Is it possible to put road wheels on my mtb?
Enwezor
Posts: 124
My full suss is very light - 10.8kg.
I was thinking of doing a duathlon road race and was looking at how much road bikes cost. I saw a Focus one that costs £900 and weighs 9.2kg. I thought, if you put road wheels on my bike, it would probably weigh 10kg. Can you get a rim that thin for an mtb?
It's probably a stupid idea but wondered if it was possible.
PS> I know nothing about road bikes.
I was thinking of doing a duathlon road race and was looking at how much road bikes cost. I saw a Focus one that costs £900 and weighs 9.2kg. I thought, if you put road wheels on my bike, it would probably weigh 10kg. Can you get a rim that thin for an mtb?
It's probably a stupid idea but wondered if it was possible.
PS> I know nothing about road bikes.
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Just put some skinny tyres on it. Road wheels are 29" so they will not fit an mtb (also disks are on mopst mtb wheels now)0
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cheers.............are skinny tyres on a mtb as skinny as on a road bike?0
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Is this skinny enough??
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/spe ... RRWidgetID0 -
I had 1" slicks on my klein mtb for a while when using it for commuting, Hutchinsons i think - fast but felt too flimy, the 1.5" Maxxis ones I replaced them with felt much better, however if it's in a race context you'll be less worried about how they hold up thrashing around town! Good luck!Moda Issimo
Genesis Volare 853
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troj wrote:Is this skinny enough??
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/spe ... RRWidgetID
Wow - 1inch thick - that is tiny! Can't imagine a road bike tyre being much thinner. That is definitely food for thought then!
Thanks very much!0 -
another crap question but a guess would be welcome.
I have an option of buying a friend's £1k trek road bike - it's a few years old but seems pretty good to me.
I imagine that even with 1inch tyres on a 10.8kg Scott Spark 20 (with lockouts front & rear), I'd still be slower but what are we talking about - 10% slower? 5%? any views?0 -
Dunno about what % quicker you'd be than on an mtb, but i certainly notice the difference between my road bike & my mtb with slicks - not just aboot the tyres, on a road bike you have a more aero & efficient riding position & the frame/forks are designed to be as stiff as possible to convert your effort into forward momentum - even with your shocks locked out there's gonna be slight flex through the suspension system compared to a rigid road bike. For % gains have a search in the road & commuting sections, pretty sure i've seen a long discussion on the "road bike v mtb with slicks" subject recently.
Cheers,
JModa Issimo
Genesis Volare 853
Charge Filter Apex0 -
It is impossible to put a number against it, but if I was to guess I would say 10% at a minimum. Some of that will be down to weight, some down to the riding position (road bike will be a lot lower at the front end than a mtb) , some down to aerodymanics (road bars are narrower so will keep you more aerodymnic. And then you get to the point where a road bike is geared for speed so you will not spin out as you probably would on a mtb on anything vaguely fast.
Saying all of that the positions are a LOT different so don't expect to get all the benefits by just jumping on and riding a road bike. Make sure you go out few at least 3 or 4 (prefrably more) rides first to get used to the position and feel and speed of a road bike.
And to answer the first question, it is kind of possible to run road wheels on a MTB (with disc brakes.), but you need to get them made up with MTB hubs and road rims. Some friends did it and it definately helped out speed wise.0 -
700c wheels often fit onto MTBs, provided you use narrow tyres. The actual diameters are as follows:
26er = 559mm
29er and 700c = 622mm.
Big tyres on an 26 wheel can actually bring the overall size up larger than a 29 with a narrow tyre.
However you may not be able to run rim brakes as the posts will be in the wrong place, but discs are no problem.0 -
Thanks for all the advice.
I think I will ask my friend if he will lend me his roadbike. If not, I may try and beg the wife for a road bike as one of my cycling dreams is to ride a Tour de France mountain stage and I'll definitely need a road bike for that.
Failing that, I'll get those 1inch slicks on my Scott!
Cheers
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Don't forget what supersonic has posted just above what you last posted. It may be possible to get road wheels on, but would need to check clearance.0
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No point in buying his roadbike off him unless it fits you perfectly. Especially if you want to ride a TdF stage - you'll be spending a lot of time on it.
If it was me - i'd just fit skinny tyres and realise that you could have gone faster on a different bike. I'm guessing you'll be up against full on lo-pro bikes anyway - so a road bike still wouldnt be the fastest,0 -
You have to check your mountain bike wheels rims can take 1 inch tyres, not all can.Smarter than the average bear.0
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you could always get 650c road wheels...!0
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Another option is 650b wheels (between road and MTB size). Not all forks have enough clearance with some tyres, and are not always are warrantied for it either.
Where there's a will there's a way.
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I was in a similar situation recently. I have 29er, which made it easy to borrow some road tires off a friend, but I was surprised I was able to fit 23 mm road tires on my WTB SpeedDisc AM rims. You should be fine even if they are wider, the aero advantage of narrow tires is probably wasted on a mountain bike. There's plenty of thin tires available for a mountain bike without changing the whole wheel. Something like this or similar http://www.bontrager.com/model/00447 should do fine.
