I can’t give you any feedback on the fit or the handling, sorry, but that’s a very interesting application for the Epic.

this has certainly been done before, for touring setups as well as real racing
John Tomac did this setup when riding for 7-11

For sizing and setup I'm leaning towards the Medium, although what is your stem length on the Epic currently? And what is your stem length on the Tarmac?

Is there suspension on the front end and how much travel. What size tires you gonna run?

Note photo below from BITD, he changed out to a rigid fork as the suspension fork was too wobbly and caused some interesting handling with lower/longer weight distribution. I think the rigid fork also had a longer axle to crown length which helped with handling too. I always argued that this frame was too small for him too, imho.

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Anne Barnes
ABBikefit, Ltd
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Current Epic has a 100mm stem and the Tarmac also has a 100mm stem. The front fork does have suspension 100mm. Mostly running about 40mm gravel tires and occasionally putting some true MTB tires on.

Seat tube angle is only half a degree shallower on the Epic Hardtail than the Tarmac. If your saddle isn't slammed forward on the Tarmac's seatpost, you'll probably be able to achieve a similar saddle position on the Epic without switching to a crazy negative-setback post, if you want.

Handlebar positioning is more interesting. Reach isn't too much shorter on the Epic than the Tarmac, BUT, stack is around 6cm higher. If your Tarmac is quite un-slammed then you'll probably be able to replicate the handlebar position without too much trouble. If your Tarmac is fairly slammed, then getting the bars low enough on the Epic could get tricky... to some extent it's possible to err long on the stem to "compensate" for insufficient saddle-to-bar drop.

But if you're aiming for a more reclined posture on the Epic than on the Tarmac - saddle farther back and bars higher - both of the above concerns will be less significant.

Keep in mind that the Epic has a much slacker and higher-trail steering geometry than a road bike. The steering will tend to feel weightier, and there will be more wheel flop when rocking the bike out of the saddle, and you may need to do more conscious countersteer during long hard road corners to prevent the bike from trying to lean up and out of turns wide.
Mountain bikes compensate for this stuff by using wide bars that give the rider more leverage on the steering axis, but if you're using typical road bars on a drop-bar conversion, expect it to feel somewhat weird. If you're using wide-flared drop bars this will probably be less noticeable.

Thank you for the information. It makes me feel like this is possible. I'd like the saddle similar to the Tarmac. I'm thinking a little higher on the bars. So from what I get from you it's possible for me to get this to work. Were you going off the small Epic numbers or the medium Epic?

I put drop bars on a 2011 Giant XTC 29er to make a home made Salsa Cutthroat. It turned out awesome. You may need a shorter/riser stem depending on how the bike fits you now- having lot's of steerer tube available to shift the stem up from its slammed position I normally rode was enough for me.

Additional thought- don't put standard road bars on, I tried that and then went with Salsa Cowchipper- these felt way better.

Thanks, now I can't wait to get this done.

Mostly medium, but neither in particular. Stack and reach on the small are both a less extreme departure from your road setup, so it might not be a bad option. Erring on the small end is a pretty common practice with drop-bar conversions.

I think you could make it work with a medium Epic and a 70-80mm stem.
Also- Use short reach bars- Like Zipp SL70 or similar.
You won't need a riser stem- Front end is tall enough on a 29'er mtb.

I have a medium Epic HT- Bars are higher than my road bikes. If I was going to do the same as you- I would just choose a stem 2cm shorter than what I am running with flat bars.

I'm thinking about attempting the same thing. Did you have to change out the whole group set?

Can I ask everyone, and this is a genuine question without being snarky at all, but what are you hoping to get out of putting road bars on a full suspension MTB? What do you see as the benefit? Every body likes a good frankenbike project, so I get that. I'm just wondering why else would you do it?

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

I am have done exactly this to create kind of a monster crosser gravel bike. Built it up from a 29er hardtail frame. Standard (but wide) road bars, 700C (29er) wheels, front suspension (low travel, 80mm), and got a full road drivetrain on there (Shimano 105 STI, 10 speed) but using a few little tricks to get everything to play together.

Fit-wise, to start, the 29er frame had a shorter than average top tube. But I got it more perfectly dialed in by getting a smaller frame, using a zero setback seatpost, and a pretty short stem. I started with an 80mm stem, but then went to 90mm stem, which got me exactly the bar-to-saddle distance I needed.

Love the bike, works great.

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I think one reason is, I have never been able to find a good off-the-shelf gravel bike that can fit 55mm wide tires (with 700C wheels), can accommodate a 2x drivetrain and a suspension fork, and was pretty cheap.

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trying to hack a bike I already own for a few $ instead of dropping $$$$ on a new one. goal is long distance off road bikepacking touring such as GDMBR.

In netherlands a mtb with drops is called a strandfiets or beachracer.... Did yiu google drops like that?..... And they have special drops that slope out... Less boxy and lighter plus look more purpose built than compromise

And variety with less range.... If your basebar is low then you dont need as much drop

Another option would be throwing bar ends on your current MTB bars, and adding a set of aerobars. Then you'd still 3 positions to rotate through and you'd probably spend less money. Road shifters are expensive. MTB shifters and brake levers are cheap.

The bike would be more capable off-road than with drop bars, and your speed on the road would probably be about equal to your bike with drop bars...maybe a hair lower.

And you can put a very wide bag on a mountain bike handlebar, rather than needing it to be more narrow than the drops of a road bar.

Yep. Get that and done that. This is what I would expect most answers would be, and I think projects like this can be fun. They don't always work out the way you want, but who cares...just have a good time doing it.

I've really enjoyed watching the spread of Gravel riding. It's put the adventure back into the sport for many folks and has been good for the industry. Here in SoCal, though, many are really just mountain biking with less-than-ideal bikes; they just don't want to admit it. In fact, "Gravel" here is following almost the exact same path as the birth of MTB in the 80's (or late 70's), and I figure if you have to put suspension on your gravel bike because of the terrain you're riding, why not just ride a MTB? I suspect many will eventually move over to MTB. Then again, my memories and current vision of MTB is a ride of adventure through the mountains - 30-50 miles with several long sustained climbs and great singletrack. I guess it's more about jumps and berms these days. Perhaps I've been left behind in that regard. Maybe I should be on a suspended gravel bike! Lol.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

These are great ideas. I think I'll try this first. Thanks!

 




This is (IMO) the most underrated aspect of flat bars for bikepacking rigs and why you're seeing (well you might have to look closely but...) more and more folks whipping up bars like this

thankfully Big Agnes came out with the "bikepacker" version of their UL tents - shorter poles - to help address some of this.

Yup- I put on a Force 1x groupset. The bike was originally a 3x, which i subsequently updated to a 1x, then to full rigid (swapped out the suspension fork for a carbon one)... and now into its current form factor with drop bars. It might honestly be my favorite bike.

This is the reason flared gravel bars exist. Due to the long top tubes on modern mountain bikes, relative to road bikes, it difficult find a position where you can use both the drops and hoods with traditional shape road bar. Mountain bike geometries have changed significantly over the past decade or so I wouldn't use older photos as a guide for what is advisable. However many modern gravel bikes also are longer than road bikes and flared bars were designed to address this issue. Lots of focus has been place on the width of flared bars but its really the reach and drop of the flares that makes all the difference.

If you do go drops I would also use a dropper post. The more road oriented position will mean the saddle is even more in the way on descents than it is in normal MTB position. Given you will also be narrower on the bars you will want the freedom to move around on the bike and this is where the dropper really shines.