Drop barring an mtb for racing

[Kurt1980]

Hey all, anyone put drop bars on an mtb and competed with it in a gravel race?

I'm a bit underwhelmed at the current offerings, especially re: tyre size, but also suspension.

I'm starting to think seriously about buying a down sized mtb frame and throwing on some drop bars. This would give me the benefit of wider tyre clearance (2.2 inches, maybe more), more tyre choices and almost certainly a 30.9mm seatpost which would allow for a dropper. I could add short travel XC fork with lockout that would have (hopefully) a shorter axle to crown to keep the stack height decent.

I guess this is getting into monster cross territory, but the idea is to have a bike that's still fast, but has some extra off road legs when needed. Additionally, I think having a bit of extra cushion staves off fatigue on longer races.

Thoughts? Anyone with a racing background done this?
Edit... can't add pictures it seems. Carry on then!

[themidge]

Dylan Johnson rode leadville and several other grey area gravel/mtb races on a drop bar hardtail this year. He claims it's the fastest setup for non-technical races with bumpy terrain, and he seems to be right judging by his times compared to a traditional setup.



Fun fact he's not the first to do this by any stretch, Travis Brown rode leadville on a drop far fully suspension in 2009 (the year Lance won with a puncture), see 13:40 here https://youtu.be/TqAt7r2ibm8?si=3EozMZpf7uSdqCXX&t=820

If I ever get a new mountain bike I'd be inclined to have fun with the old frame and do some kind of drop bar set-up like this, but it is quite situation-specific. In most of my riding I think my normal gravel bike and normal mountain bike are more fun, even if they're not faster.

[alexanderp1991]

Biggest issue is getting the gearing esecially if sticking with 1x. My MTB frame only clears a 34 tooth ring in 1x configuration which would mean having to go 2x.
Dylan's Factor clears a 42 or 44 tooth chainring which would work!

[Kurt1980]

Dylan Johnson rode leadville and several other grey area gravel/mtb races on a drop bar hardtail this year. He claims it's the fastest setup for non-technical races with bumpy terrain, and he seems to be right judging by his times compared to a traditional setup.



Fun fact he's not the first to do this by any stretch, Travis Brown rode leadville on a drop far fully suspension in 2009 (the year Lance won with a puncture), see 13:40 here https://youtu.be/TqAt7r2ibm8?si=3EozMZpf7uSdqCXX&t=820

If I ever get a new mountain bike I'd be inclined to have fun with the old frame and do some kind of drop bar set-up like this, but it is quite situation-specific. In most of my riding I think my normal gravel bike and normal mountain bike are more fun, even if they're not faster.

Yeah, I think seeing the Dylan Johnson vid has spurred me on a bit in this regard. It seems if its technical enough, and I would also argue bumpy enough, then wider tyres/mtb is a goer.

Re: the full suspension idea. Fox have Live Valve, and Rockshox have Flight Attendane, with both the basic premise is to firm/soften the suspension quite rapidly based on rider input and terrain. I think something like this with say 50mm of travel wold be perfect for long gravel races. 5-6 hours of faily constant corrugations and bumps really wears you down. If the technology is there I'd be up for a trial.

[Kurt1980]

Biggest issue is getting the gearing esecially if sticking with 1x. My MTB frame only clears a 34 tooth ring in 1x configuration which would mean having to go 2x.
Dylan's Factor clears a 42 or 44 tooth chainring which would work!

That is a REALLY good point I'd overlooked. Thanks for that

I remember now seeking to put a 38T chainring on my Epic, only to find max clearance is 36. Will have to take this into account.

Follow up question.... Anyone know if it's possible to bodge a 2x and FD on a 1x bike?

[1swiftvelo]

It's possible to go with a bigger chainring. You'll need super boost cranks with a zero offset chain ring. -6mm will put it at regular boost offset. 40 , 42 should be no problem,only issue is you might experience some chain rub on the second gear against the 51/52 depending on your set up. There's lots of variables,but it's possible.

[CampagYOLO]

Could be of interest to the OP:

https://www.bikeradar.com/features/pro- ... -world-cup

The article mentions that prior to the race the bike had a 42t GRX crankset fitted.

[stevesbike]

I built one using an old mtb for this year's Rock Cobbler, a technical, mostly offroad race in CA - lots of people do it on mountain bikes. Like last year, there was a lot of mud due to the heavy rains we've been having. The drop bar mtb felt like the perfect bike for the course - I could ride up some sections people were walking and it was a definite advantage on the descents and cornering through lots of singletrack (I crashed last year on one of the flowy, loose sections). Also, the bike is super fun to ride - very forgiving of bad lines etc.

I did the build mostly as a test - the frame is old and outdated. Thinking of doing a more contemporary build - the option of doing a gravel build with a suspension fork doesn't seem as flexible and ironically lots of manufacturers make hardtail frames that are lighter than their gravel frames, so the extra weight of a mtb fork offsets the difference with a gravel suspension fork - and you get more tire clearance and travel and aren't affecting the geometry since the hardtail is designed around the suspension fork. Considering the cervelo hardtail - heavily discounted now and can take a 38 chainring.

An easy solution to the 36 max chainring is to run an ethirteen cassette with a 9 tooth - 36x9 is a bigger gear than 38x10. I have one on my gravel bike and it works well.

[Salespunk]

I am currently swapping flat bars for drop bars on my Epic World Cup. A couple of notes;

Figure out your brake/shifter setup before you start. I run Shimano on my MTB's and Sram on my road setups. I had to remove my XTR calipers on this bike to run Sram shifters. I bought a set of Hope RX4's to mate up with my Red HRD levers, but the Hopes are too wide to fit the frame and fork. Ended up finding some Red post mount which are pretty affordable right now at just over $100/caliper.

You can run larger chainrings than the recommended max. My solution is to run a 5Dev 136 spindle to gain a few more mm of clearance. Another friend has a 42 mounted on his Epic World Cup by running 5 mm of spacers on the drive side. This offsets the crank to that side and his clearance is pretty tight between the crank and chainstay on the non driveside, but it works.