wheels for road(ish) tires on MTB?

"Bobby Fiend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd like to
just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a better

solution,

Quoted message said:

wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

I want:
thinner tires (therfore thinner rims?) than I can probably get on my

current

Quoted message said:

wheelset
lighter hubs/wheels/etc. if possibe (not as important; no racing in my
future)

I need...
the 135mm width of the locknuts in the hub, to fit my MTB frame
the brake surfaces to line up with my current brakes
the same 9-speed Shimano cassette, so shifting isn't screwed up (the whole
point is not to buy a new bike or spend time adjusting things when I swap
wheels).

Any suggestions? Will 650c wheels do it, if I put a different hub assembly
in them? I don't know. Does anyone already sell what I'm looking for, at a
reasonable (e.g., less than $150 USD) price?

ANY suggestions appreciated!

One cheap option, is to get some Avocet Cross (inverted tread) tires, that
works well on both the road and offroad. See here:
http://www.avocet.com/tirepages/cross_2.html

Avocet cross tires can be found starting at about $20/tire

Bobby Fiend said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd like to
just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a better solution,
wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

What do you consider regular width?

I have a Bontrager Maverick rim up front and a Sun Mach 4 in back. 18
and 17mm interior width, I think. Which could probably handle a 25mm/1
inch tire. Right now I have 1.25 inch tires with absolutely no
problems. These aren't unusually thin rims- I picked up both wheels at
local shops, off the 'shelf.'

Quoted message said:

I want:
thinner tires (therfore thinner rims?) than I can probably get on my current
wheelset
lighter hubs/wheels/etc. if possibe (not as important; no racing in my
future)

I need...
the 135mm width of the locknuts in the hub, to fit my MTB frame
the brake surfaces to line up with my current brakes
the same 9-speed Shimano cassette, so shifting isn't screwed up (the whole
point is not to buy a new bike or spend time adjusting things when I swap
wheels).

Just go for MTB wheels. The most that you will need to do is tighten
the brakes a bit with the barrel adjusters if the new rims are
significantly thinner.

Quoted message said:

Any suggestions? Will 650c wheels do it, if I put a different hub assembly
in them? I don't know.

Nope- brake pads won't hit in the place.

Quoted message said:

Does anyone already sell what I'm looking for, at a
reasonable (e.g., less than $150 USD) price?

ANY suggestions appreciated!
Darrin
[email hidden]

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=126&subcategory=1200&brand=&sku=11691&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

Then take them to a good shop and get them retensioned and
relieved/trued. A cassette and new tires will add more.

"Bobby Fiend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd like to
just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a better

solution,

Quoted message said:

wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

Hey Bobby, if you have disc brakes, you can build up a disc wheelset with
700c rims. They roll better and you have a much larger tire selection.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

ZeeExSixAre said:

"Bobby Fiend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd like to
just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a better

solution,

Quoted message said:

wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

Hey Bobby, if you have disc brakes, you can build up a disc wheelset with
700c rims. They roll better and you have a much larger tire selection.

Although ZX6R has failed to read the OP, he has hit on the correct
ultimate solution. You will quickly get annoyed at having to adjust
your brakes to suit the narrow rims (I tried the same thing, and found
the difference between a narrow XC rim and a FR rim to be way more
than could be taken up with the barrel adjuster). There are few really
narrow MTB tyres (Conti GP Supersonic and...?), but there are hundreds
of 700x23 or 700x 25 tyres to choose from at prices fom <$10.

This won't help if you've only got $150 to spend, but intermittently
roadifying your MTB is best acheived by using disc brakes and 700c
rims.
Kinky Cowboy*

*Batteries not included
May contain traces of nuts
Your milage may vary

Quoted message said:

Any suggestions?

you arent going to do much better than what you have, or another pair of
wheels with skinny tires. if you want to make your bike faster, youre
likely missing 10 teeth from the front sprocket.

"Bobby Fiend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd like to
just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a better solution,
wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

No, I don't think so. Use similar wheels/rims to what you have to eliminate
swapping problems. What you really want are tires with low rolling resistance.
You need to find tires with supple casings and thin, smooth tread, that can be
pumped up to reasonably high pressure. Those qualities are more important than
width. You should be able to go a bit smaller than your current 1.5". Stay
away from invert tread cross tires, they're pigs.

