I think I’m gonna build it up with the 100 and see if I have any steerer left when I set the saddle to bar drop and decide then if it’s appropriate to lower the front even more. I’ve ridden this bike for the past 4 years and never had a problem with it’s stack heigth and using a 750mm bar. The flared 400mm bar I have now should in theory make for a more upright position anyway, so I think I’ll be fine in this regard.
I haven’t thought about toe-overlap or the shorter wheelbase. I’ll be running 2.2" Race Kings so not the biggest tires in volume and going with 170mm cranks so even if I lower the front end I think it shouldn’t be an issue. It’s not that drastic of a change I’d assume?
Now I just have to figure out how to fit a 38t chainring on my frame or if I should go 2x… what year is it?
Just select “install a different fork” at the top. Search your bike or put in your current geometry, and the new fork lenght (shorten by 20mm in your case). And it will calculate/visualize the new geometry.
Depending on your drivetrain system, a wider crankset woth spacers could help. I went dub wide for my 1x12 mechanical XPLR build. And then those ~8mm offset chainrings used for the road/gravel set ups.
I was able to fit a 40t on my size M Epic HT clone.
What frame are you working with? Would love to see your set up!
Anywhere you ride reasonably fast (> 17 km/h) and don’t need the leverage and hand position of a wide’ish flatbar. Which would typically anywhere for me except as tricky technical terrain, mostly downhill, too.
Reason simply is the enormous aerodynamic disadvantage you have on flatbars vs. even just being on the hoods of drop bars.
Anywhere else, too, since you simply have more hand positions to choose from. While that is more important for some than for others that’s my main reason.
Suspension is always nice since it gives you comfort and cornering grip.
So my question rather would be: why flat bars at all? Well - if you really are doing technical stuff like rock gardens, sketchy downhills, rooty single trails… they come in handy at times. If you are doing really long bike packing events you can combine flat bars with aero bars and then at least you can rest your hands and wrists at times and also get aero. Also there the front suspension helps you that you can ride more surfaces and more securely so with being in those aerobars. That’s my combo for Races like Atlas Mountain Race. While for stuff like Badlands I use a drop bar (but also with Aerobars).
Who doesn’t remember or know the precarious gripping of the fork bridges by pro’s on the grassy finish line straight of some XC races? Or the more common gripping the flatbars right next to the stems. While the latter is somewhat sane and you can also try to make it a bit more comfy by wrapping a bit of tape there (and there a a select few of special shaped flat bars to better facilitate this) in the end it gets uncomfortable soon and you have very little control and no braking in reach what so ever.
Leaving the hands on the grips but just bending down real low helps a bit but it’s also uncomfortable and you still have an aero disadvantage with sticking out elbows and wide shoulder area etc.
Point being: these are all very compromised positions you won’t be in very often and very long while on a drop bar you don’t have to think about this. Even in the most relaxed and in control position you are way more aero from the get go and can become even more aero if you really want to.
Apart from that it’s also a hefty dose of personal preference. I’m super happy that we can build and buy so many capable drop bar builds right now. Or play with those so called alt bars. Because just some flat broomstick of a handle might be the right thing for a fast XCO race or a downhill race but for anything else personal preference and having options prevails.
FWIW I’m on my third drop bar HT in the last year, each one having learned from the last to make some improvements.
Started with a M Chisel, then went to a M SWorks Epic HT, now on a custom Mosaic.
For the Mosaic, I sought to replicate my gravel bike fit using stack/reach as reference, while still maintaining the handling performance of a true mountain bike via HTA, offset, front-center, and tire clearance (up to 2.5”). I’ve found the tire sweet spot to be ~2.2-2.3”, with larger tires feeling a little more sluggish and labor some to utilize the side knobs while ripping singletrack. Conti Race King and Maxxis Aspen ST 2.25” are my top two favorite tires with the bike for conditions ranging from fast gravel/pavement to chunky gravel and fire roads, and ripping singletrack. Have raced the DBHT at Migration Gravel, Leadville, Chequamegon, Iceman, and a lot of local gravel and mtb races, so quite the variety with a lot of success. Once getting used to the setup, the only limitations come from the hard tail aspect, not the drop bar. Very capable setup for any mixed surface riding/racing.
