"Roadifying" A Mountain Bike for long distance?

chrisps

I currently have a 100-160mm full sus all mountain bike as my only ride and I therefore use for general trail and XC duties and love it.

However recently some of my colleagues have been talking about doing the coast to coast in a day (road, 170ish miles) with an eye to doing Lands End to John O'Groats (road) in the future. I dont have any perticular interest in road biking, but do quite fancy these as a challenge.

This got me thinking... I dont want to spend money on a road bike (obviously my 160mm AM bike is not suitable!) as it isnt really my interest. But I could use it as an excellent excuse to build a light, racy XC 29er (e.g. a Scott Scale). Most of the time I would run XC tyres, 100mm forks etc for bikepacking and local XC, but for doing road stuff like this put carbon forks and slick, low profile tyres on it to make it faster for road use.

Has anyone got any experience of doing this? Is it possible to achieve "near" road bike cruising speeds? Obviously I need to be able to cruise at a speed similar to that of my colleagues of road bikes who will be cruising (as opposed to racing as such).

Or is this simply not going to work?! Experience or thoughts appreciated (my credit card is bursting from my pocket at the thought of having a ligitimate excuse to build a new bike )

Clank

Have a peak at VWsurfbum's bike build threads. He's built a couple of carbon 29ers, one of which (the hardtail) he equipped with carbon forks and slicks for a 180 mile charity bike ride. He managed quite well, however, I wouldn't recommend leaving it a single ring set-up!

chrisps

Thanks; I cant find the post that you are referring to from a forum search, but just the knowledge that he did that is quite interesting... My knees would definitely not a appreciate a singlespeed

nicklouse

what you could do is have a normal 26" XC bike and roadie it with a carbon fork and some disc braked 700c wheels and slicks.

Clank

chrisps wrote:

Thanks; I cant find the post that you are referring to from a forum search, but just the knowledge that he did that is quite interesting... My knees would definitely not a appreciate a singlespeed

Here you go:
Project Shakira

It wasn't single speed - but ten speeds defo weren't sufficient!

Barteos

There is no reason why it wouldn't work.
A lightweight rigid XC bike won't be much heavier than an average road bike, 700 road tyres will have the same rolling resistance and your av speed will mainly depend on how aerodynamic your position is.
A pair of bar ends placed near the centre of the handlebars should offer you a pretty good alternative position.

As for the wheel size/ tyre choice you may be surprised that the fastest low tread XC tyres when run tubeless may offer you similar rolling resistance to 700C road clinchers thanks to their supple high TPI casing and lack of puncture protection.

You could even build it with drop bars as I've done 8)

chrisps

Bril, thanks for the link and info everyone!

Just to clarify, do you mean that you can actually put 700c wheels onto an MTB (sorry, I have zero experience with road bikes!)? I presume they are 9mm QR?

Any thoughts on how much of an speed difference do you think there would be between high speed XC tyres on say Stan's Crest, tubeless and actually putting 700c wheels with proper 100psi (which is what I think road tyres run at?) road tyres?

Nice looking bike by the way

Thanks!

nicklouse

chrisps wrote:

Bril, thanks for the link and info everyone!

Just to clarify, do you mean that you can actually put 700c wheels onto an MTB (sorry, I have zero experience with road bikes!)? I presume they are 9mm QR?

Any thoughts on how much of an speed difference do you think there would be between high speed XC tyres on say Stan's Crest, tubeless and actually putting 700c wheels with proper 100psi (which is what I think road tyres run at?) road tyres?

Nice looking bike by the way

Thanks!

the rims will fit with slicks (of the road type) but like i said disc brakes you will need MTB hubs.

Barteos

If you use a 29er you could simply change the tyres.
Moderately wide MTB rims will take 25-28mm tyres easily.

supersonic

A lightweight rigid XC bike won't be much heavier than an average road bike, 700 road tyres will have the same rolling resistance and your av speed will mainly depend on how aerodynamic your position is.

This. Wish the commuters would take note lol.

YeehaaMcgee

chrisps wrote:

I dont have any perticular interest in road biking

Except that you're looking to ride hundreds and hundreds of miles... on roads?!?

Is it possible to achieve "near" road bike cruising speeds? Obviously I need to be able to cruise at a speed similar to that of my colleagues of road bikes who will be cruising (as opposed to racing as such).

I doubt it, unfortunately. Cruising speed on a road bike is going to net you somewhere between 16-20mph depending on winds.

bompington

When I started commuting (20 miles each way) my only bike was my cheap as chips Edinburgh MTB - once I'd done it enough times to know that I wanted to continue, I "roadified" it with slicks, SPDs and a longer (and upside down) stem*.
Geekishly recording stats meant that I could tell my average speed went up by about 3mph (on a reasonably flat route) with these changes.
Getting a road bike added another 2mph, so but then that was compared to a pig-iron bike that weighed 16kg or whatever, and a 26 at that - 29 would be an improvement but how much is debatable.

So my guess is that you would be fine: better off with a full on road bike, but not by much.


*I did go over the handlebars a couple of times when braking sharply off road :oops:

njee20

what you could do is have a normal 26" XC bike and roadie it with a carbon fork and some disc braked 700c wheels and slicks.

As 29ers are becoming increasingly commonplace for a bike of that ilk I'd look to go down that route, need a new bike plus some additional wheels otherwise.

It won't be as quick as a road bike, don't kid yourself otherwise, but it won't be a million miles off. Even the lightest slickest XC tyres (I use Furious Freds periodically) will be no match for even a mediocre road tyre. The position is all wrong too. If I'm riding on the road I usually put my hands either side of the stem and drop my elbows in an effort to get even vaguely aero, and that's not comfy for any long distance. Running a -17 degree stem will help, but you will be trying harder than anyone on a road bike.

