finished!!!! now to learn to rided the thing... unlike anything ive tried b4. more difficult than i imagined. my feet and hands dont see eye to eye. this weekend ill b taking it out to some backroads to test my progress. question: when i get the hang of it is it possible to change this mtb over to road bike using my road bike components? how would the back break mount? are there modifications necessary to the kit itself? just curious lightduty
road bike?????
- Thread starter Mark B
- Start date
Mark B
Zen MBB Master
Now we're having fun inside the learning curve. Discouragement the first try leads to a twinkling of encouragement after the second try leads to the lightbulb coming on during the third (fourth or fifth) try. The mastery is in you, it's just a matter of bringing it out. Relax, pay attention to what your movements do and your body will figure it out.
As to your road bike components; I believe what you will do is ride your conversion as is, then become so crazy about it that you mortgage your kids to buy a Silvio frameset. Now we're talking!
Mark
As to your road bike components; I believe what you will do is ride your conversion as is, then become so crazy about it that you mortgage your kids to buy a Silvio frameset. Now we're talking!
Mark
Depending on how much you have ridden, you might want to stay as a MTB for a while. Bigger tires are useful for learning on.
I don't mind the "slower" knobbies, since I'm spinning out of the top gear on flat ground anyway, so I'll end up having to redo the gearing anyway. I don't see what you used for a conversion. New? Used? Battered? You will want to do some tweaking anyway. The more you ride, the more the minor details start interfering with your riding.
OTOH, riding it "as is" as long as the pedals turn is a big temptation. I had to learn to "spin" more than "mash" and that helped a lot.
Enjoy it, relax and have fun.
I don't mind the "slower" knobbies, since I'm spinning out of the top gear on flat ground anyway, so I'll end up having to redo the gearing anyway. I don't see what you used for a conversion. New? Used? Battered? You will want to do some tweaking anyway. The more you ride, the more the minor details start interfering with your riding.
OTOH, riding it "as is" as long as the pedals turn is a big temptation. I had to learn to "spin" more than "mash" and that helped a lot.
Enjoy it, relax and have fun.
unloading front wheel
You've got some inches and pounds on me but I have not been bottoming out the fork travel on my PK7-based conversion. Maybe you can move your center of gravity back? Between http://www.flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2409862133/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2485381322/ you can see the inch+ of backrest travel gained by mounting the seatpost inside rather than outside the backrest rails. A bent BMX seatpost would allow you to sit back even further. For a given seat-base placement, the more you can recline comfortably the more your weight moves back. The real experts on the list could also estimate for you whether you would get an important advantage from swapping the rear wheel for a 24inch rather than 26 inch (or swapping the front wheel for a 26, if your PK7 is the 24 incher.) Good luck! Pleased to see someone else using the PK7.
pagetuner
You've got some inches and pounds on me but I have not been bottoming out the fork travel on my PK7-based conversion. Maybe you can move your center of gravity back? Between http://www.flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2409862133/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2485381322/ you can see the inch+ of backrest travel gained by mounting the seatpost inside rather than outside the backrest rails. A bent BMX seatpost would allow you to sit back even further. For a given seat-base placement, the more you can recline comfortably the more your weight moves back. The real experts on the list could also estimate for you whether you would get an important advantage from swapping the rear wheel for a 24inch rather than 26 inch (or swapping the front wheel for a 26, if your PK7 is the 24 incher.) Good luck! Pleased to see someone else using the PK7.
pagetuner
If you know someone with a conduit bender, that would work, or if you have a long piece, wedge it under a car tire and bend it that way.
I had the problem of the seat post mount on the frame didn't match the seat post mount on the seat and I knew by then I was going to need a little more extreme lean, so I used a 3/4" pipe nipple, a 45 degree elbow, 3/4 to 1/2 bushing and cut a short threaded section of 1/2" pipe to fit. I got more lean than I wanted since with the seat pan as far back as I had it, the elbow was hitting the seat back if I tried to adjust it up. Yes, I can improve that and fiddle with it, but that was quick and easy and it turned out well for me.
I had the problem of the seat post mount on the frame didn't match the seat post mount on the seat and I knew by then I was going to need a little more extreme lean, so I used a 3/4" pipe nipple, a 45 degree elbow, 3/4 to 1/2 bushing and cut a short threaded section of 1/2" pipe to fit. I got more lean than I wanted since with the seat pan as far back as I had it, the elbow was hitting the seat back if I tried to adjust it up. Yes, I can improve that and fiddle with it, but that was quick and easy and it turned out well for me.
I'd trust normal conduit to hold my back up, especially if I was in a more upright position. My problem was the difference in the diameters of the two ends. Yeah, I could have shimmed it with some aluminum flashing, but this was quicker and easier since the brother-in-law's conduit bender was stolen with his tools a couple of years ago.