It’s certainly not the prettiest/lightest build, but he’s got the right idea! A bit surprised to see him go with fairly wide SES AR bars, but as he mentioned, he might come to appreciate just that tiny bit extra buffer for the technical stuff over his typical 35cm gravel bars.
I’m a gravel guy not really knowledge in the MTB world but how can DJs bike weigh 23lbs and Cole Paton (based on his IG story) can get his flat bar sub 17lbs. Seems insane to me. Surly drop bars don’t weigh that much more !?
Hardtail frames can be built pretty lightweight. 900g and below is not unheard of wheras a full sus XC frame is easily 1900g+ (s-works epic evo 7). 17lbs or 7.71kg for a hardtail is pretty damn light, like dangerholm level weight weenie. Comparing that to a dropbar full sus XC bike with dropper is apples to oranges.
This whole dropbar MTB conversation has shifted over to the Keegan Bike check thread. Don’t want to derail the discussion over there so I hope still some people are reading here.
I have a 2018 trek procaliber sl that I‘m in the process of converting to a dropbar mtb. The frame accepts 36t front chainring and ideally I‘d be at least on a 38 or even 40t.
I need a new crankset for this bike anyway so I was thinking either getting a transmission gx crank or just shimming an eagle crankset a few mm over to get a chainline that wirks with a bigger chainring.
It would depend on how much you like a slimmer Q-factor (or rather, stance) should you be forced to go a bit wider with the crank.
But maybe this could stay unchanged so the probably worse problem would be the chain angle on the inner sprockets. This of course is also a bit of a preference (and depends on the terrain / gradients you tend to ride most often in). So maybe a bias towards the outer sprockets would be even welcomed by you.
But be aware that the chain will sound awful on the 1 to 3 innermost sprockets aka climbing gears (the audible sign you’re wasting Watts and instead of propelling yourself forward with it rather grinding your drive train down) and you could experience problems with backpedaling there. This will be the more problematic the shorter your chain stays are.
I can say from my own experience with a stock Canyon Exceed which came with rather wide Shimano SLX cranks (their widest) and thus a whopping 56.5 chainline (really made for superboost instead of making sense on a boost hard tail) that I instantly felt something was off and wrong upon the first test rides (again - stock, no conversion done whatsoever).
I changed it to their slimmest XTR crank with chainline 52 mm and voilá: no audible chain noises, much cleaner running, as good as an drive train efficiency as you can possibly get from a 1x system, also in the climbing gears.
Interesting to hear your experience. I don’t mind the 52mm chainline nor the Q factor of my Hardtail - on the contrary. I have the +4mm wide axles on my SPD SL and 2mm spacers on my roadbike. I can get more power trough the cranks with a wider stance.
I wasn’t aware of the drivetrain problems that come along with a spaced iut crankset.
I‘m not even sure if the Transmission cranks are compatible with eagle chainrings. Have to dig in some more.
I’m paging @CincoGirl here. Can you share your thoughts and experiences on riding a 56mm chainline on your trek procaliber?
I wouldn’t shim anything. The chain line was designed to work as it is. Do you really think you need a 40t on a MTB?
Unless your rides are averaging in the mid-20mph+ it doesn’t make much sense to me, but so many people seem to think that they need to have gravel gearing on their MTBs. Don’t forget that the bigger tire increases your gear inches on its own.
I’d be willing to bet that a 36t would work well for most of what you need. Maybe try it first.
Then if you need a bigger ring you can see what fits without shims. A lot of people run 38t on those, but I’m not sure if they have 55mm chainrings or not.
