.

That's awesome Pete.  (saw the photo as well, tidy)

(I'm biased though, as a flat barred gravel bike rider - 780mm wide on mine).

If you do need to raise the front end a bit, find a 2nd hand MTB riser bar (various riser heights available).  Small fine tuning can have help perfect the comfort.  You could also play around with bar width as well.

Once you’ve bleed brakes more than once you’ve get into your groove and be able to do both brakes in less than 30 mins from start to finish.

If you ever do replace the bike look for a taller head tube / geometry to reduce the drop from saddle to bars.