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15-05.-2005, 12:50 AM
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#1 |
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 13
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my bike is an elephant with pedals!
Greetings everybody. Ive been riding my bike now for about 4 months because some uninsured moron driver wrote my car off. Well this initially seemed like the worst situation that could possibly occur to a poor student like me who had no hope of buyin a new car. However it has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, ive become a full on cyclist, i ride everywhere now and the money i saved for a new car will eventually go on a nice new road bike. My problem is that my current bike is an old mountain bike that weighs a ton and takes effort to peddle down hill, it has the fattest tyres ive ever seen and i cant change out of the largest front gear. My question is, should i put road tyres on the bike to make life easier, or is this not going to make riding much easier. Mabey the problem is more to do with the engine(me), but im trying my hardest to get fit.
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15-05.-2005, 06:51 AM
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#2 |
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 18
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
I am currently riding a mountain bike with slicks on it until i get the cash together for a good road bike.
I used to have big fat knobblies on the bike, but covering 80miles on the roads wasnt too enjoyable at 60psi, i swapped them out for a pair of 'specialized fat boy' 26*1.25 @ 100psi which made a huge difference on the road both for speed and comfort of the ride. Only cost £30 for the two tyres and new tubes so well worth the upgrade in my opinion as a temporary stop gap til getting a road bike. Last edited by Tatti : 15-05.-2005 at 06:52 AM. Reason: typo |
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15-05.-2005, 08:03 AM
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#3 |
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Perth (Basso), West Australia
Posts: 3,515
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
I had a Merida Kalahari MTB with Continental Sport Contact 26"x1.3 slicks and a 11-30 8 speed cassette, it now competes in triathlons with its new owner!
Today, my GF is having a 12-25 cassette fitted to her Giant Sedona MTB, she has Maxxis Detonator 26x1.25 slicks and keeps up with my road bike!!! So, there are a couple more examples of what can be done... just go for it, but get a good bike shop to help with the mechanicals... You may want to change the bars, a cheap pair of flat bars ($10-15) will reduce the wind loading a little. If you do look at road bikes, check out the Felt SR 71-101 and Giant CRX 1-3 ranges, they are light and a bit easier to ride in the traffic with their flat bars.
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Cheers, George. Last edited by gclark8 : 15-05.-2005 at 10:53 AM. |
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15-05.-2005, 08:38 AM
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#4 | |
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 492
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
Quote:
Don't go spending too much. Tyres yes, but things like handlebars are probably taking it a bit too far. No matter what you do the bike is most likely still going to weigh a ton . |
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15-05.-2005, 03:45 PM
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#5 |
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berwick, Vic. Australia
Posts: 79
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
You're probably right Someguy. If you are looking at eventually buying a road bike it's hard to justify upgrading too much on the MTB as the value over time may not be there, unless you intend to ride it until those bits wear out.
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"I'm most dangerous when i'm cornered. I fall to pieces so quickly people get hit by the shrapnel." - Zaphod Beeblebrox, Galactic President. |
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16-05.-2005, 04:44 PM
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#6 |
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 33
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
Being a ex-mtbr myself... new slicks and leave it at that.
Next move... buy yourself a new FLATBAR road bike and you will NEVER look back ! |
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16-05.-2005, 11:33 PM
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#7 |
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Crown city
Posts: 100
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
Head down the LBS and just feel the weight difference between the fat off road tyres and the slicks even the inverted tread type are worth looking at and that may convince you to change. There are some low cost slick or semi slicks out there. The effect of wind loading due to the wide profile tyres and the reduced rolling resistance of 80+ psi in the tubes just add to the benifits, do yourself a favour. Flat bar with extensions are fine for road and trail IMHO, most road riders are on the hoods anyway and rarely in the drops from what I've seen.
Front DR may be best replaced, any cycle recyclers nearby or even ebay may help there not hard to replace. |
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17-05.-2005, 01:01 AM
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#8 |
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 13
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
Thanks for all the responses. I found after going for a ride on sunday that for the previous 4 months i have been riding around with the front and rear brakes rubbing on the rim
 , fixing this has made life ALOT easier. I guess the bright side is my legs are pretty strong now. Later this week i will go to my bike shop and get some tyres fitted and test how much further i can ride with my new (comparitivly) ultra low friction bicycle! |
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25-05.-2005, 12:23 PM
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#9 |
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 2,181
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
Go to www.parktool.com and learn how to adjust your front derailleur so that you can get off the big chainring if you choose.
I agree that you should get slicks. If you end up getting a road bike, get one with drops, it simply gives you a much larger range of hand positions for comfort and speed. In response to the post suggesting that most road bike cyclists use the hoods most of the time: that is certainly true as they're very comfortable. Flat bar bikes don't have them. |
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25-05.-2005, 07:38 PM
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#10 | |
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Crown city
Posts: 100
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
Quote:
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25-05.-2005, 08:53 PM
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#11 | |
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Perth (Basso), West Australia
Posts: 3,515
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
Quote:
Use Ultegra 10 cassettes with Ultegra long RD with the new FB shifters and FB FD.
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Cheers, George. |
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27-05.-2005, 11:18 AM
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#12 | |
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 2,181
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Re: my bike is an elephant with pedals!
Quote:
My main commuting bike is an old MTB with a "Brahma" bar that is equivalent to an ordinary flat bar with extensions. The "extensions" are definitely very useful for riding out of the saddle, but overall there is a much smaller range of positions and it is less comfortable for long rides. I stand by my recommendation: if you want comfort, go the drops. I agree that the prices of STI levers are exploitative, so it's particularly important that people buy a bike with the right gear already on it, rather than having to upgrade from a flat bar. I would not dispute that a good flat bar road bike has close to race performance and certainly could easily keep up with a bunch, provided that you didn't spend too much time at the front on fast flats or downhills. I don't think that wannabee racers would consider a flat bar bike. (For what it's worth, I don't think that the lack of a 10 speed option is a major minus.) |
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