Small road bike conversion from mtb

[citrixccea]

Last year I restored a battered 14" cannondale head shox hard tail for my daughter, and she loves it. But the immortal words she uttered a few weeks back have given me a new project "dad, I really want a road bike" having put some time into this, it's clear that there are only two types of road bikes for kids, heavy or expensive.

Now I should be clear that I do ride this bike myself, flip the stem over, use the massive seat post, and lock out the headshox - and it's cracking.

So I figured that what I needed for Ollie was a 14" frame road (or cross?) bike with 26" wheels.

I guess you've figured my thoughts - convert the 'dale to a road bike. No problem with fitting drop bars - but what do I do with the xt rapid fire shifters and hydraulic brake levers (it's a disk brake model)

Any suggestions ?

 

[dirttorpedo]

Re:

If it was an older v-brake or canti braked mountain bike I might see the point of the exercise, but with the hydraulic disc mountain bike brakes I feel there are too many incompatibilities to make it worth your while. I've got a disc brake CX frame that I built up with 29'er mountain bike parts and I've toyed with converting it to a drop bar bike, but I'd have to replace the shifters, bars, brake levers, possibly front mech, get downtube stops, & rmechanical disc brakes. Probably cheaper to just buy a jr. road bike and upgrade it or find another old mountain bike frame and do a 700c drop bar conversion from scratch.

 

[legrandefromage]

road sti

mini V or cable discs

1.0 26" slicks

two ring chainset

close ratio cassette


job done...

 

[mattsccm]

Re:

MTB's have a longer top tube than a road bike for a given size. It may be too long bearing in mind the fact that with drop bars your hands could be 5-6" in front of the stem and with flat bars they will be roughly level.
Add the two and it may be too long.

 

[dnbmatt28]

Re:

Is something like this too big?:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cannondale-R5 ... 2596c66aff

When they have grown out of it, it will have resale value whereas a drop bar Headshox bike may not! Have you got a photo of the bike?

Cheers
Matt

 

[citrixccea]

Thanks for your replies guys - I'd spotted the 650c 'dale, but expect it will go for too much.

I suspect there's a market for sensible priced alloy road bikes. I noticed that Planet X had some junior frames for sale for just a few days, and they they have disappeared, they were really cheap too...

Why is it most of the girls frames that come up for sale look like they're made from spent uranium, with downtube shifters... Worse thing I can possibly do is have her riding something 'un-cool', slow and difficult


It may well be that she'll have to cope with some slicks a straight bar and bar ends for now!

 

[hamster]

Re: Re:

MTB's have a longer top tube than a road bike for a given size. It may be too long bearing in mind the fact that with drop bars your hands could be 5-6" in front of the stem and with flat bars they will be roughly level.
Add the two and it may be too long.

True, lower-end MTB frames are better as they tend to have shorter top tubes. Marin Palisades / Muirwoods / Bear Valley work well, likewise old Treks (830 etc).
However with the right choice of bars (shallow drop and less forward reach) you can usually get a decent fit. Try Randonneur patterns for a start.

 

[Barchettaman]

The Planet X junior frames disappeared because they couldn´t get any derailleur hangers for them, apparently.

 

[citrixccea]

Hi Guys,

A quick update - having looked at the maths again, and again, I did something that I've never done before. I bought a bike from Halfords. The carrera tdf Jr, in 41cm with 650c wheels brifters and an alloy frame (steel fork)

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/k ... -bike-2014

Got 10% off them until Monday (if you can get one) I will of course be (re)building it before the big day. Will keep an eye out for a cheap 650 carbon fork and maybe an alloy crankset, but otherwise I couldn't get anywhere near this spec of bike for £180...

And when Planet-X start selling their junior frames, I'll be ready !

 

[hamster]

What is the reach like on the brake levers? Typically the biggest problme is that small hands cannot reach the brake levers easily.