converting a mtb to a road bike

dot1

hi guys, i want to convert one of my bikes, a specialized hardrock, into a nice light training bike to rack up some road miles over the summer. ive found some rigid cyclocross forks on CRC, and i found some road wheels, but i dont know anything about road bikes, so will the axles on the road wheels (shimano R500) fit into my frame?

will i get any problems with them being bigger than mtb wheels?

ill be running v brakes, so will the braking surface on the wheels be the same size as that on the brake pads?

as they would be designed to be used with dual pivot brakes, would it be better to get some dual pivot brake pads and put them on my v brakes?

will i come across any fitment issues when fitting cyclocross forks? im presuming road/cyclo x forks are all 1 1/8?

sorry about all the questions!

cheers!

Andy B

IIRC you can't use your current V brakes on 700c wheels as the brakes will be in the wrong place

You can't use dual pivot brakes with V brake levers, they have a different cable pull

Don't know if cycloX wheels have the same hub width as MTB wheels either.

Easiest thing to do is buy some rigid MTB forks, keep your current wheels/brakes & put some slicks on.

nicklouse

ras above.

also the cyclo cross forks will be way too short.

butcher of bakersfield

Andy_B wrote:

Easiest thing to do is buy some rigid MTB forks, keep your current wheels/brakes & put some slicks on.

Makes sense to me. Putting road wheels on a mtb seems bizzare! Slicks and you're done.

dot1

balls, i dont want mtb rigid forks, as all the ones ive seen are designed for dirt/street etc, so they'll be too heavy for what i want. would i be able to get some cyclo x and get some lightweight mtb wheels, as i dont want to keep my current wheels as they are really heavy.

The Northern Monkey

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etc etc etc

nicklouse

there are lots of non jump Rigid MTB forks out there.

so MTB forks. MTB disc hubs 700c rims and spokes to suit road tyres/tubes and disc brakes.

Or by a suitable bike.

Northwind

1) Stop buying new bits
2) Buy a cheap road bike. You get a lot of bike for your money as long as you're not going for super-lightweight, since road bikes don't really face the same demands as MTBs.

Or alternatively, the straightforward approach is to slap 26" slicks on it, and possibly a cheap higher geared crankset, and then call it good. Rigid forks aren't expensive (on one or similiar come up on ebay constantly, people buy rigid forks and discover they don't like them), that could still make sense but new wheels etc will drive the price up.

dot1

ive tried to buy a road bike twice! each time they cancelled the order cos they didnt have them in stock! ive been looking around for one for ages, but as my budget is only about 300, there isnt many options.

thats why ive decided to sort my other bike out, as i need to get some serious training in pronto, and dont have time to carry on looking around for road bikes.

ive currently got some mavic d521's on it at the moment, which weigh a fair bit, so i was hoping to replace them. does anyone have any recommendations for a set of lightweight mtb wheels?! looking to spend about 100 or so, only after deore hubs, just a set of light as possible rims. or would i be better getting better hubs to reduce the weight?

ill have a look around for some rigid mtb forks, but the nuke proof ones are def out the budget!!

Chaz.Harding

The lighter the hubs are, the lighter the wheel build will be (all things being equal, and withing reason), obviously, and the faster the free-wheel will engage, they'll look better, and last longer. However, your bike will feel more 'alive' if you get a lighter set of rims, and use Deore hubs, nowt wrong with 'em.

Plenty of light-weight rigid forks kicking around now, especially since the whole rigid-singlespeed thing came cool. Just remember to get the correct length suspension-corrected blades... (Measure from axle to crown) - otherwise your bike will be uber twitchy.

About tyres, I use Scwalbe Kojaks. Been alrite actually. Not a bad set of tyres.

Hope this helps dude!

whydoesitalwaysrainonme

It would cost £300 odd quid to do a mentioned above, wheels, brakes etc, you can pick up a road bike for tht anyways, and if you're talking really cheap in argos they are £160. or you could pick one up off of fleabay .