Changing an MTB into a road machine.

Thanks for the info , George. I assume the 135mm deore rear hub is to accomodate the wider dropouts of an mtb. although I have heard good things about the conti gatorskins, if i go for the 26" wheels i'll probably go for the all condition tyres, just because 1" is a bit thinner than 28mm so I asume it should go faster, also I think they go up to 125psi! out of interest did you find the 650c's lighter/faster/better than conventional 26" in short would you recomend them?

I had a read of that thread, some good info, increasingly obscured by some extreemly spurious and questionable posts by danielhaden, I was previously unaware that I guaged my speed by what what gear I'm in, instead of reading my computer. i've currently got a 1.5" speciallized nimbus on the front, which has been ok considering its's trashed now. And 1.25" michelin on the rear (I realise that they should be the other way round) which I do prefer, although I think its only the width.

So your 650c's outpaced your 700c bike that really surprised me! So for pace they must outdo light-ish mtb 26"ers. And I think the 125 psi is the max written on the tyre.

thanks for the hub info thats what i though it would be about.

p.s. I would greatfully try them out if I was in perth, but I'm in Leeds, in the UK unfortunately!

I had a look for the michelin slicks you mentioned, but couldn't find them anywhere, not even on michelin's own website. Do you have a more specific name for them? I don't know how far your pool is, but that sounds like quite some speed in comparison to your other two. My bike has 42t and 52t chainrings at the front and 11-28 7 speed on the back, and with spd's and a high saddle position you can really get up some speed with it. the 7 speed is something else which concerned me, most hubs seem to be 8/9 speed, do you know if this is a problem?

It sounds like I should/will probably go for trying to build a pair of 26"ers (considering the pot-holes and kerbs come hard and fast in leeds) although I did see a pair of 650 rims on ebay going for $42 from a bike shop, which seemed suspiciouly cheap. 390g, 28 hole perhaps they're just not great for time-trials/triathlon suff?
yrs, F.G.

Thanks for the link. I had a look at those tyres, they certainly look fast and slick, even if they are 1.4. The thing about the cassette is that its not a freewheel cassette because an 11t is apparently too small to fit that way, I remember when I bought the bike (I had it built out of a collection new and 2nd hand bits) it needed a freehub on the back. The actual gears I'm very happy with, and the 7 speed is fine, the question is how easy it is to find a freehub to accommodate my current cassette.

I like the two wheelset theory and think that that is where i'm going to aim sometime in the future. But in my current economic restraints I can only stretch as far as one set, so i'm going to try and get some decent mtb wheels for now, with as super thin slicks as i can, and then at a later date (with more money!)look into some 650c's. then I can look into getting some thicker 26" slicks, and like your friend I'll be all sorted.

Out of interest have you got any advice on wheel building?
yrs, F.G.

p.s. my local bike shop owner told me the other day that you can apparently put 700c wheels on an mtb, the V-brakes don't work, so youhave to have disks, and there's next to no clearance, but appearently it's enough (rear hubs might be a problem too)!

So you think I should go for an eight speed freehub/cassette, if building a new wheel, and just use 7 of them. I was anticipating re-using my current cassette, but I don't know if I can Just stick a 30t ring next to the 28, and make it eightspeed? isn't the indexing different for eightspeed, i mean do you need a different width chain? I guess if so I'll need a new cassette too.

By the way when you say cheap mtb wheels do you mean good-cheap, or bad-cheap? (i'm guessing bad).

I'd be interested to know what your choice of rims/hubs would be if you were me? (i'm assuming the deore hub you mentioned earlier are the quite cheap (but good quality) shimano ones). Thanks.
yrs, F.G.

Thanks for your reply, I think I'm going to go for lightweight mtb rims and shimano hubs, and an eightspeed cassette (get some 650c's aswell when i'm a bit richer).

George, I saw your pedals on another thread, they look nice. My single sided pedals, which I was talking about were an emergency buy in france last summer (I went touring and unpacked my bike to find I'd forgotten my pedals!), so I got the cheapest spd's I could, which were some unknown brand and not weighted at all properly.

thanks for all the help.

F.G.