Other tips: lower your bar as much as you can, and if you have bar ends, move them to the inside of your brake levers so you can use them as poor man's aero bars and stretch out a little. Worked for me at least. I did a 225 km/140 mile ride with ~2.5 km/8000ft+ of vertical in it. That could have been a TdF mountain stage, though admittedly one of the lighter ones.0 -
I did my first triathlon with my old rigid GT Talera with 1.5" slicks. For the bike leg I averaged just under 17mph. I then went out and bought a Giant OCR2 and six weeks later did another triathlon. This time I averaged just under 20mph.
Not scientific as there are lots of variables, different bike course, swim distance, weather, fitness etc etc but somewhere between 10% and 20% is probably a fair bet.0 -
keracticus wrote:I did my first triathlon with my old rigid GT Talera with 1.5" slicks. For the bike leg I averaged just under 17mph. I then went out and bought a Giant OCR2 and six weeks later did another triathlon. This time I averaged just under 20mph.
Not scientific as there are lots of variables, different bike course, swim distance, weather, fitness etc etc but somewhere between 10% and 20% is probably a fair bet.
That is very interesting and a real world example.
Thanks for that - I'm feeling I'd be better off with a road bike if I want to get the best time I can.0 -
You could always do an offroad duathlon instead!
Just out of interest though, what sort of brakes are on your MTB at the moment - I assume they'd fiit on road wheels if you go down that route?0 -
They are XT shimano disc brakes - 180mm at the front, 160mm at the rear.
I used to regularly race the Monsterman Offroad Duathlon series (RIP) but it got cancelled last year because the landowner (MOD) put the price up.
Am looking for offroad duathlons but haven't really had a scout around yet. Just saw an advert for the Goodwood road duathlon and remembered it was a good event having done it once.0 -
I did the Goodwood one earlier this year and it is a very good event... well organised and a good course... although I forgot my bike computer was set to miles and not km so spent most of the course getting more and more disheartened about how slowly I was going... :oops:
Check out the Human Race website - they have a load of offroad duathlons over the winter - supposed to be pretty challenging. I was down to do the Mudman on Dec 4th this year, but can't make it now (secretly rather pleased about that actually as I've done no training and it would kill me).0 -
meesterbond wrote:I did the Goodwood one earlier this year and it is a very good event... well organised and a good course... although I forgot my bike computer was set to miles and not km so spent most of the course getting more and more disheartened about how slowly I was going... :oops:
Check out the Human Race website - they have a load of offroad duathlons over the winter - supposed to be pretty challenging. I was down to do the Mudman on Dec 4th this year, but can't make it now (secretly rather pleased about that actually as I've done no training and it would kill me).
I agree, it's a well run event - for road-bikers, the cycle line-up must be like road-bike porn. Some very streamlined designs on show.
Will look at that website - I've done a few races and events in my time but I've done nothing that compares to off-road duathlon racing. It's not a question of trying to go faster, it's can I actually finish before my muscles cramp - brutal but lovely!0 -
IMO there's no real advantage in running 700c wheels over running 1" slicks on 26" wheels.
If you're getting a second set of wheels to keep slicks on then 700c makes more sense, but if you're just doing it for one event I'd just stick slicks on your MTB.
However... don't think that your FS will be anything like as fast/efficient as a road bike. My FS bike weighs 9.5kg with knobblies, and my winter training (road) bike is slightly heavier. Still quicker though, and fitting light road wheels into the road bike makes a massive difference.0 -
njee20 wrote:IMO there's no real advantage in running 700c wheels over running 1" slicks on 26" wheels.
If you're getting a second set of wheels to keep slicks on then 700c makes more sense, but if you're just doing it for one event I'd just stick slicks on your MTB.
However... don't think that your FS will be anything like as fast/efficient as a road bike. My FS bike weighs 9.5kg with knobblies, and my winter training (road) bike is slightly heavier. Still quicker though, and fitting light road wheels into the road bike makes a massive difference.
Your FS weighs 9.5kg with knobblies!!!! :shock: Are you joking - 9.5kgs !!!!!!
What's it made out of - papier mache? No, but seriously - how does a FS end up weighing 9.5kg?
On a general note, how much do you think I need to spend to get a half-decent road bike that I can race on - you know at a decent level but nowhere near the serious boys and also one that I could do a mountain stage of the Tour de France? Roughly, are we talking £1000 new / £500 2nd hand?0 -
You are on a bike forum and have been for a while and you don't know how much stuff costs? wow
My trail build Blur weighs about 10kg, and there are plenty lighter than mine and njee20's.
Road bike prices? at least one ball. :oops: 0 -
weescott wrote:You are on a bike forum and have been for a while and you don't know how much stuff costs? wow
My trail build Blur weighs about 10kg, and there are plenty lighter than mine and njee20's.
Road bike prices? at least one ball. :oops:
I know how much mtb components and mtbs cost given I have ben riding for many years now - no idea about road bikes as I've never had one.0 -
Mine's a Top Fuel 9.9 with XX, SIDs etc, easily doable these days if you spend enough!
A £1000 road bike will be spot on, I'd definitely go for a carbon offering from one of the smaller brands like Boardman, Focus etc myself.0 -
Just one point on putting skinny tyres on your MTB wheels. It makes them so much smaller - I very often have not got enough gears on a downhill road run. Might be an issue if your in a road race0