Quoted message said:

Although ZX6R has failed to read the OP, he has hit on the correct

Whoops... I missed reading the one critical paragraph, hehe.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

ZeeExSixAre said:

"Bobby Fiend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd
like to just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a
better solution, wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

Hey Bobby, if you have disc brakes, you can build up a disc wheelset
with 700c rims. They roll better and you have a much larger tire
selection.

Do any companies make wheels like these off the shelf (700c rim with MTB
disc hubset), or do you have to get them custom made?

(I know Mavic did make a pair like this in the past, but I never did find a
pair to buy.)

Regards,
H.

Bobby Fiend said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd like to
just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a better solution,
wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

I want:
thinner tires (therfore thinner rims?) than I can probably get on my current
wheelset
lighter hubs/wheels/etc. if possibe (not as important; no racing in my
future)

I need...
the 135mm width of the locknuts in the hub, to fit my MTB frame
the brake surfaces to line up with my current brakes
the same 9-speed Shimano cassette, so shifting isn't screwed up (the whole
point is not to buy a new bike or spend time adjusting things when I swap
wheels).

Any suggestions? Will 650c wheels do it, if I put a different hub assembly
in them? I don't know. Does anyone already sell what I'm looking for, at a
reasonable (e.g., less than $150 USD) price?

ANY suggestions appreciated!

I'd stick with the same rim width you have now. Anything narrow enough
to make a difference will be beyond the simple adjustment capacity of
your brakes. A different diameter will be even worse--I've never seen
a rim where the braking surface is somewhere besides the very outside,
so every wheel change will require fiddling with all 4 pads. (I'm not
counting disks and drums)

If you aren't in a hurry, you can probably find a decent 7sp downtube
shifter road bike for $150.

HardwareLust said:

ZeeExSixAre said:

"Bobby Fiend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides
with friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but
I'd like to just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is
there a better solution, wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

Hey Bobby, if you have disc brakes, you can build up a disc wheelset
with 700c rims. They roll better and you have a much larger tire
selection.

Do any companies make wheels like these off the shelf (700c rim with
MTB disc hubset), or do you have to get them custom made?

(I know Mavic did make a pair like this in the past, but I never did
find a pair to buy.)

Regards,
H.

The demand for these wheels is probably too small to run a regular
production. You'd have to get them custom. But you were going to go with a
custom build anyways, right? 😉

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

n <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Bobby Fiend said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd like to
just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a better solution,
wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

I want:
thinner tires (therfore thinner rims?) than I can probably get on my current
wheelset
lighter hubs/wheels/etc. if possibe (not as important; no racing in my
future)

I need...
the 135mm width of the locknuts in the hub, to fit my MTB frame
the brake surfaces to line up with my current brakes
the same 9-speed Shimano cassette, so shifting isn't screwed up (the whole
point is not to buy a new bike or spend time adjusting things when I swap
wheels).

Any suggestions? Will 650c wheels do it, if I put a different hub assembly
in them? I don't know. Does anyone already sell what I'm looking for, at a
reasonable (e.g., less than $150 USD) price?

ANY suggestions appreciated!

I'd stick with the same rim width you have now. Anything narrow enough
to make a difference will be beyond the simple adjustment capacity of
your brakes. A different diameter will be even worse--I've never seen
a rim where the braking surface is somewhere besides the very outside,
so every wheel change will require fiddling with all 4 pads. (I'm not
counting disks and drums)

If you aren't in a hurry, you can probably find a decent 7sp downtube
shifter road bike for $150.

I agree. With a budget of $150, your best bet is to get a set of
wheels that match your current wheels. Unless you have wider than
average cross country MTB rims, you should be able to run 1.25 wide
slick tires.

I ride a Ti Hardtail MTB, about 50% on road, and 50% off road. I have
two sets of wheels. I set my bike up as follows:
- Chainrings - 46, 34, 21.
- Road wheels - XT hubs / Bontrager Mustang rims / Specialized FatBoy
1.25 slick tires / Shimano 105 12x25 9 speed cassette.
- Off road wheels - XT hubs / Bontrager Mustang rims / WTB 2.1 tires
/ Shimano XT 12x34 9 speed cassette.

