Instead of dropbars I just use MTB bars with bar ends. I have mounted the bar ends between my grips and brake levers. This gives them the same feel as a hood. The way they are positioned make it really easy to switch back to my normal grips if I want to brake or shift. In my experience the actual drop of the drop bars is rarely used, but it is nice to be able to switch your hands from the hood to the bars on long rides to keep them from getting to fatigued.
With 40" sleeves, I favor _wiiiide_ handlebars; the narrowness of drop-bars never feels right... "Bar ends" _inset_ a bit, sound kinda great! For that matter, I'm sure I've seen bars made that way... You've given me a new thing to wishlist!
Currently using this setup on a Trek hybrid with beach cruiser bars and mini bar ends. Rides like a beach cruiser on flats, then on a hill I grab the bar ends and it climbs like a mountain bike. I have ESI grips on the bar ends for extra comfort.
I've had a Sonder Frontier rigid with the inner bar ends for a few years now, and it's a great setup. I use it both for commuting, as well as a more burly gravel bike.
A couple things - your TPU tube is in the spray of the front tire, so it might get damaged before it gets inflated and your rear light is behind the tire and not visible, so it should probably get mounted on your seat or rear triangle. Bars are fine, lots of options, use whatever feels right, maybe some klunker/cruiser bars.
@TheOVERMUCH *Agreed, they're definitely way too wide.* *Unless his objective it to hit every rear view mirror or parking meter while filtering.* *The "Wider is better" community might catch on someday, once they stop dragging their knuckles.* *Not holding my breath though.*
I did this too, but with regular mtb bars. I used an old Bikes Direct Windsor cliff 4500 (26er). I put a ridgid fork with 29er wheels and 1.95. The bike bike and fork where made for 26" wheels but the 29er wheelset fit perfetly with no issues at all. It completely changed the feel of the bike, I loved it. Unfortunately or fortunately, I let my dad borrow it and he never returned it. He rides it around his neighborhood.
Looks like a fun bike. A couple of thoughts. 1) gotta find a better solution for the tail light. It’s not visible properly from behind with the wheel in the way. 1a) as a tactical commuter bike, a front light solution is needed. 2) lock storage. As others observed, this one isn’t meant to be left alone with all the gubbins exposed. But if you’re running around doing things, eventually it will need to survive alone for a bit.
Agreed! My bike bags are easily taken on and off and convert into a shoulder bag to be taken with me so I don't have to leave them on the bike. Best invention ever.
I would love to see a part 2, 3, 4 to this video where you keep improving the setup. Dialing in the problems (like that rear light 😅, lack of any sort of fenders, theft protection) and increasing its usefulness over time. Not sure how much is filmed already but upgrading the bike for each city seems right!
I started bike commuting in 2005, and by 2010, I switched from road bikes to rigid MTB. Lower gearing, sturdier wheels with high volume tires, upright position, and disc brakes are all way better for urban commuting than the efficiency at sustained effort that road bikes are made for.
💯 *^* So much this. An old XC MTB bike does everything almost as well as a specialty bike, while retaining versatility. That said, 1× crosschain friction _sucks_ compared to the much lower friction of a front derailleur lining up with the climbing gears. Aside from expense & lack of modularity, hub shifters are quite convenient... right up until the extra drag deducts 5 MPH & miles of range, from one's rides! On a long ride, an extra 4% loss equates to several pounds of bike\gear that could've come along. I'll take wide grip tires & an extra bottle of water, in exchange for the "difficulty" of using a front derailleur, any day! Honestly, I feel like front-derailleur hate, is just a skill issue?
@prophetzarquon I was also running 1×9 before clutch derailleurs and narrow wides. I still had a triple on my trail bike at the time, but for city riding even 9 speeds is more than you really need. I know it's not a skill issue for me, as I rode friction shifters and manually trimmed my front derailleurs for years, but I no longer build bikes with them at all. I've never personally felt the 4% efficiency penalty myself but I'll take your word for it.
I got perhaps one of the last halfway serious (i.e. excluding the supermarket bikes) XC MTBs that came with a front derailleur. Shimano 2x12 SLX/XT mix (except for the crank, which is not even Deore, but who cares). I don't get the front derailleur hate - basically the bike has to modes "goat" and "road". I love the range and miss it a lot on the trailbike I got in the meantime. I still drive the hardtail way more often as it is my go-to for commuting and for after-work rides from home office even in summer (as I don't feel compelled to clean it meticulously like the full-sus). And during winter a.k.a. mud season, the full-susser stays in the barn, making the HT my only bike half the year.
Practical commuter/city bikes like this make riding a viable alternative to cars for a lot of errands. I love em! Only thing I see missing is a chunky lock.
Which is crazy, considering all emergency stuff he's carrying. Why would he need all that, _in a city?_ Does this city have no shops? Is all that gear for riding at night? WTF, just carry a water bottle & lock. Even an air pump is potentially overkill, when every shop (& almost every gas station) has air compressors.
Very glad to have found this channel! I'm a commuter - not a mountain biker (yet?) but the content you have here and over on your other channel have helped me so much with fixing and upgrading my commuter bike. Just changed my tires over to thicker, knobby ones for winter and was able to do that plus a full cleaning and some repairs to my brakes. Thank you for your work, Seth!
I am 6,2" and 200lbs. Having ridden a gravel bike for a few years, and raced a few times with them, I have yet to find a gravel bike that my large body frame feels stable on. I always have had mountain bikes as well, so I thought, rigid hard tail! I recently found a trek 1120 bikepacking bike and have been using it for bikepacking and as my gravel bike. It's awesome for someone my size that needs more stability at those higher speeds.
Wheelbase & top tube length, are probably the most common fit failures I see among guys on bikes. Selling people stuff that doesn't fit, is one of the great travesties of our modern age. Having stuff that fits, is not some optional nicety; it's essential for proper performance & safety.
If you're looking for more stability than a gravel bike and not a mtb, you need to check out touring bikes with "proper" geometry. I have both a gravel and a touring bike and believe me the touring bike has a well planted position that it sticks and holds line easily at speeds.
I'm getting Dia-compe DC139 vibes. But those are marketed toward bullhorn bar users where you have access to the brakes from the forward or flat/top) position.
That generation of Timberjack has great geometry for this type of build. I built one super similar to this with Corner bars, a rigid fork and some 50mm Ramblers. Worked great as a gravel/all-terrain bike. Also, the solution to the "awkward" feeling on the tops is to use the drops for the technical stuff. It takes some getting used to, but once you do it feels great!
