V20 conversion from narrow 700mm wheels to wide 26"

[Karl42]

Thanks. The Surly ET tires look good, but they are 50% more expensive here than the Marathons, and I already have the Marathons now, so presumably and hopefully they'll last for a while. Did you do anything special to run the Marathons tubeless, or just use rim tape and put in some sealant?

The initial impression on my upright after replacing my old Panaracer 26x1.25 high pressure road tires with the Marathon Mondials 26x2.00 was that the bike handles like a tank. But after a few minutes I got used to them. These fat tires make potholes almost disappear, and climbing on steep dirty roads is possible with confidence.

 

[Black Hawk Down]

Did you do anything special to run the Marathons tubeless, or just use rim tape and put in some sealant?

I used tubeless rims and taped them with 1 inch gorilla tape, but I think any rim tape would do. I used Stans sealant. To get the beads to seal, I employ a trick where you put a tube in the tire and pump it up to maximum pressure, making sure to hear the tire beads pop in place. Let out the air and take the inner tube out one side, leaving the other bead not broken. Then use a CO2 cartridge to fill the tire quickly, which will pop the tire bead to the rim again. Use the whole cartridge to make sure the beads are well set. Check to make sure it doesn't leak. Then l let out all the air and add sealant to the valve. I use Fillmore Tubeless valves, so it's real easy. They're expensive but work really well. You can get buy with Presta or Schrader valves with removable cores and save money, but they may get plugged with sealant over time. Pump the tire back to the desired pressure. Shift the wheel around to spread the sealant. Bounce it on the ground. Then let it sit overnight. Check that it hasn't lost any pressure. If it goes flat, you have a leak to find. It could be in the tire or the rim. Look for sealant on the rim edge and around the spoke holes. I originally had leaking around the spoke holes with one wheel and had to retape it. The other wheel had leakage around the tire bead. I had to replace the rim as it was defective. It was fixed under warrantee. Good luck.

 

[Karl42]

My new S40 fork arrived today. Thanks to the Cruzbike team for sending this to me!
It certainly has enough clearance for anything I want. Even my 29" mountain bike wheel looks like it would probably fit.
When I unpacked the fork I noticed that there was something dangling around inside quite loudly. Fortunately I could get it out with some effort and got several bits of metal out, probably the burrs from drilling the holes in the side of the fork. I would have been very annoyed with that tingling sound permanently in my bike.
Now I need to get some new 26" wheels (at least for the front), as the ones from my old bike don't fit my cassette for the V20.

 

[Black Hawk Down]

My new S40 fork arrived today. Thanks to the Cruzbike team for sending this to me!
It certainly has enough clearance for anything I want. Even my 29" mountain bike wheel looks like it would probably fit.
When I unpacked the fork I noticed that there was something dangling around inside quite loudly. Fortunately I could get it out with some effort and got several bits of metal out, probably the burrs from drilling the holes in the side of the fork. I would have been very annoyed with that tingling sound permanently in my bike.
Now I need to get some new 26" wheels (at least for the front), as the ones from my old bike don't fit my cassette for the V20.

BTW, the S40 fork stem is much longer than the V20. If you want to keep your handlebars low, like they were on the V20, you'll have to cut the fork stem to size. Otherwise, you'll need some spacers. You can get them on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LYYJ87G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I did the spacers as I wanted the bars up high.

 

[Karl42]

Here is my V20 with wide tires. Thanks for the helpful suggestions in this thread. I originally wanted to fit the Schwalbe Marathon Mondial Evolution 26*2.0" (50-559) both front and back, but rear tire clearance is pretty tight, so I changed the rear tire to the marginally narrower Surly 26*1.8" (46-559). With low enough pressure either tire would probably fit. I installed both tires tubeless.
First ride impression is quite positive. Riding on gravel, rough roads, or even cobblestones, is much more comfortable. Now I just need to finish the adjustable seat angle...

 

[Frito Bandito]

That doesn't look too bad IMO

 

[Animal494]

Here is my V20 with wide tires. Thanks for the helpful suggestions in this thread. I originally wanted to fit the Schwalbe Marathon Mondial Evolution 26*2.0" (50-559) both front and back, but rear tire clearance is pretty tight, so I changed the rear tire to the marginally narrower Surly 26*1.8" (46-559). With low enough pressure either tire would probably fit. I installed both tires tubeless.
First ride impression is quite positive. Riding on gravel, rough roads, or even cobblestones, is much more comfortable. Now I just need to finish the adjustable seat angle...

View attachment 19264View attachment 19265View attachment 19266View attachment 19267View attachment 19268

Wow!!! That looks amazing…. I have a new steed to dream about FAST efficient touring on! (In?)

