Feb 17, 2010
Would It Be Worth Converting My Mountain Bike To A Road Bike?
I currently have a specialized rockhopper with all the standard components. Its a mountain bike through and through. I am somewhat new to the biking world and I know it is possible to convert it to a road bike but how would one go about it? and with all that in mind, would it not be worth it and should i just save up for a road bike?
Related posts:
- What Makes Mountain Bikes Slower Than Road Bikes? I have a mountain bike with front and rear suspension, wide knobby tires, and a heavy frame.. if I get some road tires (still wide) for it, and lock the rear suspension, will it be easier for me to keep...
- How Much Of A Disadvantage Is It To Get Mountain Biking Shoes Instead Of Road Biking Shoes For A Road Bike? It seems like there’s a lot of disparity from one brand’s shoe to the next, whether the shoes are made for road biking or mountain biking. Some mountain biking shoes seem more comfortable for everyday use or for walking. What’s...
- How Much Are My Old Bmx Freestyle Bikes Worth? Hi, I have 2 old BMX freestyle bikes that I would like to sell. 1 is a Schwinn Predator Pro, the frame is 4130 chrome-moly steel. The wheels are built up with, a Joytech hub set, with ARAYA aluminum rims,...
- How To Improve My Mountain Bike? Hi I’m new to biking. I’m starting to get more and more interested in mountain biking. I enjoy going to my local canyon in Aliso Viejo. I was just wondering what are some inexpensive and easy ways to make my...
- To Increase Speed And Distance Potential, Can I Swap Out My Mountain Bike Tires For Road Ones? I will have the bike shop guy set me up with the right size and everything, but will using more road-friendly tires increase my speed and distance? I love mountain biking but I figure I need to start using my...
I agree with concerned_earthling…..whether or not it’s worth it to convert your bike depends on your reasons for wanting to do it. Riding in groups with other road bikes will be a little tougher due to the smaller wheels and “shorter” gearing. The bike won’t handle as well either, because of the relaxed angles on the frame tubing.
)
That said, you can make a nice “road” bike and have a lot of fun doing it if you want to. As said, buying some narrow slick tires is the first thing to do. Your rims are already narrow (if they’re stock rims), so you can get the smaller 1-3/8″ tires and mount those for as little as $30. If you want to go all out, you can get a new stem (might not be needed), some drop handlebars, and compatible shift/brake levers (or a Travel Agent roller adapter thingy) for $100-$150 or so.
Your converted bike will be heavier than most road bikes, but not terribly. The frame and wheels will weigh more but you’ll still roll fast and pretty comfortably. If you don’t mind using your current straight handlebars, then you can just get the tires and be ready to roll. There are also larger chainrings available if you find that you don’t have gears that are tall enough, but those get expensive.
If this isn’t worth it to you, there are lots of used road bikes in the $200 to $400 range, and you can get into entry level bikes for $400 to $700.
Good luck, have fun with it no matter which route you take!
First, whats wrong with mountain biking? That aside, you can’t really convert a mountain bike into a road bike because the defining feature of road bikes is their wheels and tires. They have 700c wheels (bigger than mountain bikes wheels) and thinner tires with higher air pressure to reduce rolling friction. It’s impossible to put these wheels on a mountain bike so it will never really be a road bike. What you can do is put slicks on it and pump the tires up a bit more which can be relatively cheap and painless. To get extreme you could change the rear cassette for gear ratios more lending to road biking but you already have those gears in your range, just less of them. If your finding you like road more than mountain deffinately save up and get a Giant OCR3 or something in that range(actually no, just go with an OCR if you do get one. Everyone loves to jump the gun and go to Trek but a comparable Giant will be cheaper and maybe slightly nicer. This mostly has to do with the fact that Giant spends less on advertising and Giant makes most of the Trek bikes so your just cutting out the middle man. Do your home work. Giant is one of the most research oriented companies on the market. Check consumer reports, Giant usually wins in this category and always gets great reviews). If you just want something to ride on the roads every now and again just buy some slicks and swap out the tires when you want to. If you find you are doing this often some people just buy a cheap second single wall wheel set (single wall b/c it doesn’t have to be as strong for road use) and put the slicks on those so you can switch quickly. But if your really getting into road biking and your not going to ride trails anymore, it would be worth it to get a new bike.
