Inherited a Dawes Super Galaxy. Question on Tiagra drop shifters.

[steve216c]

About a month ago my father passed away leaving me a Dawes Super Galaxy. He had had an Ultra Galaxy which got pinched and which I had referred to incorrectly when writing about this Galaxy which was the replacement he received in 2009 under the insurance.

I brought the bike back to Berlin a couple of weeks back and set about recommissioning it. A mouldy Brooks B17, surface rust as flat tyres were fixed with elbow grease. I added a hub Dynamo and appropriate cabling and lights to replace the cheapo Halfords blinkies. And yesterday I took it for a 10km spin. And it rode really nicely. Note to self- fit a mirror and a bell… to complete the job.

I’ve enjoyed the comfort of straight bars for years, and although the steel Dawes touring frame with dropped bars was great absorbing bumps on the bike lanes even at 30kmh, I found it challenging to jump the front wheel up for the occasional kerb stone. So I got to wondering if I replaced the drops for a butterfly bar or straight bar if I could still use the Tiagra integrated shifter/brakes from the drops on flat bars or butterfly bars?

Has anyone ever attempted that? Do the ergonomics work using the brake levers as shifters in flat position?

I’m not certain I will go that route. But I’d like to keep and use the Reynolds tubed steel frame bike in addition to my aluminium framed Rohloff powered Winora Labrador.

[PH]

Condolences.
It's nice that the bike will continue.
I've seen several non drop bars that have had STI's fitted, mainly either bull bars or mustache type bars, I haven't ridden any of them, though the hand positions always look a little awkward to me.
You could have a go, though I can see how the costs of trial and error could easily be more expensive than simply swapping to what you know works.  You can buy Shimano Altus 3 x 8 shifters for under £15. The only compatibility issue would be the front mech, though a replacement won't be dear. I don't know 9 speed prices but I don't think they're much more. You would of course also need new brake levers, I'd swap the canti's for V brakes at the same time, IMO that's usually a worthwhile upgrade and again not expensive.  You could offset that cost by selling the STI's, some models fetch a good price.
Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy the bike.

[steve216c]

I have some cheap Altus shifters on my 26“ MTB but the Tiagra are much smoother shifting than el cheapos. My derailleur Trecking bike had Deore shifters which felt better made. And I agree V brakes over cantilever would make a lot of sense. Actually the cantilever brakes are pretty good on this bike when I needed to brake. But any major upgrades will depend how much I use it as everything works fine otherwise.

I was really wondering if spare components I already have on hand might work. But the shifter brake combi is only ever seen on drops so might really not work on flat bars ergonically.

[John Saxby]

Steve, a thought or two on your bars/brifters:

• agree with your instinct to stay with the Tiagra brifters;
• then: perhaps experiment with a couple of bolt-on bull horn grips, mounted towards the outer ends of the flats on your Dawes' drop bars, depending on the amount of leverage you need.  Might look a bit odd, but if anyone comments, you could tell them it's just a radically cut back aero bar.

Cheers,  John

[mickeg]

Switching from a drop bar bike to flat bars, you might need a pretty long stem, as flat bar bikes usually have a longer top tube.

If you have a good flat bar bike that fits you well, you could compare with some measurements of both bikes and assess the differences.