Making A Road Bike More Comfortable

Manc33

Just wondered what can be done to a road bike to make it more comfortable.

I know, you might say "sounds like a touring bike" but I am not talking about panniers or mudguards, I am talking about using a racing style bike casually, simply making it more comfortable. Think hardtail hard forked mountain bike... with zip!

Most people aren't racing, or might prefer sitting more upright.

Here's what I have done up to now to my road bike...

1. Took off the road 12-25T cassette, took off the short cage rear mech, took chain off. Put on a 11-32T MTB cassette, bought a new Alivio long cage rear mech (one of the only half decent 8 speed ones left available) and kept the chain from the MTB too (just so it "matches" the cassette to avoid any possible slipping). This took the lowest gear from 1.2 to 0.93. There are a few problems, for example the highest gear (50F/11R) won't work, gotta use cog 7. All in all its given me far lower gears and all the same high gears, it just sacrifices "close ratio" which I gave up caring about a while back.

2. Took off the curved handlebars and replaced with the straight ones from my MTB. Chopped about 4cm off each end because of how much thinner the tyres are on this road bike. Added a pair of these: http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... grip-17008

3. Took off the 700x23c stock tyres. Got some Marathon Plus 700x25c. I wanted a 'puncture proof' tyre. :roll: These can't be any more untrustworthy (grip wise) than the cheap ones I took off. Would have got 23c's but they don't go that thin on Marathon Plus. :x :P

4. Took off the thin "racing" seat and added a nice soft Brooks saddle. I was lucky to get this saddle for free. The leather was hard (saddle has not been used for about 15 or 20 years) but after applying some nice thick globs of olive oil to it on the underside, it has gone perfect. When I say perfect I mean perfect. After doing about 50 miles on it, this saddle is now so comfortable, I can't even feel it when I am sat in it. The idea of getting a sore bum from this saddle is a joke.

I have not changed anything else about this bike.

Apart from adding mudguards (this is the UK after all) what else can be done?

I thought, it boils down to what you are touching! The handlebars, the saddle, the tyres also fall into this category, the only other thing left after those three things is the pedals. Yes my pedals are a joke and I need some good all purpose ones.

The gearing is low on this bike but that because I smoked for 20 years, I quit 8 months ago but still, I don't have the energy of a veteran yet! I have got to take it easy. I can't get up hills with a 1.2 gear, tried it and failed.

I like how my bike looks now though as well. It just looks like a mountain bike. Really the only difference is the flat bar. If it had the curvy bars on again it would pretty much be a full road bike again as far as speed goes. The Marathon Plus on it are the 700x25c, thinnest available and I had them at 115psi (the max) on a test run and was surprised that they were more comfortable than my last tyres as far as road vibration goes. Then again you have a 5mm layer of sponge right? Has to soak a lot of vibration up, coupled with the carbon fork.

Last thing I want to do is weigh the bike down but to make it more comfortable it is inevitable.

john1967

If things are that bad why not just ride your mtb untill fitness levels rise.

smidsy

Sounds like you have bought a road bike and turned it into a sudo MTB. Perhaps road bikes are not for you?

Perhaps a light hard tail MTB with slim tyres etc is more suitable to your needs.

NewTTer

Why didnt you just buy a Hybrid from the get go, instead of destroying a perfectly good road bike?

Critch

Sounds to me like you have bastardised two bikes to get one rather strange hybridy type machine. Unless you enjoy tinkering and messing and had the parts laying about I cant understand why you did what you did despite the quitting smoking and stuff, it doesn't make sense to me. But each to their own. Good luck.

Ouija

Perfectly sensible thing to do to a road bike...........

Strith

You don't need to run your tyres at the max recommended pressure.

smidsy

Strith wrote:

You don't need to run your tyres at the max recommended pressure.

Agreed 90 - 100psi is more reasonable for 25''s for most.

Also marathon plus are like riding on hosepipe compared to say Conti GP4000s.

Manc33

I just never got on with curved handlebars. Couldn't 20 years ago and can't now.

Somehow this aluminium frame is far less shaky than the 1960's steel touring bike thats Reynolds 531. :?

