I've spent the last few months acquiring the various parts needed to do a drop bar conversion of my Diamondback Ascent and now that Christmas is out of the way it's time to fit them.
The plan is to build I guess the go anywhere, do anything machine. A bike that can take the trails (in the loosest sense of the word). but also deal with the roads. Granted, a MTb probably isn't the best bike for this type of task but it's what I've got so it'll have to do.
For the conversion I've acquired Deda RHM02 road bars, an RSP stem that cost me £1.99 off the bay, a pair of Shimano 7 speed sti shifters, cantilever brake hanger and a halfords quill to ahead adaptor. I was hoping to get some triple sti shifters but the pair i ended up buying were a double but seeing as they were only £30 I won't complain and will try to turn a problem into a solution by ditching one of the chainrings.
The bike has a Shimano biopace chainset, 48/38/28. I could be mistaken on the 28 but the 48/38 are correct. The plan is to take off the 48 chainring giving me a 38/28 paired with a 13-28 freewheel. I'm not expecting to break any land speed records with these combinations but I'm hoping it will suffice with the rolling resistance provided by chunky knobbled 2.2/2.3 tyre combination. The other hurdle is the front derailleur. I'm hoping I won't have to change it. It's an Exage 400 triple mech. I think I should be able to get away with it if I set the limit screws correctly for what would be the 48t but seeing as the shifters are doubles I don't see how they could shift onto the 48t anyway. If anyone has any thoughts on the front mech or chainring combinations I'd really like to hear them as I'm open to advice on this matter.
In all the excitement of fitting new parts I completely forgot to take some photos. I'll take some tomorrow when the light is a bit better but I think it looks sweet.
The plan is to build I guess the go anywhere, do anything machine. A bike that can take the trails (in the loosest sense of the word). but also deal with the roads. Granted, a MTb probably isn't the best bike for this type of task but it's what I've got so it'll have to do.
For the conversion I've acquired Deda RHM02 road bars, an RSP stem that cost me £1.99 off the bay, a pair of Shimano 7 speed sti shifters, cantilever brake hanger and a halfords quill to ahead adaptor. I was hoping to get some triple sti shifters but the pair i ended up buying were a double but seeing as they were only £30 I won't complain and will try to turn a problem into a solution by ditching one of the chainrings.
The bike has a Shimano biopace chainset, 48/38/28. I could be mistaken on the 28 but the 48/38 are correct. The plan is to take off the 48 chainring giving me a 38/28 paired with a 13-28 freewheel. I'm not expecting to break any land speed records with these combinations but I'm hoping it will suffice with the rolling resistance provided by chunky knobbled 2.2/2.3 tyre combination. The other hurdle is the front derailleur. I'm hoping I won't have to change it. It's an Exage 400 triple mech. I think I should be able to get away with it if I set the limit screws correctly for what would be the 48t but seeing as the shifters are doubles I don't see how they could shift onto the 48t anyway. If anyone has any thoughts on the front mech or chainring combinations I'd really like to hear them as I'm open to advice on this matter.
In all the excitement of fitting new parts I completely forgot to take some photos. I'll take some tomorrow when the light is a bit better but I think it looks sweet.