Helmet-mounted tail lights are freaking wonderful. Also, there are now accelerometer-based *_brake_* lights for bicycles; no setup, no wiring, just attach & go. (It's almost silly that I haven't had one all along.)
Surly makes the moloko bars, which puts the controls setup like a regular flat bar, but then allows for multiple positions and a space for even a custom handle bar bag or more stuff like lights and phone mount on.
bro that's my exact vision of cycling : Bringing in the pros of road bikes, mountain bikes, and bike commuting into one thing. Wishing you the best from France
I converted my entry-level hardtail into a commuter bike. From 3x7 to 1x11 gears, a shorter stem, a handlebar with 30mm rise. In addition, there are Vittoria Terrano tires, which roll very fast and have enough grip. all together a fast but comfortable bike for everyday use
I thought of getting those Corner bars for my MTB but ended up getting proper wide Curve Walmer bars with a drop bar specific dropper post lever. The Corner bars are actually meant to be primarily run in the drops with the shifters/brakes mounted to the little horns at the tops. It's a *much* shallower drop from regular drop bars and you get the most leverage on the bars that way
Nah, fr the biggest issue is him trying to force the top position to act as the main position. I got the corner bar on my xc bike and it handles trails just fine Wouldn't do massive drops with the bars, but everything else is ok when you put the damn brakes in the right spot😂
@@NeelTheHumanidk, I feel like the Corner bars are a half assed attempt at drop bars. Soma's Junebug... I think... allows drop bar OR flat bar controls....even has enough room for twist grips (especially for those running Rohloff IGH).
Anything narrower than ~29 inches, feels very narrow, to the point of hurting my shoulders after a while... I've never been able to appreciate narrow barsets; my shoulders aren't even _that_ wide! I'd rather just tuck in+lower on wide bars, for the relatively short durations where drop bars are used?
Man I love this build. A bike for when you just can't get out to the trails. I ride my MTB 90% of the time on pavement but I'm always looking for fun and interesting paths and drops. Add to that that half the roads near me don't have sidewalks and have speed limits of 45+... Yeah I need something that can get (just off the) road a bit. Love this build philosophy.
Every now and again I see some odd, but interesting things roll into the shop. Had someone drill out a hole at the very end of their brake lever and bolt on old dead V-brake pads so they could grab them while on their bar ends. You'd probably find they make braking on the "Hoods" a little easier.
Back in the 90s Paul and Tektro (maybe others) made brake lever extensions/attachments that do that same thing! And Shimano made a satellite shifter that mounts on the bar end, so you had access to your rear gears too.
Hardtail, 100mm fork, fast XC/gravel tires and a backpack. Done. Can handle anything city streets throw at it, cheap, easy to set up. I do this with a Trek Marlin 5.
Mountain bike bars with bar ends in the middle ftw (inside your brakes and gears). MTB control when you want it, but more aero and comfortable when commuting (and when you're not on your brakes). I used to commute on a fixie and then moved up to a road/gravel setup but now on a rigid MTB setup. Way more comfy. Way more versatile. People will argue it's not as quick, to them I say the nominal time they are shaving off in speed I am exponentially feeling better being comfortable. How would you rather get to work? Tired and uncomfortable, or a couple minutes later feeling chill and relaxed?
Plus, if you're more comfortable, you can ride longer between breaks & maintain effort better, so you're still faster. And MTB frames aren't heavier for no reason; they're _stronger,_ so safety & long-term reliability come into play as well. Touring bike frames _can sometimes_ last for generations, but _most_ won't survive nearly the use\abuse that an MTB frame will.
As a city bike this is very good in terms of being nimble etc, but there’s no lock, no ability to lock through the middle of the frame, and a fairly expensive and easy to steal dropper post. Plus you can’t easily take the central bag with you, meaning you’d need to empty the contents individually every time you want to leave the bike and take your things with you. A rear rack plus a lock in the triangle would be better imo.
Good video! Way back, my only mtb was a trek 7000. I built a 2nd set of narrow wheels for to use for urban travel. It worked well and had a lot of fun. I still have to use as a shuttle bike for kayaking and fishing. Note: Consider moving your rear flasher up to the seat rails. That way cars don't have to be so close to see the flashing light. (-:
A flasher on the back of the helmet, is great too! At night, downlighting greatly aids others in perceiving the distance between you; there are accelerometer-based *brake* lights that activate automatically & also provide downlighting. Hang it from your saddle, & go!
Fun fact: Bikes that are somewhat like this one have existed in Germany for over ten years already and are also the most commonly sold bikes, they are called Trekking bikes.
Hey Seth love you channel. I'm 63 and got back into biking as a way to rehab from ankle replacement. Can you come up to Hershey, Pa...I really want to find one of your gift capsules. Oh yeah and the riding here is great as well. I'm getting ready to do the PANTS ride next summer. Oh that's Pennsylvania North To South. Hope to see you here one day. Live to ride... ride to live!!!!
Great bike. I like it's first Bearn Peak incarnation as single speed. For city exploring I like to see it changing gear ratio, changing tires, adding a inner bar (sqllabs or similar) plus bags etc. Basically do not add gears (change ratio) and keep the regular bar with inner bar. Thanks a lot for all your videos.
Seth has definitely been creeping r/xbiking. I was hoping for some new ideas but it's pretty much exactly how I converted a 90s mtb I picked up, corner bars and all. Personally not the biggest fan of them coming from mostly MTB I ain't made for the drops.
My thoughts exactly. Seth dips his toes in xbiking. I watched the D.C. episode first so I felt bad for the corner bars having already known their fate. Seth I think you should have tried the corner bars in the configuration they were designed for. The wide drops are so comfortable. Better for leaning into fast fire road corners than jumping though.
This is right up my alley, Seth! It is exactly the type of bike I ride. I call mine the fRigid Rigid, as I live in Anchorage, Alaska. Anchorage offers a sweet variety of riding, from paved bike trails, to single track, to urban alleyways and parking lots. Cars, trucks, bears, moose, ice, snow, and the occasional dead whale, it's far from your typical city, which required a far from typical bike! I'm very happy that you built this bike, because it's very versatile; as in it is capable of going anywhere, while serving as a very useful utility for doing everyday tasks. I hope it inspires more folks to explores their cities and neighborhoods in a more intimate fashion. So many folks hate where they live because they typically only see it from inside a car, while sitting in traffic. When exploring the city by bike you discover so much more about your community. I know this, first hand. When I show people my photos from my rides, they always assume I am in a different city. When they learn that they are taken right here in Anchorage, they are taken aback. They simply don't see these places because they don't explore the city by bicycle, the way I do.
