Converting to Flatbars

Raven_k42

Hi All

I've had a Giant OCR3 for many years. I used it sparingly as a road bike when I first got it but drop bars don't work for me (or my back) any more. I'd love to get the bars changed to Flatbars. Two quick questions please.

1. Am I committing sacrilege here ??. I love the bike but it just not practical for me as-is

2. Is this something any bike shop could do or should I be looking at something more specialist?. I'm in Dublin and any recommendations would be appreciated

Thanks in advance,

K

Plastik

It will be far cheaper and easier to simply sell the Giant on adverts/Donedeal and purchase a second hand flat bar bike.

magicbastarder

you'll have to get a stem, flat bar, shifters, and brake levers, and then if you're not familiar with doing the work yourself, might need to pay someone to swap everything over. and they will (quite reasonably) point out that there's no point in doing that without changing the cables, so add those to the parts list...

gn3dr

I did this with my wife's bike years ago. Very easy to do. If you can't do it yourself any bike shop should be able to do it. Biggest challenge is probably buying the right shifter/ brake lever combo. When I did it everything was nine speed (bike had 105 parts)

8valve

Easy peasy lemon squeezy...ahem. :-)

Have done this for eleventy million customers at this stage.

New bars, brake levers, compatible shifters, a comfy/ergonomic pair of grips, and renew all cables/housings (to eliminate any potential issues with the old ones being too short) and away you go.

Make sure bar diameters are the same if retaining current stem.

A bit of patience, some allen keys and a decent cable cutters is all you need.

Maybe think about a new stem as well, if you want to bring the drop bars back/up towards you also.

saccades

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058298213/converting-to-flatbars

Riser stem?

Raven_k42

Thanks for the helpful comments all, K