Converting an mtb for touring?

willy-style

Hi! i am embarking on a 2500km tour (road) in europe in the summer, and being relatively new to touring would like some advice on bike choice.
First off i will state i am on a very low budget, so bear that in mind with any replies!
I have a fairly old touring bike of unknown make, which works fairly well but i cant see it making it all that way, as the parts are all old (and therefore presumably hard to find replacements?) and many components very bottom-end. it also has 5 rear gears, 2 front, so not a lot of range!
I also have an old handbuilt mtb, of reynolds 500 chromoly ('falcon special mean machine' - how awesome is that name!) and i have heard old mtb frames such as this are great for converting to touring bikes... add drop handlebars, narrower slick tyres and pannier racks and away you go.
So some advice please, would i be bettter off trying to find parts for the tourer and making it a bit more mechanically sound, or converting the mtb?
what are the advantages/disadvantages in touring with a converted mtb? i presume the gearing is different, what would be the best gearing to fit to it? i do like the idea of converting, but as i am cycling with a group, of which most if not all will have touring bikes, will i struggle and get left behind?
thanks

cycladelic

The old MTB will do fine. However, it sounds like both bikes are a few years old and so components have since changed. This means that if anything goes wrong with the drive chain - rear wheel, cogs etc - you may have to replace a lot of this gear to ensure compatability. For example - how many cogs are on the back wheel of the MTB? New-ish Shimano ones have 8 and if yours is only 7 then it could be a prob' in the future.

You don't need to put drop bars on it. A pair of bar ends would be okay.

I wouldn't say there are advantages with either bike. What is important is finding the right size frame: Do they both suit you? One thing to do is check if racks and panniers can be easily fitted to the MTB. Your speed should be the same on an MTB.

crankycrank

I did a short tour through parts of Greece about 15 yrs ago with my 21 speeed steel mountain bike. The gearing was perfect for anything from descents to long climbs. Mounted some skinny tires, bar ends and only carried rear panniers. It could handle dirt roads and bad surfaces and made a decent, reliable tourer but was not quite as nice as a dedicated touring bike. Mountain bikes can be slightly less stable with loaded panniers and they usually don't place the rear bags as far back which can hit your heels while pedaling although it's not too difficult to improvise a solution. Since I only had the rear bags the front wheel tended to come off the ground fairly easily due to the poor weight distribution but more so than on a touring bike. If you are going to have front panniers it probably won't be an issue though. Having said all that I was perfectly happy touring on my MTB and never had any problems with the setup. I doubt you'll have any problems keeping up with your group. When you compare lightweight, aero positioned, skinny tyred roadbikes with knobby equiped MTB's there is definitely a speed gap but load them both up with gear and equipe them both with similar style tyres and there's not much difference.

andymiller

A lot of touring bikes come with MTB gearing (or possibly with a slightly larger chainring on the front - 48T as opposed to 44T). There's no reason why you should have problems keeping up (assuming you fit non-knobbly tyres, are as fit as the others, and not carrying lots of extra stuff). If you were touring somewhere very flat you might want to consider a larger chainring on the front - but it depends a lot on whether you are comfortable maintaining a higher cadence or prefer riding with a lower cadence.

Once you start doing things like changing the flat bars for drops you start to make your life more complicated (although bar end shifters would avoid some of the complications). Lots of people tour with flat bars and bar ends (or butterfly bars if you want maximum choice of hand position).

The obvious first thing to check is whether the frame has mountings for panniers and (and mudguards).

I would have thought you should be able to find 7-speed cassettes and chains (you may well not need to change the mechs). I would check out the condition of the hubs etc - a set of new wheels is the major thing you may need to invest in.

Oh and you don't mention the fork - is it a rigid fork or suspension. An old suspension fork can be overhauled but if it's a really old cheapo one you might be better off looking at replacing it with a steel rigid fork. (Which unfortunately in turn raises the issue of the hsteerer diameter - if it's one inch you may find it harder to get a replacement fork - although I think they are still available.

I have to disagree with what cranky crank says about handling and panniers, which seems to be based on myths and sweeping generalisations rather than his actual experience. Most MTB frames are designed to take large tyres (and often offer mud clearance) which means they will tend to have a longer chainstay length and there should be less risk of your heel striking the pannier. And while at one point in the distanct past MTBs tended to have a very short wheelbase, this is definitely not true of all MTBs. Ditto the issue about the front wheel lifting which would be due to the geometry of the particular frame and is not a problem for MTBs in general - and is not connected with carrying loaded panniers.

willy-style

Thanks for all the advice,very helpful! i am going to convert the mtb i have decided. it has rigid forks, so no worries there. and is a good size frame for me, so il get some butterfly bars, as i really like the look of them, and skinny tyres etc and it should be good to go!
It has actually got a shimano mega range rear cassette, with the oversized large rear sprocket. 7 speed components seem to be relatively easy to get hold of as well.
thanks again