Can you not procure a road bike just for these events? Or try one out to see if you like it?

chrisps

Thanks again for the input. It seems the general concensus is that tyre width and aero is going to be the main improvements (from this thread and a few other similar ones). On the aero front, I dont really want to be too bent over anyway because of a dodgy lower back, so I think that is going to be an issue on a road bike or a MTB.

I dont have any perticular interest in road biking

Except that you're looking to ride hundreds and hundreds of miles... on roads?!?

Just to clarify, what I mean is that yes, I intend to do a couple of big milage trips like this for a challenge, but off-roading and off-road touring is what interests me and I would prefer to have a bike that is good for that purpose and slightly bodged for road riding as opposed to having a road bike which I only use for a fairly rare big road trip.

I am getting the feeling that seeing as no one I will be riding it will be "racing", I can probably get away with a 29er MTB with some different handlebars for comfort and just MTFU when it comes to fitness .

Anyway, thanks again!

tarbot18

hi i did the coast to coast last year on my old giant hardtail and i just put slick tyres on it , 2 of us did it on mtb s and 2 on road bikes and we all stayed together except for some of the bigger climbs where we suffered but then we had more fun on the off road bits.

The Rookie

If you look at the latest flat barred hybrids (like the Boardmans) it gives a good indication of what can be achieved even if you start with an MTB frame, however MTB components are all that little bit heavier than road, so unless you roadify it fully it will always weigh that bit more.

Personally I'd lightweight rigid fork a 26er using 700c disc wheels with road (25 or 28mm) tyres, flip the stem and maybe despacer to lower the bars a bit as well, you could use small (1.0 or 1.1 are available) tyre on 26 rims of course.

Funnily enough the above just about describes my commuter (pic in avatar) although it's based on a hybrid frame (Carrera Gryphon).

Long_Time_Lurker

I'm doing it next week. Don't need to over complicate things.
Hardtail, locked out forks and a set of slicks (or slick front/semi slick rear), depending on conditions will do the job fine.

YeehaaMcgee

Why semi slick rear? What road conditions could warrant that?

butcher of bakersfield

With those kind of miles I'd be more worried about building my fitness.

Your average hardtail with slicks will be a lot faster than the same bike with nobbly trail tyres. And not massively slower than a road bike. But it's a long time in the saddle, and once the miles begin to run into triple figures, some of the hills will make you want to cry, regardless of the bike - in fact you may even prefer the higher gearing of the mtb!

You certainly don't need anything flash. Just something with the right setup, and a fully rigid bike would be ideal. 700c or 29er wheels would be nice to. Some slicks (not too big), a big enough chainset to carry you on the fast sections, and if on a mountain bike, possibly bar ends (you'll be glad of the extra hand positions).

I'd get it set up sooner than later, and clock up some miles on it. Casual MTBing doesn't build your fitness in the same way as spending hours in the saddle producing a constant effort.

butcher of bakersfield

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Why semi slick rear? What road conditions could warrant that?

Some of the Sustrans sections can be a bit 'interesting'. If you opt for those sections of course.

supersonic

The only things that make road bikes 'faster' is weight (which can be low anyway with converted MTBs), gearing (usually higher on Road Bikes - this only makes a difference right at the top end), and most importantly aerodynamics as the drops allow a more tucked position. But given you can put bar ends inboard and flip the stem, even this can be compensated for. For the average rider, a road bike just isn't much faster or efficient, if at all.

YeehaaMcgee

butcher of bakersfield wrote:

you may even prefer the higher gearing of the mtb!

Lower.

butcher of bakersfield

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

butcher of bakersfield wrote:

you may even prefer the higher gearing of the mtb!

Lower.

Yes, lower I meant. Always get them mixed up.

cooldad

butcher of bakersfield wrote:

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

butcher of bakersfield wrote:

you may even prefer the higher gearing of the mtb!

Lower.

Yes, lower I meant. Always get them mixed up.

Not that left, your other left.

njee20

For the average rider, a road bike just isn't much faster or efficient, if at all.

I disagree. Bar ends by the stem is nothing like the positions you can replicate with drops, that's properly uncomfy, sitting on the hoods is fine, even the drops will be more comfy. Top tube's too short too, you'll be hunched up. To replicate the position you need to lower the front end so much before you even start faffing with bar ends. A road bike will always be faster.

Chunkers1980

Hence FCNs.

YeehaaMcgee

Chunkers1980 wrote:

Hence FCNs.

eh?

Chunkers1980

Food chain numbers, although mostly bs, are formed by what happens every week day on the roads.

YeehaaMcgee

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

eh?

supersonic

njee20 wrote:

For the average rider, a road bike just isn't much faster or efficient, if at all.

I disagree. Bar ends by the stem is nothing like the positions you can replicate with drops, that's properly uncomfy, sitting on the hoods is fine, even the drops will be more comfy. Top tube's too short too, you'll be hunched up. To replicate the position you need to lower the front end so much before you even start faffing with bar ends. A road bike will always be faster.

For an average rider. Aero doesn't really come into it until you are consistently above 15mph - more than that to get real benefits. I have seen a lot of power/speed studies to show that many just don't get the benefit. The most aero position you can get are tri bars. As for 'comfort', that is entirely subjective, and down to the bike geo.

chrisps

Well, I think that gives me enough justification to build up a light 29er :-) .

Good to hear that you have actually done the coast to coast on an mtb!

Definitely going to look into alternative bars though for comfort.

Thanks again.