>>I hope to get my wife on a road bike by turning my old KHS into a more comfortable ride for her.
>>The KHS has Shimano 105 derailleurs, 9 speed rear and triple front. If I switch the drops to a
>>straight handle bar and put on Mt Bike shifters, will they work with the road derailleurs?
> Pat Budd wrote:
> I've done this to a couple of bikes and included switching the standard road tires for knobby's.
> Best way is to pick up some used MTB bar shifters and levers but you can do it with DT shifters
> and very basic brake levers for straight bars. I've recommended similar setups to a number of
> people who thought they wanted MTB's but in reality had no interest in going off road other than
> groomed trails. Much, much lighter than a MTB and much cheaper.
This is good advice except for the part about knobby tires. Fat knobby tires are good for mountain
bikes to be ridden in steep sandy or muddy conditions, but in any size skinny enough to fit on a
road bike they're almost always a poor choice.
Tires this narrow won't work in mud or sand, no matter how lumpy the tread is. Knobby tires are
needlessly slow on pavement, and cause a very annoying buzzing vibration.
Much better to get smooth tires, fairly wide ones. (You can generally fit a wider smooth tire in a
given frame than you can a knobby.)
Sheldon "Fat & Bald" Brown +----------------------------------------------------+
| I admit that reason is a small and feeble flame, | a flickering torch by stumblers carried in the
| | star-less night, -- blown and flared by passion's | storm, -- and yet, it is the only light. |
| Extinguish that, and nought remains. | -- Robert Green Ingersoll |
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