Seth, if you haven’t heard of them yet, Stringbean Bags is based out of Western NC and can custom make frame bags for any bike! I got one for my (now stolen) hardtail and it was a flawless fit if you are ever looking for bags for your other bikes! Not sponsored just a happy customer and fellow North Carolinian!
When I first started riding as an adult, I bought a Trek Hybrid bike. As I progressed, it got very little attention. I recently built it up like this with some Velo Orange Crazy Bars. So much more fun now!
I have a set of Corner bars, but I run the brakes and shifters to the nub and they work and feel great in that position. I ride on the "Hoods" and it works great. As a bonus idea, I also run a suspension seat post and it adds just enough suspension to change my life..
Seth, I wanted to say that you look very fit and trim! Its amazing! Your jawline is alot sharper too! Please keep up what you are doing for your health, life's too short - gotta make it count while we're still here! Be blessed! ✌
We used to put bullhorns on the end of the bars to commute to school on our mountain bikes. You'd only use them when on the cycle paths or powering on. They worked well for us, changed position enough to power on easier, dont see them as much anymore though. I sometimes find my hands on the end of the bars as if they are missing the bullhorns, maybe ill look into them again.
The kona shred was my commuter for years. Heavy because it’s a dirt jumper but made it awesome for dropping stair sets in the city. Drop ten stairs never worried about flats
Hey Seth, I’m not sure if you’ll see this but I work at a bike shop in Oklahoma City, that’s been there since 1979. If you plan on exploring OKC, there’s about 200 years of experience between the 4 of us, and we’re all from here. We’d be happy to host. Anyway, thanks for the content, ride safe - James
Never tried this kind of handle bar, but on my tactical commuter, I went with wide MTB handlebars (760mm) and added bar ends for extra hand positions. I don't like bar ends when they're too far appart (they're ok on old narrow bars), but I still like having wide bars. So I installed them between the grips and levers.
A fine ride, I appreciate what you did. What I'd really like to see is the build(s) of a bike from used, dumpster components. I've done several of these myself where the only new parts are tires, tubes, rimstrips, and bar tape.
The fork to frame interface is interesting. And here i am worrying about a fox 38e fork on a ‘24 Trek Roscoe 8 and a bit of overhang. So i got the opposite looks! Gotta love Southern Engineering! 👍👍🇺🇸🏆
one potential option you have here: Shimano's GRX groupset has a hydraulic interrupt lever so you can have drop bars with hoods and then also a brake on the tops. You wouldn't shift from the tops but it's a bit less of a kludge than this.
I made a very similar one with a few key upgrades. 1) There's a Chinese version of these bars. They have much longer hoods, so you can ride them just like drop bar MTBs. 2. Instead of using TPU tubes, I use a small amount of tubeless sealant (around 30 ml on each tire) to make them tubeless. This makes my tires immune to snake bites. But not self-sealing. If I get a puncture, I just get a tubeless plug and glue, plug the hole, and keep going. Saves a lot of time on changing the tube. But also don't require changing the sealant all the time.
I've never experienced "snake bite"; just a huge irreparable sidewall gash, once. I guess it happens more at reduced tire pressures? I run butyl rubber tubes with double the specified amount, of thick tube sealant, & just don't even carry plugs etc, because I've never had a puncture leave a tire intact which good sealant didn't immediately plug. Then again, I'm not racing; if I were trying to shave ounces... well, then I'd find natural-fiber track clothes, for starters, because that'd make more difference in my times than a bit of tire mass... then maybe slimline magnesium pedals etc... The other thing with ultra-low pressure, is that I unseat the bead pretty much every time I sideload the rear wheel. With tubeless, it's catastrophic; with tubes, everything mostly stays put, so I just let some air out, re-seat the tire, & reinflate. No wreck, much less deathy.
I loved this video. I have corner bars on 2 bikes, I switched out standard Mt. Bike bars for drops on my Salsa Fat Bike. I use slick tires for city riding ... I see what your were trying to do and appreciate you very much. Great watch.
Surly ETs are in my top 3 favorite tires. They are completely unsexy but there is literally no other option of tire that is modern mtb size, road friendly, and tubeless ready.
I got almost thesame setup, the difference is I use H-Bars instead of corner bars, only pros to my H-bar is that I can put another bag in the middle along with my 2 pcs pannier. I use them Daily for commuting almost anywhere within the city. Tactical MTB is really awesome.
heads up, the tpu tube on the downtube is likely to get little pinholes from dirt kickup.probably best to keep that in the framebag or a seatpack. I think anyone would love to have a bike like this, good work!
I commute on a hard tail mtb and I think it's perfect for the task. The mtb geometry gives the confidence needed for some ...unconventional routes (not having to view curbs as obstacles gives a huge speed boost because I can cross the street whenever there are no cars, and not whereever there is a crossing). It's also perfectly suited for the bike paths in my town that are in a rather poor state. Although the XC tyres aren't ideal, I'm still faster than most cyclists (and also drivers during traffic) with them on at sufficiently high pressure. Those Surly Extraterrestrial tyres look really interesting though. My bike has a 3x8 shimano altus drivetrain (biggest front cog has 42 teeth) and I'm actually planning on replacing the BB and the cranks/front chainring with a Shimano BB-MT501 and a 26-38-48 Deore set meant for 10 speed trekking/hybrid bikes while keeping the 8 chain rings in the back (new 10s chain too ofc). I simply find myself in the top gear most of the time and sometimes, it just isn't enough (my town is very flat). On most routes, I'm faster by bike than by car (except for at night when nobody is driving) and often, that's without even breaking a sweat. In a properly planned city, biking and public transport are the fastest ways to get around and that's just better for the residents in so many ways.
Weirdly, my mid-2000's Fuji Cross-Comp came from the factory with brake levers on the hoods and normal ones on the tops. It was like a pass-thru cable that went from one lever to the other, then down to the brake caliper.
I put a couple sets of those on a few of my bikes. They're called either cross levers or interrupter levers. I've even seen the term in-line levers used occasionally.
Seth discovering one of the reasons corner bars were made when he tried to swap to real drop bars made my day. I'm a big fan of the cornerbars on my Fairdale.
Cane Creek Cross Top interrupter brake levers would work great as additional brake levers for the drop bars. They also are big enough for the modern drop bar diameter.
