Anyone made their MTB into a commuter?

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Madders

Regular
I've put some Schwalbe City Jets on my Bianchi Jab 7300 which I,m now enjoying on my 9+ miles commute to work along a busyish A road. I've got Crud Race Pac mudgauards coming and I'm considering changing the frontset gears to give me more bite on the downhills. Maybe I should have just bought a hybrid but I like this set up. Any advice or anyone done similar?
 

Norm

Guest
I've done similar but my chosen MTB was 20+ years old so no suspension to worry about.
 
OP
OP
Madders

Madders

Regular
Luckily, I don't have any, what I'd call major or long hills and my suspension has remote lock out, though it's always locked out anyway. I was also thinking of getting some bar ends to help with what hills there are.
 

HovR

Über Member
Location
Plymouth
Yep. Put some slicks on my cheap MTB. The suspension forks annoy me, though, as well as some other things on the bike - So I'll hopefully replace it for something like a Subway at some point.
 

biggs682

Touch it up and ride it
Location
Northamptonshire
i commuted for about 2yrs on my Marin Bear Valley and apart from fitting a rear gaurd and slicks it was great fun , its now in retirment shed as using road bikes all the time for last 2 yrs
 

Andrew_Culture

Internet Marketing bod
Likewise, I just fitted a rigid front fork (the suspension fork was shot anyway) and a pair of slicker tyres, along with mudguards & a cheap beam rack - used that for a couple of years till a smidbl wrote it off.

What forks did you replace your suspension forks with? I destroyed any tightness my suspension had going doing a steep track in Porlock about 8 years ago, it has been like riding a Victoria sponge ever since by I thought if I put standard forks on my bike would tip forward really badly.
 
Done it a couple of times in the past, then saw the light and bought a road bike. Huge improvement in acceleration, speed and effort required IMO.
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
Most of my commuting has been done on MTBs, first a Muddy Fox Courier (just kept going and going, there was no need to replace it) then a (rigid) Marin. Both great commuters, and quick enough (used to be able to average 20 mph on the commute to catch the tour highlights on Channel 4 years back when they were on at 5:30 pm).

Road bikes are OK too. So are folding bikes. So is your mum's ancient roadster. So are recumbents I imagine. It's riding to work, you can use anything, or pretty much. Maybe I wouldn't like to use an A-bike (although If I had one I'd try it at least once)

Modifications made to both MTBs: City Jets or similar, mudguards. Nothing else.
 
I use an alloy roadbike or steel roadbike fixie in the sticks...

but, when I commuted between Paddington, SW8, EC4 and SW1, I had an MTB street-warrior road rocket that was honed for the heat of city tarmac, as follows:

Ancient Trek 4500 (?) hardtail frame.
Forks locked out.
Continental SportContact near-slick tyres at 80psi.
Long stem and shortened straight bars with bar-end cowhorns.
Tighter- higher-geared rear block.
Arse-slicing road saddle.
Eggbeaters.

Ridden with verve in the Big Smoke, it gave me the impression it was unstoppable (in a good way).

Kerbs and potholes were never a problem, narrow gaps were gettable and no-one seemed interested in stealing it or any of its QR parts.

City commuting on ratbike, road-converted hardtails is the way. Others disagree and are wrong.
 

glasgowcyclist

Charming but somewhat feckless
Location
Scotland
I use my old Trek 850 (fully rigid) as my daily commuter and have done since 2000. I bought it new in 1995 and it spent the first five years of its life battering around Scottish trails from the Borders to Aviemore and everywhere in between.

Then I set it up as a commuter by sticking on a pannier rack, mudguards, put a 52/42/32 chainring on and an11-28 block. I subsequently added Schwalbe Marathon + tyres and a SON hub dynamo with a B&M IQ Cyo Senso Plus front light.

I've commuted about 60,000 miles on it and it still running great.

Not bad for a bike that cost me £400 17 years ago.


GC
 
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