Swapping wheels takes only a couple of minutes. The toals cost for
the road wheels was under $200. It is like having two different
bikes.

Just a quick suggestion. I have hutchinson top slicks 1.2" on my mtb with no
probs. They are a perfectly slick tire, with no useless tread on it. They
also make a 1.0".

Mike
http://mikebeauchamp.com

"Bobby Fiend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd like to
just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a better

solution,

Quoted message said:

wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

I want:
thinner tires (therfore thinner rims?) than I can probably get on my

current

Quoted message said:

wheelset
lighter hubs/wheels/etc. if possibe (not as important; no racing in my
future)

I need...
the 135mm width of the locknuts in the hub, to fit my MTB frame
the brake surfaces to line up with my current brakes
the same 9-speed Shimano cassette, so shifting isn't screwed up (the whole
point is not to buy a new bike or spend time adjusting things when I swap
wheels).

Any suggestions? Will 650c wheels do it, if I put a different hub assembly
in them? I don't know. Does anyone already sell what I'm looking for, at a
reasonable (e.g., less than $150 USD) price?

ANY suggestions appreciated!
Darrin
[email hidden]

--On Saturday, July 17, 2004 1:12 AM -0400 ZeeExSixAre

Quoted message said:

"Bobby Fiend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd like to
just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a better

solution,

Quoted message said:

wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

Hey Bobby, if you have disc brakes, you can build up a disc wheelset with
700c rims. They roll better and you have a much larger tire selection.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

700c wheels will clear the frame and suspension fork on a modern disc-brake
mtb?

Mike
Mechanical Engineering 2006, Carnegie Mellon University
Remove nospam to reply.

Prometheus said:

700c wheels will clear the frame and suspension fork on a modern disc-brake
mtb?

Mike
Mechanical Engineering 2006, Carnegie Mellon University

Diameter of either wheel is similar, once you take into account typical
tires, so yes, it will almost certainly fit. But it's a simple task to
eyeball the clearance around the 26ers you have on there now.

Usually the differing brake track diameter is the problem, obviously
not for you.

--
Ted Bennett
Portland OR

Quoted message said:

700c wheels will clear the frame and suspension fork on a modern
disc-brake mtb?

As a matter of fact, my MTB equipment has MORE clearance with road wheels
than with mountain wheels, but I tend to use slightly larger MTB tires. As
a result, the diameter of my MTB wheels is larger than my road wheels.
Tires can really have a big effect!

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Prometheus said:

--On Saturday, July 17, 2004 1:12 AM -0400 ZeeExSixAre

Quoted message said:

"Bobby Fiend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking to put roadlike tires on my MTB for occasional rides with
friends. I have some 1.5" smoothies for the current rims, but I'd like
to just get a spare set of wheels to swap at will. Is there a better

solution,

Quoted message said:

wheel-wise, than a regular-width MTB rim?

Hey Bobby, if you have disc brakes, you can build up a disc wheelset
with 700c rims. They roll better and you have a much larger tire
selection.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

700c wheels will clear the frame and suspension fork on a modern
disc-brake mtb?

Mike
Mechanical Engineering 2006, Carnegie Mellon University Remove nospam to
reply.

I have to disagree here. I tried this once - built 700c disc wheels for a
MTB frame that was fitted for discs. I thought they would roll better and
all that. But it was disappointing because the whole thing was too far off
the ground. The wheels did fit, but they were slightly larger in
diameter than my MTB setup, plus the bottom bracket was pretty high to
begin with. The end result felt pretty ungainly, IMO. It didn't like it
at all.

Better, I say, to stick with 26" rims (I rebuilt mine with 26"
disc-specific rims). Though there isn't a huge selection, there are
decent skinny tires available for the "559" rim size (MTB), including
Conti Grand Prix 26x1 (25-559), which is a variation on their top-selling
road tire.

The Conti's are spec'd at 25 mm, and MTB rims can be had that are narrower
than that, if your's aren't in that range already. You can reduce the
risk of pinch flats by keeping the tires well inflated.

Note, though, that skinny tires on the same MTB rims will end up
considerably lowering the bike. This can have a good effect (for the
road), quickening the steering and lowering the center of gravity.
However, you should check pedal-to-ground clearance against a typical road
bike, because you'll be reducing that as well, and it could become a
safety issue.