I didn't know 40 years ago that my boring commuter bike with 28-inch wheels was a tactical city exploration bike, but I had the same fun anyway riding over cracks in pavement and jumping curbs. It had a wide handlebar, only one speed and coaster brake, and it came with fenders and front and rear racks.
looks similar to the surly ogre I've been running for over a year now! I installed a carbon version of the corner bars with a friction shifter. The "hoods" position on corner bars is really bad no matter the setup so I didn't even bother adding padding to them. I ride with my hands on the "drops" most of the time and only hold the flat top sometimes when climbing a hill, it gives a more vertical position. Also the stock ogre comes with those extraterrestrial tires, but I honestly can't recommend them, they are really bouncy and always feel like they barely have enough traction. I use instead some 700x50 WTB Venture tires, they are incredibly reliable. And for winter I got some 29x2.5 WTB Verdict, they are great in the snow! Also I like your idea of a frame bag, I thought of using mine in a similar way but in practice in a city you really want to be able to take off all bags from the bike easily, so I got an handlebar bag instead. If I need more storage I have a spare drybag in there with a couple of straps to put on the rear rack and a packable backpack that takes no space when not use. I really like this setup, was fun to see something similar from this channel. A tip for using the corner bars: wrap them with handlebar tape and use them like they are meant to be used, it's really comfortable and offers more handling than you might think. Also I think they benefit from being mounted a bit higher.
Hehe, my commuter bike is an old 13 XC HT. I swapped the forks out for ridged ones and the get drop bars and aero bars on it. I will swap the bars to something more like what you are running on this build. The tires are fast with minimal thread but have lugs on the outside and are still wide. The most funny part is to go into the woods with it because most things need more attention now. I swapped the the drivetrain back to 1x10 because I dont need more gears and this will be cheap. Because it is a true commuter it should be inexpensive to run. Fenders are hard to find if you dont have small tires and or a uncommon fork. My fork is totally sleek and tapered everywhere. Cool build you did there fore sure. I am not so sure if you are really fast with the drop so wide.
I always wanted to love the corner bars, but I think a well place ergon grip with bar end is much more useable. ergon grips gp3 are part of my top 5 items on every new bike build I do for my fleet.
2:32 curios what comes next because my own build and many others can certainly reach brakes, shifter and dropper from the drops. Actually, can only reach from the drops…
Your requirements for the handlebars look a lot like my current commuter, but I don't jump off as much stuff as you do. For reaching the brake on top, I would suggest in-line brake levers. I never heard of them before I saw another commuter at work which had them mounted. Then you can just mount everything your gravel bike handlebar and access the brakes from all positions.
As soon as I saw a rigid MTB frame with a Surly Ogre/Krampus fork and some "drop bars" I may have giggled. Since that's what my current commuter is. I've got flared drops & hoods to run a GRX drivetrain, but got some 2" Schwable Almotion and a rear rack to carry my day to day pack.
I could see Seth’s next career being in municipal development for cycling infrastructure
He would be a great consultant and ambassador for thing's like that.
The guys who don't want to get into politics usually make the greatest politicians who actually achieve ish...
What really shocks me is the goons they currently have hired for the position.
@@LawrenceMacMacsterCan you name one?
@@bubba41123Don’t worry Biden and Harris only have a little more than a month to go.
Instead of dropbars I just use MTB bars with bar ends. I have mounted the bar ends between my grips and brake levers. This gives them the same feel as a hood. The way they are positioned make it really easy to switch back to my normal grips if I want to brake or shift.
In my experience the actual drop of the drop bars is rarely used, but it is nice to be able to switch your hands from the hood to the bars on long rides to keep them from getting to fatigued.
With 40" sleeves, I favor _wiiiide_ handlebars; the narrowness of drop-bars never feels right... "Bar ends" _inset_ a bit, sound kinda great! For that matter, I'm sure I've seen bars made that way... You've given me a new thing to wishlist!
Hhhmmm, I'll have to try that...despite my love of flared dirt drops.
Currently using this setup on a Trek hybrid with beach cruiser bars and mini bar ends. Rides like a beach cruiser on flats, then on a hill I grab the bar ends and it climbs like a mountain bike. I have ESI grips on the bar ends for extra comfort.
I've had a Sonder Frontier rigid with the inner bar ends for a few years now, and it's a great setup. I use it both for commuting, as well as a more burly gravel bike.
Thought about corner bars but went for inboard bullhorns same as you (as they were way cheaper) - They work great and really add some versatility
Perfect city bike, full of stuff to be stolen off. 🤣
he doesn't just leave it out in the open
@@MagnifiedFN-md6ku sadly that is not how city riding works if you actually use the bike to get stuff done.
@@Wagga-mt6cx true, but also, hes a youtuber, his job does not require him to leave the bike out
It's still quite a modest bike.
Ooo ok so When you building Yours
A couple things - your TPU tube is in the spray of the front tire, so it might get damaged before it gets inflated and your rear light is behind the tire and not visible, so it should probably get mounted on your seat or rear triangle. Bars are fine, lots of options, use whatever feels right, maybe some klunker/cruiser bars.
I think the bar is too wide to be practical in a city.
I like drop bars but also the moloko ones I got for cheap
@TheOVERMUCH
*Agreed, they're definitely way too wide.*
*Unless his objective it to hit every rear view mirror or parking meter while filtering.*
*The "Wider is better" community might catch on someday, once they stop dragging their knuckles.*
*Not holding my breath though.*
I worry about sun damage. Not sure how UV affects TPU.
I did this too, but with regular mtb bars. I used an old Bikes Direct Windsor cliff 4500 (26er). I put a ridgid fork with 29er wheels and 1.95. The bike bike and fork where made for 26" wheels but the 29er wheelset fit perfetly with no issues at all. It completely changed the feel of the bike, I loved it. Unfortunately or fortunately, I let my dad borrow it and he never returned it. He rides it around his neighborhood.
Looks like a fun bike. A couple of thoughts. 1) gotta find a better solution for the tail light. It’s not visible properly from behind with the wheel in the way. 1a) as a tactical commuter bike, a front light solution is needed. 2) lock storage. As others observed, this one isn’t meant to be left alone with all the gubbins exposed. But if you’re running around doing things, eventually it will need to survive alone for a bit.
