Converting old bike to soft-roader

secretsam

HI all lovely peeps

I have an old Spesh Sirrus, which is wearing out various bits, and I'm wondering about converting it to a kind of soft roader - 700c wheels, flat bars but knobbly tyres etc. Anyone got any experience of this, and any tips? Am a bit worried about tyre clearances, if I'm honest, although I'm running 28c with 'guards at the moment (bike has V-brakes)

Thanks in advance

PS: limited budget - otherwise, I'd just n+1

Killerclown

SecretSam wrote:

HI all lovely peeps

I have an old Spesh Sirrus, which is wearing out various bits, and I'm wondering about converting it to a kind of soft roader - 700c wheels, flat bars but knobbly tyres etc. Anyone got any experience of this, and any tips? Am a bit worried about tyre clearances, if I'm honest, although I'm running 28c with 'guards at the moment (bike has V-brakes)

Thanks in advance

PS: limited budget - otherwise, I'd just n+1

Which of the Sirruses have you got?

slowbike

what's a soft-roader?

Spec Sirrus is a hybrid type bike - iirc came with 32mm tyres - may have been 35's .. v brakes make life easy on the width - you're restricted by frame clearance... my wife misses hers ... sold it to get a step through frame ...

veronese68

Are you going to ditch the guards? If it's only going to be used for the occasional bit of fun I'd ditch the guards and put the largest tyres you can on there. Planet X usually have some cross type tyres on offer. Sorry I have no experience of the Sirrus so have no idea what size tyre it will take.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Veronese68 wrote:

Are you going to ditch the guards? If it's only going to be used for the occasional bit of fun I'd ditch the guards and put the largest tyres you can on there. Planet X usually have some cross type tyres on offer. Sorry I have no experience of the Sirrus so have no idea what size tyre it will take.

They have a new sale (this morning?) that includes 700x50mm Big Apples and Centurys for £5 a tyre, I'm almost tempted by both as something "big" I can run on my Voodoo 29er wheels that will clear the Beavertail XL mudguard over the winter.

There might be better deals out there now at their £50 tag for the last ~12 months, but the "chewy" Knuckleball bars are lovely for reducing road buzz, I can even tell the difference when running the Voodoo in full fat mode on rougher roads. I bought a pair of narrower Ritchey bars from Merlin for £35 a couple of months back (what I paid for my Knuckleballs ~2 years ago) and they are bonkers light, ~130g, but they are 620mm vs 747mm of my ~200g Knuckleballs.

secretsam

Killerclown wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

HI all lovely peeps

I have an old Spesh Sirrus, which is wearing out various bits, and I'm wondering about converting it to a kind of soft roader - 700c wheels, flat bars but knobbly tyres etc. Anyone got any experience of this, and any tips? Am a bit worried about tyre clearances, if I'm honest, although I'm running 28c with 'guards at the moment (bike has V-brakes)

Thanks in advance

PS: limited budget - otherwise, I'd just n+1

Which of the Sirruses have you got?

It's a 2005 base model, with Sora - quite a decent bike but worth 50p now!!!!

figbat

Veronese68 wrote:

Are you going to ditch the guards? If it's only going to be used for the occasional bit of fun I'd ditch the guards and put the largest tyres you can on there. Planet X usually have some cross type tyres on offer. Sorry I have no experience of the Sirrus so have no idea what size tyre it will take.

Or ditch the close-fitting 'guards and go for a more MTB-style mudflap allowing you the extra space for tyres.

I'm currently doing an MTB-to-drop-barred-gravel-bike project and have essentially done wheel and tyre sizing by eyeballing it. If it looks like there's more space, then go for a size up. Make sure you consider all the areas: chainstay width, seat stay width, tyre-to-seat tube clearance etc. And don't forget to allow for some clearance to allow the wheel to move forwards in the dropouts when removing for a tyre change (I nearly fell foul of this when going from Vittoria 23 to Schwalbe 25 on my Fuji road bike - it will just squeeze in but I hadn't thought about it beforehand).