Can you fit 700c wheels on an old school fully rigid mtb?

daniel_b

Afternoon,

I want to resurrect my 1991 Marin into a town\pub bike.

Everything on it is original, and the likelihood is that the wheels may be shot, along with the 7spd cassette and chain of course.

I have a spare pair of R500 wheels sat around, which I now genuinely have no use for, and are worth very little, so no real benefit in selling them - would there be a possibility of fitting them with nice width tyres?
The only issue I could foresee is the rim brakes not adjusting enough to accomodate them.

Anyone done this?

ugo.santalucia

You won't be able to brake and the rear wheel might not fit in the dropouts

Wheelspinner

You're correct about the brakes not lining up, and although I vaguely recall somewhere seeing adaptors that could be fitted to extend the mounts up to reach, I think they were a faff.

I have a similar old Trek MTB and did try slotting in a 700c wheel once, and from memory it didn't fit the rear, with anything approaching a sensible tyre. Might have squeezed in with a 23mm road tire, but I think i used a 35 or 38 mm Randonneur and it was too big. Front was ok IIRC, apart from the brakes issue.

Vintage wheels can likely be rebuilt more easily than a lot of current ones. They'd be cup and cone with loose ball bearings I'd assume. If the cups are ok, you can probably still get replacement cones, and certainly get new bearings. Pack them with good grease, job done.

If the brake tracks are shot you're in trouble though.

Also worth noting is that the free hub on the rear for 7 speed is a different width to the 8/9/10 variants, so using your R500 (10 speed version I presume) with a replacement 7 speed cassette likely won't work without some fiddling about with spacers or something.

daniel_b

Damn :-(

Thanks very much chaps, back to the drawing board then, some good pointers there for me to look into though.

Snakebite the 2nd

ugo.santalucia wrote:

You won't be able to brake and the rear wheel might not fit in the dropouts

But apart from that it'll be fine, besides if you ride it back from the pub you won't notice.

The Rookie

Just fit some slicks, my 1997 MTB town hack bike is on 1.5" slicks as is my home built commuter bike (though the new frame justifies an investment in some 700c/29er -it's disc braked).

mountainpenguin

plantx has super cheap 26" wheels.
you can also frig on some disk brakes ..