Agreed! My bike bags are easily taken on and off and convert into a shoulder bag to be taken with me so I don't have to leave them on the bike. Best invention ever.
he should get a light that can mount to the saddle rails, like the exposure tracer. solves the dropper post light issue
The sad fact of the matter is;" lights draw unwanted attention, stealth is the secret."
frame bag for the lock
I would love to see a part 2, 3, 4 to this video where you keep improving the setup. Dialing in the problems (like that rear light 😅, lack of any sort of fenders, theft protection) and increasing its usefulness over time. Not sure how much is filmed already but upgrading the bike for each city seems right!
he did vid with him riding the bike already and he ended up removing the bars and buying regular ones from a shop
It's great to see bikes for what they are... a platform for doing what ever you want!
I started bike commuting in 2005, and by 2010, I switched from road bikes to rigid MTB. Lower gearing, sturdier wheels with high volume tires, upright position, and disc brakes are all way better for urban commuting than the efficiency at sustained effort that road bikes are made for.
I commuted on a Pugsley year round for like 5 years. Hell on tires but a great time always. Still my main MTB.
💯 *^* So much this.
An old XC MTB bike does everything almost as well as a specialty bike, while retaining versatility.
That said, 1× crosschain friction _sucks_ compared to the much lower friction of a front derailleur lining up with the climbing gears. Aside from expense & lack of modularity, hub shifters are quite convenient... right up until the extra drag deducts 5 MPH & miles of range, from one's rides!
On a long ride, an extra 4% loss equates to several pounds of bike\gear that could've come along. I'll take wide grip tires & an extra bottle of water, in exchange for the "difficulty" of using a front derailleur, any day!
Honestly, I feel like front-derailleur hate, is just a skill issue?
@prophetzarquon I was also running 1×9 before clutch derailleurs and narrow wides. I still had a triple on my trail bike at the time, but for city riding even 9 speeds is more than you really need. I know it's not a skill issue for me, as I rode friction shifters and manually trimmed my front derailleurs for years, but I no longer build bikes with them at all. I've never personally felt the 4% efficiency penalty myself but I'll take your word for it.
I got perhaps one of the last halfway serious (i.e. excluding the supermarket bikes) XC MTBs that came with a front derailleur. Shimano 2x12 SLX/XT mix (except for the crank, which is not even Deore, but who cares). I don't get the front derailleur hate - basically the bike has to modes "goat" and "road". I love the range and miss it a lot on the trailbike I got in the meantime. I still drive the hardtail way more often as it is my go-to for commuting and for after-work rides from home office even in summer (as I don't feel compelled to clean it meticulously like the full-sus). And during winter a.k.a. mud season, the full-susser stays in the barn, making the HT my only bike half the year.
sounds an awful lot like what people buy gravel bikes for
Practical commuter/city bikes like this make riding a viable alternative to cars for a lot of errands. I love em! Only thing I see missing is a chunky lock.
Which is crazy, considering all emergency stuff he's carrying. Why would he need all that, _in a city?_ Does this city have no shops? Is all that gear for riding at night?
WTF, just carry a water bottle & lock. Even an air pump is potentially overkill, when every shop (& almost every gas station) has air compressors.
@@prophetzarquon pretty much.
Berm peak is back
I really love your content
Very glad to have found this channel! I'm a commuter - not a mountain biker (yet?) but the content you have here and over on your other channel have helped me so much with fixing and upgrading my commuter bike. Just changed my tires over to thicker, knobby ones for winter and was able to do that plus a full cleaning and some repairs to my brakes. Thank you for your work, Seth!
I am 6,2" and 200lbs. Having ridden a gravel bike for a few years, and raced a few times with them, I have yet to find a gravel bike that my large body frame feels stable on. I always have had mountain bikes as well, so I thought, rigid hard tail! I recently found a trek 1120 bikepacking bike and have been using it for bikepacking and as my gravel bike. It's awesome for someone my size that needs more stability at those higher speeds.
Wheelbase & top tube length, are probably the most common fit failures I see among guys on bikes. Selling people stuff that doesn't fit, is one of the great travesties of our modern age. Having stuff that fits, is not some optional nicety; it's essential for proper performance & safety.
If you're looking for more stability than a gravel bike and not a mtb, you need to check out touring bikes with "proper" geometry. I have both a gravel and a touring bike and believe me the touring bike has a well planted position that it sticks and holds line easily at speeds.
2:50 Seth, those old-school brake lever extenders from the 90s that enabled us to brake from our bar ends would be great here! 😉
Was thinking the same thing, recently installed some on my commuter single speed, have been awesome
I'm getting Dia-compe DC139 vibes. But those are marketed toward bullhorn bar users where you have access to the brakes from the forward or flat/top) position.
Absolutely, another idea is to use cyclocross interrupter levers to have two brake levers on each side.
@@szurketaltos2693 Came here to mention interrupters, as well
@@ziginox they even make hydraulic ones, so cool
That generation of Timberjack has great geometry for this type of build. I built one super similar to this with Corner bars, a rigid fork and some 50mm Ramblers. Worked great as a gravel/all-terrain bike.
Also, the solution to the "awkward" feeling on the tops is to use the drops for the technical stuff. It takes some getting used to, but once you do it feels great!
Say tactical one more time
T A C T I C A L
@Dantick09 thank you 😁
😅
Look out for anything thumb tac tickel
I don't get what tactical means in this context. Asking for non-native speaker... ;)
Try Jones H-loop Bar. You'll have multiple positions from almost aero to very relaxed
Yes! Literally came here to say the same thing. Jones Bars are amazing. I need to build a new ride for mine.
I love my jones bars and jones bikes
I've been running one of these for four years, and I love it. Solves this exact problem.
The Surly Moloko and Velo Orange Crazy bars would be another good option to look at in this category of bars.
I agree 💯 🎉🎉🎉
Seat rail mount taillight would be my only change. Nice and functional bike.
Helmet-mounted tail lights are freaking wonderful.
Also, there are now accelerometer-based *_brake_* lights for bicycles; no setup, no wiring, just attach & go. (It's almost silly that I haven't had one all along.)
Was thinking the same thing. The way it's positioned now, so low and facing the rear tire, it's probably hardly visible.