Everyone raves about Reynolds 531 steel for touring bikes... maybe the brand new steel touring frames aren't as bumpy as the new aluminium frames, I don't know.

Why would I do this to a road bike... I don't want a thin "racing" saddle when I am not racing, it is uncomfortable, I just happened to have a Brooks saddle spare. I can't use curved handlebars, I have not got on with them in 20 years of cycling (on and off). My tyres from this bike and the last ended up with little tears in the tyre (on the last bike the inner tube was actually bubbling out) and finally, I need lower gearing to get up hills, although this would also come in handy if I was carrying a lot of stuff with me - I still have all the same high gears I had too.

I would say about 99/100 people that buy a road bike won't ever use it in a competitive way where drop handlebars are a must. Bikes seem to me to be too extreme at what they are made to do. For example you can't realistically use a MTB on the road, you can't realistically use a road bike on a trail.

I suppose there is always cyclocross but those just have slightly knobbly tyres don't they?

cougie

1. You've just fitted lower gears. Why would that improve comfort ? If you were overgeared before then you were either too heavy, unfit or bought the wrong gears.

2. So basically you've chopped the bottom of the bars off as your bar ends will be pretty much like riding on the hoods. Except you're not on the brakes. What have you done with the brake levers ??

3. Good choice for winter - my Marathons can cope with anything - and nobody wants a flat for winter.

4. You just had the wrong saddle before. Thin doesnt have to mean uncomfortable.

How long did you have the road bike before you made these changes ?

And as the others say - the maximum pressure isnt always best. I run my Contis about 95 PSI and they're comfortable. I think 115 PSI is overkill ?

Cyclocross bikes only have knobbly tyres for muddy races. And you can easily use a road bike on a trail. OK -not a full on MTB trail - but not many people would try that. Road bikes are plenty tough.

rolf_f

smidsy wrote:

Also marathon plus are like riding on hosepipe compared to say Conti GP4000s.

Marathon Plus are, for the most part, the worlds worst decent tyre! There's no place for them aside from on hire bikes. The only way to make a Marathon Plus feel good is by replacing cheap tyres supplied with the bike - but that's not a great comparison. It's like deciding the worlds best cheese is Mild Cheddar on the basis of having only previously eaten American cheese! There are so many better choices that can be made.

lotus49

I have to say I am really surprised you swapped the bars.

If you don't like drops, why did you buy a road bike in the first place?

I do like drops and one of the main reasons is that you have three choices of position. This is convenient both because different positions suit different conditions but also changing position can help to relieve fatigue. You can't do that with MTB bars.

I cannot help feeling that you have just bought the wrong bike and should have started off with a hybrid in the first place.

diy

Personally i would "road up" an mtb rather than soften a race bik. Skinny wheels/tyres on an MTB and you would have got something similar. But You'd have front suspension and decent brakes.

For me the best way to make race bike more comfy is to make sure it fits. I have changed saddle and seat post on mine that is it.

Ouija

diy wrote:

Personally i would "road up" an mtb rather than soften a race bik. Skinny wheels/tyres on an MTB and you would have got something similar. But You'd have front suspension and decent brakes.

I'd agree with that minus the need for front suspension. Don't really need it on a hybrid and it only makes the bike unnecessarily heavy. Plus the fact your still stuck with 26" wheels (which i actually prefer on a hybrid) when 700c are going to be faster, a heavier frame that doesn't always suit skinny tyres unless it's skinny tubing and not forgetting that your stuck with mountain bike gears. Those will give you the lighter gears for climbing, but your only going to have a 44 tooth big front ring, so won't be able to go as fast as the road bike with the rear MTB cassette, not even if you fit touring gears instead. It works out more costly getting touring rings, new chain, new fork, new tyres and possibly new wheels for a mountain bike than it does to simply take a racer and get a new cassette and bars, and you'll still have a lighter faster bike at the end of it.

Also worth mentioning that a lot of road bikes have the mount points for proper mudguards, panniers etc, where most mountain bikes with disk brakes don't.

stickman

I would have put a Brooks saddle on and 32mm tyres.

diy

44/11 is going to be similar to a compact, and still get you to 25-30 mph at reasonable cadence.