I've got an old Trek 4500 that I don't use off road but figured it would do as a road bike for winter. 2 questions:
- as I wont need suspension forks what's the cheapest decent rigid forks I could put on there (anything to watch out for like steerer diameter)?
- whats the thinnest tyres I could put on MTB wheels (are the wheels wider than road wheels)?
Thanks
As long as the rims aren't too wide 25mm tyres will go on OK, you may want beffier for town.
P2 and similar forks or try ebay for SH.
On-one are selling off their chromo forks for £40 a pop.
I have a roadified MTB... not much different from a regular MTB, apart from rigid forks, slick tyres (I have Conti Sport Contact 1.3") and bigger chainrings, coz the smaller tyres reduce the effective wheel diameter which lowers the gearing, and you'll be going a fair bit quicker (I use 26/36/46t)
Even cheaper just to leave the current forks on.... 
Presumably current forks are fairly short travel - should be able to do a straight swap for rigids as non-suss forks are normally shorter. Just make sure you pick up the correct steerer diameter, presumably 1 & 1/8" on your Trek. Kona make 1" versions of P2s as well which won't fit!
Sport contacts have pretty good puncture protection. I've started to use panaracer RibMo 1.25's, they are light and fast. Continental gator skins are rubbish unless you enjoy repairing punctures. Will be putting a schwalbe marathon plus smart guard on the back for winter. Bit heavy but impregnable.
What about the exotic carbon forks for around £85?
get on classifieds. I got some nice old Orange F8 forks for £25ish. Someone will have something for ya.
If putting on a road chainset, be careful that the inner ring does not hit the chain stays.
If you don't want the suspension for efficiency reasons rather than appearance could you not just replace the spring with a tube and convert the forks to rigid?
What kind of tube?
Have converted my old rocky mtn vertex team
to a road mtb, exotic forks are great, semi
slicks still give you the trail option but
are a real blast on the tarmac, go do it you
need several bikes!
I've been running Big Apples over the last few months and found myself getting right back into the road vibe. Never thought it would happen TBH, but now I'm converted enough to look at some kind of cross bike for winter.
On the subject of forks, have you thought about getting a decent pair with lock-out?
my road converted HT - road chainset and cassette, 1" slicks and locked out fork. not as fast as the road bike, but not an awful long way off.
Do bikes like these perform anywhere near as well as proper road bikes? Been thinking about getting a new mtb frame anyway and also want a road bike, so my idea was to put all the good parts from my current frame onto the new mtb, then use the old trailstar as a base for road rides with rigid forks, long stem etc. tbh I like the feel of the TS with rigids, riding position seems comfy enough etc.
I converted my old voodoo, maybe went a bit further than most but everything was cheap of ebay or the like -
Tiagra road chainset
drop handlebars with Sora STI brake/ gear levers (running V Brakes via problem solvers - work spot on and no problem setting up despite what people told me
Pace RC31 rigid forks (already on the bike)
thin slick wheels
took some getting used to but it is noticebly faster now, although not as fast as a proper big wheeled road bike
Was thinking of switching to cable discs (that I have already) and putting a bigger diameter wheels on (with the skinny slicks there is loads of tyre clearance)
Do bikes like these perform anywhere near as well as proper road bikes
well people pass me on all sorts of bikes and doesn't matter what i'm riding but other than fitness mtb is a lot less aerodynamic (you are sitting up into the wind) and depending on gearing you will spin out on the flat - on my cx/fugly old trek with mtb gears at about 24mph but i'm happy because can ride what is called on here "boring fire road" as well as getting better than knobbly tyre mtb speed on lanes - slick tyres and switch out the fork - suggestion for P2 or similar is good - takes out a lot of useless weight
recently put carbon rigid forks and slicks on mrs antigees commuter and she thinks (for a change) that i got it 100% right
Mine was already quite long and low so position was always good. The move to road gear ratios really makes it - slicks with standard mtb gears was always a bit limited. Now I'd say it's 90% as "good" as an entry level road/sportiv bike. 700c's would bring is up a few points.
Steel Fast and light with 1.0 slicks thats the way to do it
Oh and its up for sale to
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