Surly makes the moloko bars, which puts the controls setup like a regular flat bar, but then allows for multiple positions and a space for even a custom handle bar bag or more stuff like lights and phone mount on.
that or jones h bars
11:33 Gooolly, that multitool for sure has seen better days😂
I have the same, it's good steel but not stainless, I wrap it in a ziplock bag to avoid rust spots
bro that's my exact vision of cycling : Bringing in the pros of road bikes, mountain bikes, and bike commuting into one thing. Wishing you the best from France
I converted my entry-level hardtail into a commuter bike. From 3x7 to 1x11 gears, a shorter stem, a handlebar with 30mm rise. In addition, there are Vittoria Terrano tires, which roll very fast and have enough grip.
all together a fast but comfortable bike for everyday use
I thought of getting those Corner bars for my MTB but ended up getting proper wide Curve Walmer bars with a drop bar specific dropper post lever. The Corner bars are actually meant to be primarily run in the drops with the shifters/brakes mounted to the little horns at the tops. It's a *much* shallower drop from regular drop bars and you get the most leverage on the bars that way
I don’t know man. Feels like you’re trying to force drop bars. Seems like regular mtb bars would have worked best.
Still a sick build though!
Nah, fr the biggest issue is him trying to force the top position to act as the main position.
I got the corner bar on my xc bike and it handles trails just fine
Wouldn't do massive drops with the bars, but everything else is ok when you put the damn brakes in the right spot😂
@@NeelTheHumanidk, I feel like the Corner bars are a half assed attempt at drop bars. Soma's Junebug... I think... allows drop bar OR flat bar controls....even has enough room for twist grips (especially for those running Rohloff IGH).
Anything narrower than ~29 inches, feels very narrow, to the point of hurting my shoulders after a while... I've never been able to appreciate narrow barsets; my shoulders aren't even _that_ wide! I'd rather just tuck in+lower on wide bars, for the relatively short durations where drop bars are used?
funny that you hype these bars up, but the first thing you do in your previous video is get rid of them and then give them away
9:29
@@devilselbow A good hardtail mountain bike is all you need for "tactical" commuting.
It looks so forced to use them. Thumbs always in contact with levers, drop position seems uncomfortably wide..
@@devilselbowHookworms are the goat of street tires!
I had the same thought! By the end of the video he had a lot of reservations about them though.
Man I love this build. A bike for when you just can't get out to the trails. I ride my MTB 90% of the time on pavement but I'm always looking for fun and interesting paths and drops. Add to that that half the roads near me don't have sidewalks and have speed limits of 45+... Yeah I need something that can get (just off the) road a bit. Love this build philosophy.
This is the coolest build I've seen in a long time. Kudos! And great job explaining your thought process!
Raddest build in a long time! Absolutely love this bike! Makes me miss my old tactical single speed MTB I used as commuter for my uni days.
Every now and again I see some odd, but interesting things roll into the shop. Had someone drill out a hole at the very end of their brake lever and bolt on old dead V-brake pads so they could grab them while on their bar ends. You'd probably find they make braking on the "Hoods" a little easier.
Back in the 90s Paul and Tektro (maybe others) made brake lever extensions/attachments that do that same thing! And Shimano made a satellite shifter that mounts on the bar end, so you had access to your rear gears too.
Hardtail, 100mm fork, fast XC/gravel tires and a backpack. Done. Can handle anything city streets throw at it, cheap, easy to set up. I do this with a Trek Marlin 5.
Mountain bike bars with bar ends in the middle ftw (inside your brakes and gears). MTB control when you want it, but more aero and comfortable when commuting (and when you're not on your brakes). I used to commute on a fixie and then moved up to a road/gravel setup but now on a rigid MTB setup. Way more comfy. Way more versatile. People will argue it's not as quick, to them I say the nominal time they are shaving off in speed I am exponentially feeling better being comfortable. How would you rather get to work? Tired and uncomfortable, or a couple minutes later feeling chill and relaxed?
Plus, if you're more comfortable, you can ride longer between breaks & maintain effort better, so you're still faster. And MTB frames aren't heavier for no reason; they're _stronger,_ so safety & long-term reliability come into play as well. Touring bike frames _can sometimes_ last for generations, but _most_ won't survive nearly the use\abuse that an MTB frame will.
@prophetzarquon exactly. My commuter MTB I've owned new since '98. TBF the only thing still original is the frame. But it just works!
As a city bike this is very good in terms of being nimble etc, but there’s no lock, no ability to lock through the middle of the frame, and a fairly expensive and easy to steal dropper post. Plus you can’t easily take the central bag with you, meaning you’d need to empty the contents individually every time you want to leave the bike and take your things with you. A rear rack plus a lock in the triangle would be better imo.
I really like what you did with those bars.
For Unbikeable - suggest Toronto, with a detour in the Don Valley. I think your mind would be blown.
Good video! Way back, my only mtb was a trek 7000. I built a 2nd set of narrow wheels for to use for urban travel. It worked well and had a lot of fun. I still have to use as a shuttle bike for kayaking and fishing.
Note: Consider moving your rear flasher up to the seat rails. That way cars don't have to be so close to see the flashing light. (-:
A flasher on the back of the helmet, is great too!
At night, downlighting greatly aids others in perceiving the distance between you; there are accelerometer-based *brake* lights that activate automatically & also provide downlighting. Hang it from your saddle, & go!
a rear light behind the tyre, what for?
So the tire knows when he's braking, obviously.
I love this bike. A bike built for a purpose and not a category.
Fun fact: Bikes that are somewhat like this one have existed in Germany for over ten years already and are also the most commonly sold bikes, they are called Trekking bikes.
Hey Seth love you channel. I'm 63 and got back into biking as a way to rehab from ankle replacement. Can you come up to Hershey, Pa...I really want to find one of your gift capsules. Oh yeah and the riding here is great as well. I'm getting ready to do the PANTS ride next summer. Oh that's Pennsylvania North To South. Hope to see you here one day. Live to ride... ride to live!!!!
I'm surprised people don't drink beer the whole way, & call it the PiNTS!
Thanks for the idea! @@prophetzarquon
Great bike. I like it's first Bearn Peak incarnation as single speed. For city exploring I like to see it changing gear ratio, changing tires, adding a inner bar (sqllabs or similar) plus bags etc. Basically do not add gears (change ratio) and keep the regular bar with inner bar. Thanks a lot for all your videos.
Seth has definitely been creeping r/xbiking. I was hoping for some new ideas but it's pretty much exactly how I converted a 90s mtb I picked up, corner bars and all. Personally not the biggest fan of them coming from mostly MTB I ain't made for the drops.
My thoughts exactly. Seth dips his toes in xbiking. I watched the D.C. episode first so I felt bad for the corner bars having already known their fate. Seth I think you should have tried the corner bars in the configuration they were designed for. The wide drops are so comfortable. Better for leaning into fast fire road corners than jumping though.
