Gearing? How many teeth

GMARS70970

I completed a 57mile round trip on the Isle of Arran yesterday on a borrowed road bike.
(Realise i seriously need to increase my fitness level)

I currently ride a mountain bike & was hoping to convert my old mountain bike for road riding. Is it possible to convert the gearing to the same as a hybrid bike? If so does anybody know the gearing on hybrids?

Cheers

Clever Pun

it's all a bit subjective really

on the front you should have 2-3 cogs 39-53ish

on the rear I'd aim for 12-25 something like that...

that should get you shifting

attica

I'd second that.
Also get yourself a set of slick tyres (schwalbe marathon at about 80PSI should do the trick)

if you really want to get motoring set your bike up as near to road bike as possible, saddle high, bars low, experiment with moving the spacers above the stem, and possibly even turning your stem over so that it's angled downward (go easy, make small changes each time, it's a play off between comfort and speed).

Alternatively, if that all sounds like to much effort, save up for a road bike, sounds like you're catching the bug.

John Stevenson

The problem with slapping a road bike double chainset on a mountain bike frame is usually clearance.

There often isn't room for, say, 53/39 rings - they hit the chainstays where they curve round the tyre.

GMARS70970, what is the current gearing on your old mountain bike?

roger_merriman

put higher geared cassette at the back if needed., i'd not bother with changing the chainrings.

unless your topping 30+ mph you shouldn't spin out, with the standard gearing.

if your going to start to spend some money then i'd put it on a new or at least new to you bike.

John Stevenson

The problem with putting on a cassette with smaller sprockets is that pretty much any recent mountain bike will already have an 11-n cassette. Bigger rings are therefore the only way to get higher gears.

Things are made worse by the fact that decent ETRTO 559 slick tyres end up about 25in across, so you lose gearing there and your typical 44/11 top gear on a mountain bike ends up roughly the equivalent of a road bike's 53/14.

Sure, you don't often need a gear higher than that, but given a gentle downhill and a following wind, it's a serious nice-to-have.

GMARS70970

John Stevenson wrote:

The problem with slapping a road bike double chainset on a mountain bike frame is usually clearance.

There often isn't room for, say, 53/39 rings - they hit the chainstays where they curve round the tyre.

GMARS70970, what is the current gearing on your old mountain bike?

Thanks for all the reply's,
Currently the front is 44, 32, (cant see writing on smallest cog) & standard 9speed MTB on the rear.
Just hoped I could have increased the No of teeth to make a cheap fix for keeping up with some of these hybrid bikes, & the odd slow road bike rider!!