Help converting my Giant MTB for road use

Rowey

Ok guys, new to the forum here. I'm just looking for some help and suggestions how to get my 2006-2007 Giant Rincon to perform better on the road rather than its soul purpose off-road.

This is what ive got so far:



It's pretty much the exact same bike as a brought nearly 6 years ago. Except I now use slime inner tubes and Maxxis
Detonators (which I put on a few days ago as a part of my conversion for road use.)

Thanks everyone in advance

benpinnick

You have lots of spacers under your stem, consider putting them above it for a better road position.

thistle_

Could you manage with rigid forks rather than suspension?

The Suntour forks on my singlespeed are really heavy. If you want to keep the suspension and they are coil forks you could swap them to air forks. Expensive if you're only using it on the road - you could buy a reasonable second hand road bike for the price of a pair of decent air forks.

The Rookie

My first commuter was based on a Rincon - happy days...rigid fork is a massive saving in weight, Reduce the number of spacers and/or flip the stem, make it legal by fitting a rear brake, I'm not convinced wheel reflectors do anything for safety so I'd bin them, decent pedals, the bearings in those are probably shot by now, loose the Rookie ring on the rear wheel (behind the gears) and look at tweaking the gearing to suite road use (I ran a single ring up front), a lighter sadde as well, that looks HEAVY.

YeehaaMcgee

Great mountain biking question.

ilovedirt

Step 1: put the bike on Ebay.
Step 2: buy a road bike.

Rowey

benpinnick wrote:

You have lots of spacers under your stem, consider putting them above it for a better road position.

Didn't think about that, good idea. Ive got to take the stem apart anyway because it needs new bearings. Thanks.

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

Could you manage with rigid forks rather than suspension?The Suntour forks on my singlespeed are really heavy. If you want to keep the suspension and they are coil forks you could swap them to air forks. Expensive if you're only using it on the road - you could buy a reasonable second hand road bike for the price of a pair of decent air forks.

I really would prefer some rigid forks but they all seem so bloody expensive on Chainreactioncycles, I do have the ones im using now locked so they are theoretically rigid but don't peform as well as actually rigid forks (lighter as you said etc.)

The Beginner wrote:

My first commuter was based on a Rincon - happy days...rigid fork is a massive saving in weight, Reduce the number of spacers and/or flip the stem, make it legal by fitting a rear brake, I'm not convinced wheel reflectors do anything for safety so I'd bin them, decent pedals, the bearings in those are probably shot by now, loose the Rookie ring on the rear wheel (behind the gears) and look at tweaking the gearing to suite road use (I ran a single ring up front), a lighter sadde as well, that looks HEAVY.

My Rincon has been the best bike in the world to me, its had its fair share brutality and still goes on strong without many replacements. Anyway, the majority of that sounds doable.. Any idea where I can get a new brake block from? The adjuster on my old one snapped and it makes the brake pad constantly rub against the rim so I took it off. Any suggestions on what sort of pedals to look for? and as for loosening the Rookie ring and tweaking the gears I have no idea how to do those two. Thanks mate.

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Great mountain biking question.

Sorry, was unsure where to post. It's 'kind' of MTB related.

@ilovedirt I'd rather just work with what ive got thanks, that way I can always change it back if I ever fancy doing a bit of offroad.

YeehaaMcgee

Rowey wrote:

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Great mountain biking question.

Sorry, was unsure where to post. It's 'kind' of MTB related.

Not really. No.

You say you're going to replace the bearings in the stem... I take it you mean headset, right?

Rowey

Yes the bearings in the headset so while I'm taking that apart ill change the spacers.

Thanks for being such a great help.

YeehaaMcgee

Well, my advice, since you want to just ride on roads, is to sell the mountain bike, and buy a roadie. But you probably don't want to hear that.
If you want to make your bike more versatile, however, then I have a few simple ideas.

Rowey

That is my aim yep, just masking it more road versatile. That way I always have a MTB to fall back on when I want to change it back to its off-roading capabilities. Could I hear your suggestions?

YeehaaMcgee

Well, it's never going to be brilliant on the road, and if you still intend to use it off-road, then minimal changes are going to suit you best.
So, essentially, sort that stem out, that many spacers are ludicrous, there's no call for that at all.
then, fit some slicks or semi slicks. Job done.

Rowey

Should be pretty much good to go as it or is going to be once Ive sorted the spacers and bearings out. I know its never going to be as good as a full blown ride bike but i would never expect it to. The only thing that annoyed me was the rolling friction with those chunky mtb tyres. Thanks for your suggestions

Daz555

Shorten the bars (I'm assuming they are very wide at the moment). Get some rigid forks.