Xbiking crew represent!!
This is right up my alley, Seth! It is exactly the type of bike I ride. I call mine the fRigid Rigid, as I live in Anchorage, Alaska. Anchorage offers a sweet variety of riding, from paved bike trails, to single track, to urban alleyways and parking lots. Cars, trucks, bears, moose, ice, snow, and the occasional dead whale, it's far from your typical city, which required a far from typical bike!
I'm very happy that you built this bike, because it's very versatile; as in it is capable of going anywhere, while serving as a very useful utility for doing everyday tasks. I hope it inspires more folks to explores their cities and neighborhoods in a more intimate fashion. So many folks hate where they live because they typically only see it from inside a car, while sitting in traffic. When exploring the city by bike you discover so much more about your community. I know this, first hand.
When I show people my photos from my rides, they always assume I am in a different city. When they learn that they are taken right here in Anchorage, they are taken aback. They simply don't see these places because they don't explore the city by bicycle, the way I do.
Love what you built, it’s the perfect adventure bike.
Thank you for branching out and covering other forms of cycling!
This is basically urban mountain biking.
Seth, if you haven’t heard of them yet, Stringbean Bags is based out of Western NC and can custom make frame bags for any bike! I got one for my (now stolen) hardtail and it was a flawless fit if you are ever looking for bags for your other bikes! Not sponsored just a happy customer and fellow North Carolinian!
I love your videos. I got into mountain biking a couple years ago and they have gave me lots of helpful tips!
When I first started riding as an adult, I bought a Trek Hybrid bike. As I progressed, it got very little attention. I recently built it up like this with some Velo Orange Crazy Bars. So much more fun now!
I have a set of Corner bars, but I run the brakes and shifters to the nub and they work and feel great in that position. I ride on the "Hoods" and it works great. As a bonus idea, I also run a suspension seat post and it adds just enough suspension to change my life..
Seth, I wanted to say that you look very fit and trim! Its amazing! Your jawline is alot sharper too!
Please keep up what you are doing for your health, life's too short - gotta make it count while we're still here!
Be blessed! ✌
Love this video! I have been looking to add drop bars to my bike and the Surly Corner Bars look to be just what I need. Thank you.
We used to put bullhorns on the end of the bars to commute to school on our mountain bikes. You'd only use them when on the cycle paths or powering on. They worked well for us, changed position enough to power on easier, dont see them as much anymore though. I sometimes find my hands on the end of the bars as if they are missing the bullhorns, maybe ill look into them again.
The kona shred was my commuter for years. Heavy because it’s a dirt jumper but made it awesome for dropping stair sets in the city. Drop ten stairs never worried about flats
Just a suggestion: you could use a frame mounted front fender and move your tool storage to either the fork or use a saddle pack.
Hey Seth, I’m not sure if you’ll see this but I work at a bike shop in Oklahoma City, that’s been there since 1979. If you plan on exploring OKC, there’s about 200 years of experience between the 4 of us, and we’re all from here. We’d be happy to host. Anyway, thanks for the content, ride safe
- James
i’ve been commuting from nj to nyc on my frankengravel for a few years now! very similar build! great stuff as always!
Never tried this kind of handle bar, but on my tactical commuter, I went with wide MTB handlebars (760mm) and added bar ends for extra hand positions. I don't like bar ends when they're too far appart (they're ok on old narrow bars), but I still like having wide bars. So I installed them between the grips and levers.
I would love to get an update on the whole Berm Peak trail situation since the building and riding videos were what brought me to the channel.
A fine ride, I appreciate what you did. What I'd really like to see is the build(s) of a bike from used, dumpster components. I've done several of these myself where the only new parts are tires, tubes, rimstrips, and bar tape.
I put together a bike to do the same thing and went with MTB bars with bar ends inside the grips for aero. I enjoyed the video.
Fantastic build! Love it!
love the idea- urban adventure dirt riding is my favorite discipline
Seth! Thanks for playing around with the corner bars! Cool build!
The fork to frame interface is interesting. And here i am worrying about a fox 38e fork on a ‘24 Trek Roscoe 8 and a bit of overhang. So i got the opposite looks! Gotta love Southern Engineering! 👍👍🇺🇸🏆
Throwback to the old freestyle around town videos you had in Florida. Good to be watching again.
if i had the money to do ANY kind on mountain biking i would be the happiest man ever
one potential option you have here: Shimano's GRX groupset has a hydraulic interrupt lever so you can have drop bars with hoods and then also a brake on the tops. You wouldn't shift from the tops but it's a bit less of a kludge than this.
Thought about that as well. I've first heard about them under the term "froglegs"
I made a very similar one with a few key upgrades.
1) There's a Chinese version of these bars. They have much longer hoods, so you can ride them just like drop bar MTBs.
2. Instead of using TPU tubes, I use a small amount of tubeless sealant (around 30 ml on each tire) to make them tubeless. This makes my tires immune to snake bites. But not self-sealing. If I get a puncture, I just get a tubeless plug and glue, plug the hole, and keep going.
Saves a lot of time on changing the tube. But also don't require changing the sealant all the time.
I've never experienced "snake bite"; just a huge irreparable sidewall gash, once. I guess it happens more at reduced tire pressures?
I run butyl rubber tubes with double the specified amount, of thick tube sealant, & just don't even carry plugs etc, because I've never had a puncture leave a tire intact which good sealant didn't immediately plug.
Then again, I'm not racing; if I were trying to shave ounces... well, then I'd find natural-fiber track clothes, for starters, because that'd make more difference in my times than a bit of tire mass... then maybe slimline magnesium pedals etc...
The other thing with ultra-low pressure, is that I unseat the bead pretty much every time I sideload the rear wheel. With tubeless, it's catastrophic; with tubes, everything mostly stays put, so I just let some air out, re-seat the tire, & reinflate. No wreck, much less deathy.
I also wanted to love the Surly Corner bars but they are now on the zwift machine (upside down) because I just can't love them like I want too.
I loved this video. I have corner bars on 2 bikes, I switched out standard Mt. Bike bars for drops on my Salsa Fat Bike. I use slick tires for city riding ... I see what your were trying to do and appreciate you very much. Great watch.
Surly ETs are in my top 3 favorite tires. They are completely unsexy but there is literally no other option of tire that is modern mtb size, road friendly, and tubeless ready.
