Converting a MTB to a Road Bike?

[Lifelover]

I have recently purchased a road bike for my older son to give to him on his 12th Birthday. My 8 y/o has of course expressed interest in one as he does with everything the older one has or wants.

I was planning on wiating until the 8 y/o was at least a few years older before investing in anything.

However, I friends calls today and gives me an older Trek 930 MTB in the smallest frame size. I thought I would just clean it up and the younger boy could start riding it when he outgrows his 24" MTB or it could be used by other kids in the hood when they come to visit. It has 7 speed STX components.

I started thinking that I could easily and cheaply convert it into a road bike (at last by my 8 y/o standards). I already have extra drop bars and 1.5" slicks. My thinking is I just need some brifters and a shorter quill stem to make it fit better.

So my questions are:

Did they ever make any Brifters that would work with the 7 speed STX rear and triple front?

If not could I use bar end shifters?

Is there anything about MTB geometry that might make this a bad idea?

Thanks for the help.

P.S. He is very tall for his age. I don't know the exact height but think more along the lines of a 10 y/o in size.

[Ti Designs]

Most conversions between flat bar and drop bar don't go as easy as you would like because there are differences in where the handlebar clamp needs to be. Think about the flat bars on the mountain bike for a second, 99.9% of the riding time is spent with the hands behind where the stem clamps the bar. The other 0.1% of the time is when the rider flips over - again, that's a very mountain bike thing to do. Now look at a road bar, and notice that the hood position starts out a good 8cm forward of where the stem clamps the bars. In fitting terms, 8cm off on the top tube is a mile. You could run a super short stem, but think of all the grief you would get from the jerk...

As for components, there were (are?) RSX shifters in 7 speed that would work with the STX rear derailleur. The front shifter has a different throw between road and mountain parts. Bar-end shifters work and the non-iindexed front will solve those shifting woes.

lastly, I might add that in the Boston area we've gotten a lot of snow and the snow plows are rapidly removing the pavement. If your roads are anything like the roads around here you may want to skip the conversion and have him stick with the mountain bike!

[M_A_Martin]

If you put the slicks on it, the mountain bike will do him for him until he grows into something larger. As long as he was staying on the road, I'd put some bar ends on it so he has some different hand positions and be happy.

I have found that little kids, no matter how attentive or grown up they are, are better off if they're riding on the road in the upright position provided by a mountain bike. They watch the road better, they watch where they're going better, they watch traffic better, they're a little more visible. They get used to watching up and out instead of down in front. Their distractions aren't quite as catastrophic as they can be on a road bike.

(And yes, I realize that you didn't ask what I thought of putting your child on a road bike...but after riding tours with kids on both kinds of bike, that's what I think)

My two cents.

Mary Ann

(That said, I think they have some "road drop" bar ends you could put on the flat bars to give the impression of a road bike...without going through the hassle of the conversion project...)

[William]

If you put the slicks on it, the mountain bike will do him for him until he grows into something larger. As long as he was staying on the road, I'd put some bar ends on it so he has some different hand positions and be happy.

A good solution IMHO. We used to have a Mtb racer come along on some of our group rides. She had a set of fat boy slicks she would throw on and didn't have a problem hanging with us unless we started hammering.

I have found that little kids, no matter how attentive or grown up they are, are better off if they're riding on the road in the upright position provided by a mountain bike. They watch the road better, they watch where they're going better, they watch traffic better, they're a little more visible. They get used to watching up and out instead of down in front. Their distractions aren't quite as catastrophic as they can be on a road bike.

After watching my 6 yr old son riding, and thinking back to when I was that age, again, I agree with MA.

William