If you intend to ride in a group of people as a group ride then it is not in your best interest to try and ‘convert’ a mountain bike to a road bike.
On the other hand if your intent is to ride a bike then it is totally doable and for nothing more than the cost of tires.
You can make the ‘mountain bike’ ride smoother and faster with a set of high presure ’street’ tires.
These will make riding on the street a little faster and a little smoother ‘just a little bit faster& smoother’
If you intend to commmute by bicycle then the mountain bike is a better / stouter bike than a ’street’ bike and by commuting by bicycle you may save over $6 dollars a week based upon 10 mile to work times 2 [back home] times 3 for three days a week you bide a bike divided by 35 (extimated miles per gallon you car would get if you had to drive it there) time $3.75 [a gallon of gasoline]
{([miles] x days) x price of fuel}
{([10 x 2] x 3 )/ 35} x 3.75= $6.4……………
No, it’s probably not worth it. If you want a road bike you should sell your mountain bike and buy a road bike, or keep your mountain bike if you still use it and buy a road bike in addition to it. It wouldn’t be worth it because mountain bikes are much heavier with components such as suspension forks that road bikes don’t need. Also the riding position on a mountain bike is not what you want for road riding. With that said, if you still want to the main change you would need to make would be to put slick tires on you mountain bike. This would make the biggest difference. Any other changes probably would not help much and be a waste of your money and time. There is also the wheel factor. 700c road bike wheels are much lighter weight and bigger, so are better for road riding. You should just buy a road bike. I would reccomend the Trek 1.2, it is $770, but you can find many other good road bikes for about that price such as a Specialized!
It will never become a true road bike, but you can buy slick tires to reduce friction.
As other have stated, you can convert a moutain bike to a road bike. Before beginning the process, you need to understand this bike isn’t going to be light and nimble like a road bike, though. Given enough spare parts and/or the expenditure of enough money, you can build it into a decent road machine. Here are the issues.
First off, a mountain bike frame is designed to handle the stresses of off road riding. In particular, the Rockhopper is tough, but not at all optimized for light weight. Road bike frames are built of lighter weight tubing because they need not handle the stresses of off-road riding. Thus, you are never going to have a bike as light as a decent road bike.
As everyone has suggested, the first step to converting a mountain bike to a road bike is getting road tires. You can get narrow, high pressure tires for your mountain bike wheels and they’ll make a huge difference in on-road speed.
Mountain bike, especially stock Rock Hopper, wheels are built more heavily to handle off-road stress than road wheels. Rotating mass has a big effect on acceleration, thus your mountain bike will feel less quick and nimble than a road bike with lightweight wheels.
You won’t want the suspension fork on your bike when you convert it to a road bike. A suspension fork is heavier than a rigid fork. Furthermore, unless it has a lockout, it will absorb a bit of your pedalling energy on each stroke. Ideally, you would want to get a rigid carbon mountain bike fork (for light weight and shock absorption), but even a rigid steel or aluminum fork will be lighter than the suspension fork on your bike.
Mountain bikes are designed to ascend much steeper slopes than a road bike will ever encounter. This is accomplished via smaller circumference wheels and lower gearing. While this is great for climbing slopes, you are very likely to spin out the gears on downhills. You may be able to get bigger chain rings, but as another respondent pointed out, this is expensive. (Furthermore, drive thain elements wear in together. If you replace any element of the drive train: chainrings, chain and cassette, you should replace all elements. Otherwise, the new parts will wear quickly and performance will be pretty crappy in the meantime.)
As another respondent pointed out, if you put drop road bars on your bike, you will have to replace your brake/shifters. Even inexpensive shifters are pretty expensive. Furthermore, road bike brake/shifter levers are not compatible with mountain bike brakes. (Road brakes and linear pull brakes found on mountain bikes require different amounts of cable pull to actuate.) Thus, you will have to get adapters that allows road brake levers to work with mountain bike brakes. The adapters are not very expensive, but every bit adds up.
When all is said and done, I’d probably go looking for a nice used road bike.
Hope this helps.