I got almost thesame setup, the difference is I use H-Bars instead of corner bars, only pros to my H-bar is that I can put another bag in the middle along with my 2 pcs pannier. I use them Daily for commuting almost anywhere within the city. Tactical MTB is really awesome.
and BTW, you can use normal brakes and grips on an H-bar
heads up, the tpu tube on the downtube is likely to get little pinholes from dirt kickup.probably best to keep that in the framebag or a seatpack. I think anyone would love to have a bike like this, good work!
I commute on a hard tail mtb and I think it's perfect for the task. The mtb geometry gives the confidence needed for some ...unconventional routes (not having to view curbs as obstacles gives a huge speed boost because I can cross the street whenever there are no cars, and not whereever there is a crossing). It's also perfectly suited for the bike paths in my town that are in a rather poor state. Although the XC tyres aren't ideal, I'm still faster than most cyclists (and also drivers during traffic) with them on at sufficiently high pressure. Those Surly Extraterrestrial tyres look really interesting though. My bike has a 3x8 shimano altus drivetrain (biggest front cog has 42 teeth) and I'm actually planning on replacing the BB and the cranks/front chainring with a Shimano BB-MT501 and a 26-38-48 Deore set meant for 10 speed trekking/hybrid bikes while keeping the 8 chain rings in the back (new 10s chain too ofc). I simply find myself in the top gear most of the time and sometimes, it just isn't enough (my town is very flat). On most routes, I'm faster by bike than by car (except for at night when nobody is driving) and often, that's without even breaking a sweat. In a properly planned city, biking and public transport are the fastest ways to get around and that's just better for the residents in so many ways.
The fact that you hesitated tells me how awesome that line was. Hope this build does what you want
I put non-knobbly 29" tyres on an old (full rigid) hybrid, and I love it
I love my Surly Corner bar. Glad you like it too!
please more trails!
Weirdly, my mid-2000's Fuji Cross-Comp came from the factory with brake levers on the hoods and normal ones on the tops. It was like a pass-thru cable that went from one lever to the other, then down to the brake caliper.
I put a couple sets of those on a few of my bikes. They're called either cross levers or interrupter levers. I've even seen the term in-line levers used occasionally.
Aside from some mounting restrictions, it's not even a terribly complex or fault-prone design. I'm surprised a similar approach isn't used more.
Seth discovering one of the reasons corner bars were made when he tried to swap to real drop bars made my day. I'm a big fan of the cornerbars on my Fairdale.
I always look forward to your videos!
I loooooove this bike. Favorite bike you have ever featured Seth. Ty
Perfect bars for an MTB/gravel convert! Thanks Seth!
Cane Creek Cross Top interrupter brake levers would work great as additional brake levers for the drop bars. They also are big enough for the modern drop bar diameter.
I recommend SQ labs inner bar ends, you cant still shred but they provide an alt bar set up without feeling clunky
I still ride an 04 Specialized P2, perfect commuter for me! I used to beat the hell out of it, but I got old so it beats the hell out of me now!
I always learn something from you Seth!👊
Love it!
I didn't know 40 years ago that my boring commuter bike with 28-inch wheels was a tactical city exploration bike, but I had the same fun anyway riding over cracks in pavement and jumping curbs. It had a wide handlebar, only one speed and coaster brake, and it came with fenders and front and rear racks.
1:06 "Make the bike more neglect-tolerant" Finally someone gets me.
0:45 Seth's bike hacks pitched-in to do a voice over? 😅
looks similar to the surly ogre I've been running for over a year now! I installed a carbon version of the corner bars with a friction shifter. The "hoods" position on corner bars is really bad no matter the setup so I didn't even bother adding padding to them. I ride with my hands on the "drops" most of the time and only hold the flat top sometimes when climbing a hill, it gives a more vertical position. Also the stock ogre comes with those extraterrestrial tires, but I honestly can't recommend them, they are really bouncy and always feel like they barely have enough traction. I use instead some 700x50 WTB Venture tires, they are incredibly reliable. And for winter I got some 29x2.5 WTB Verdict, they are great in the snow! Also I like your idea of a frame bag, I thought of using mine in a similar way but in practice in a city you really want to be able to take off all bags from the bike easily, so I got an handlebar bag instead. If I need more storage I have a spare drybag in there with a couple of straps to put on the rear rack and a packable backpack that takes no space when not use. I really like this setup, was fun to see something similar from this channel.
A tip for using the corner bars: wrap them with handlebar tape and use them like they are meant to be used, it's really comfortable and offers more handling than you might think. Also I think they benefit from being mounted a bit higher.
Cool set up. The only thing I would tweak is the rear light, maybe seat stay mounted one? I think the current one won't been seen from behind much.
I can’t stop watching this it’s so cool
wow, i'd buy this! i've got my own MTB build for road use, similar set up without the customised handlebars
Just trying different stuff is cool! Plus I love the exploring videos too
I love the Surly Extraterrestrial on my commuter. Great setup
Hehe, my commuter bike is an old 13 XC HT.
I swapped the forks out for ridged ones and the get drop bars and aero bars on it. I will swap the bars to something more like what you are running on this build.
The tires are fast with minimal thread but have lugs on the outside and are still wide. The most funny part is to go into the woods with it because most things need more attention now.
I swapped the the drivetrain back to 1x10 because I dont need more gears and this will be cheap. Because it is a true commuter it should be inexpensive to run.
Fenders are hard to find if you dont have small tires and or a uncommon fork. My fork is totally sleek and tapered everywhere.
Cool build you did there fore sure. I am not so sure if you are really fast with the drop so wide.
This is awesome! I've been wanting a bike just for this purpose for hoppin around Asheville as well!
I always wanted to love the corner bars, but I think a well place ergon grip with bar end is much more useable. ergon grips gp3 are part of my top 5 items on every new bike build I do for my fleet.
2:32 curios what comes next because my own build and many others can certainly reach brakes, shifter and dropper from the drops. Actually, can only reach from the drops…
Your requirements for the handlebars look a lot like my current commuter, but I don't jump off as much stuff as you do. For reaching the brake on top, I would suggest in-line brake levers. I never heard of them before I saw another commuter at work which had them mounted. Then you can just mount everything your gravel bike handlebar and access the brakes from all positions.
As soon as I saw a rigid MTB frame with a Surly Ogre/Krampus fork and some "drop bars" I may have giggled. Since that's what my current commuter is. I've got flared drops & hoods to run a GRX drivetrain, but got some 2" Schwable Almotion and a rear rack to carry my day to day pack.