 

[cpml123]

I was thinking of this the other day that V20 would be an excellent tour bike if wide tires can fit. Even though V20 doesn't have fittings for rack, you can put a Radical Banana Racer on the seat pan. I recently was switching riding between S40 and V20 back and forth and really noticed how much less effort or faster on flat the V goes. I guess physics doesn't lie. I can only put 700c 30mm tires on V20, but the S40 can take 700c 40mm tires. That's more comfortable to ride.

I guess it's possible but just a lot of effort (change to S40 fork, etc) to make it work. Great job making it work!

 

[Karl42]

I was just replicating what @Black Hawk Down had written earlier in this thread. Changing to the S40 fork is actually quite easy. The longest part about it was replacing the shifter cable, but the whole process took less than an hour. I don't have an S40, so I just orded the S40 fork as a single part, and that prevented any confusion about which bearings to use: take out V20 fork, move all bearings over to the S40 fork in the same way, tighten all screws again, done. It helped to mark the positions of the top boom slider.

 

[Animal494]

I was thinking of this the other day that V20 would be an excellent tour bike if wide tires can fit.

Either a large set of banana racer bags - or to avoid putting too much weight on the frame (IIRC, blackhawkdown also mentioned grame flex on the v20) or use a lightweight extra wheel trailer with matching 26” wheel/tire and some ultralight backpacking gear!

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[Karl42]

Either a large set of banana racer bags - or to avoid putting too much weight on the frame (IIRC, blackhawkdown also mentioned grame flex on the v20) or use a lightweight extra wheel trailer with matching 26” wheel/tire and some ultralight backpacking gear!

This was my touring setup for a month long trip through Norway, using a pair of Radical Banana M bags, 28mm Pirelli Cinturato Velo tires, a SON delux hub dynamo to power lights and phones. It was enough to carry a complete set of clothes, food and camping gear for one month.





While this worked well, for the next tour I will bring the wider tires, which have a normal SON hub dynamo instead of the SON delux, as the normal version has more power at slower speeds, which helps when the trip has many hills or mountains, and I have the larger rear box now. And of course the wider tires allow going on unpaved roads, which wasn't really possible with the road tires on carbon rims.

 

[Animal494]

This was my touring setup for a month long trip through Norway, using a pair of Radical Banana M bags, 28mm Pirelli Cinturato Velo tires, a SON delux hub dynamo to power lights and phones. It was enough to carry a complete set of clothes, food and camping gear for one month.

View attachment 19269

View attachment 19270

While this worked well, for the next tour I will bring the wider tires, which have a normal SON hub dynamo instead of the SON delux, as the normal version has more power at slower speeds, which helps when the trip has many hills or mountains, and I have the larger rear box now. And of course the wider tires allow going on unpaved roads, which wasn't really possible with the road tires on carbon rims.

Looks awesome!!

 

[IyhelM]

[…] I recently was switching riding between S40 and V20 back and forth and really noticed how much less effort or faster on flat the V goes. I guess physics doesn't lie.

I’m not sure what the difference would be with heavy hunky banana bags on either

 

[Karl42]

I originally wanted to fit the Schwalbe Marathon Mondial Evolution 26*2.0" (50-559) both front and back, but rear tire clearance is pretty tight, so I changed the rear tire to the marginally narrower Surly 26*1.8" (46-559). With low enough pressure either tire would probably fit.

Today I had a closer look at tire width in relation to tire pressure and realized that the Surly ET holds much less pressure than the Schwalbe Mondial. In other words, for the maximum tire width that is determined by the frame clearance, the Surly ET maxes out at about 30 psi, while the Schwalbe can easily hold 40 psi, and probably even a bit more. So I switched back to the Schwalbe Mondial.
Riding the bike in this configuration is a lot of fun, and unlocks a lot of gravel paths and very steep ascents on rough roads that were completely impossible on narrow road tires.

 

[Black Hawk Down]

Today I had a closer look at tire width in relation to tire pressure and realized that the Surly ET holds much less pressure than the Schwalbe Mondial. In other words, for the maximum tire width that is determined by the frame clearance, the Surly ET maxes out at about 30 psi, while the Schwalbe can easily hold 40 psi, and probably even a bit more. So I switched back to the Schwalbe Mondial.
Riding the bike in this configuration is a lot of fun, and unlocks a lot of gravel paths and very steep ascents on rough roads that were completely impossible on narrow road tires.

The pressure range for Schwalbe Mondials is 35-65 PSI. they used to be 80 PSI max, but lately they lowered the spec. I use mine tubeless and fill to 60 psi but allow them to lose pressure over time to 40 psi before pumping them back up. It takes a couple weeks to lose that much. I do notice a softer ride at 40 PSI but it's not that significant to me. I love tubeless. I hardly ever get a flat and if I do, I just shove a bacon strip in and continue riding.

 

[Black Hawk Down]

Wrong bearing interface would be my guess. Can you swap the crown race from the old fork to the new one?

I got it tight enough to work. It still has a little bit of slop but it doesn't seem to be getting worse. I don't know if I can swap the crown race or not.