How to switch from drops to low riser bars, how to reattach the brakes?

[iciclebicycle]

Hi all,

I'm planning on swapping drop bars from one ride with the risers of another. I haven't started removing either or done much investigating because I am very new to bicycle maintenance and don't know specifically what to look for or where to start. I'm not as concerned with the actual process of replacing the bars themselves—that seems self-evident enough. What I'm most apprehensive about is the levers, brake hoods, brake cables, etc.
Can someone point me in the direction of instructions for reattaching/setting up the brake levers & related mechanics from one bike to the other?
This probably is pretty simple, but I'd much rather play it safe than break (!) something in the process.

 

[daveryanwyoming]

A lot of good info here: http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help

But basically I assume you'll keep the shifters and brakes with each set of bars, IOW you'll keep the flat bar shifters and flat bar brakes with the flat bars and the same for the drop bars. That's the easiest but you'll still likely end up replacing the handlebar tape for the drop bars as that's not always easy to reuse and very possibly the shift and brake cables and housings unless you're lucky on the lengths and condition of the inner cables.

You should find what you need over on the park website but it mostly comes down to removing bar tape, wrestling off the flat bar rubber grips, removing shifters and or brakes with the appropriate allen wrenches, disconnecting brake and derailleur cables and pulling the cables all the way off the bike then swapping the bars themselves before reversing the entire process.

You also may run into issues with the stems on each bike as many flat bars are a different diameter than drop bars and of course there are quill and threadless style stems out there so just swapping the entire stem may or may not be an option. Do some research into what parts you currently have and what things like bar/stem clamp diameters, stem styles, stem lengths and rises and such are before you begin stripping down the bikes to make sure you don't need additional parts beyond the tape, cables and or housings if necessary and possibly flat bar grips if the old ones don't come off cleanly.

It's not rocket science but there are a couple of setbacks you might run into depending on the parts on each bike.

-Dave