Righto, am transferring wheels, 120mm fork & brakes to a new frame. I’d like to turn my old frame into an el cheapo commuter.

Have already got some cheap mechanical disc brakes. Ideally I’d like to get a rigid fork and bigger (700cc? Is that a size?) wheels. Can someone point me towards what I need? Links would be good. Also, have I mentioned cheap?

ta,

thebunk

700c is road size.

If you’re using skinny slicks, then they *ought* to fit in your frame. No idea about whether the wheeles will fit under the fork crown. Might be worth borrow a friend’s road wheel and putting it in the fork dropouts (note, hub width may differ) to check.

Assuming everything fits, then you need 700c rims, built onto MTB hubs.

If roads with slicks clear fine and you don’t want the faff of re-rimming your mtb hubs, then a cheap set of 29er wheels will do the job, provided they have fairly narrow rims.

Thank you.

I’d be getting some new forks (um, if you would be so kind to point me to some that would work) – so I basically need 29er forks and narrow 29er wheels?

I guess the only worry then would be whether the back wheel has enough clearance?

cheers,

thebunk

I run a 29er wheel in the front of my bastardised ‘shop bike’ using a 26″ Surly Instigator fork and it is fine. You don’t necessarily need a 29er rigid fork. Plus 26″ forks are far more available 2nd hand so can be found cheaper.

My frame is an old cheapy deal from Merlin (£50 new) but currently set up in 69er guise. Couldn’t squeeze a 29er (or 700c) tyre in the back without going for 32mm or smaller and seeing as i run a 29×2.35 Big apple up front, it just looked too wrong. So it has a 26×2.2 in the back.

thebunk – assuming you’re not intending to use a suspension fork for road commuting (if you are, why?!), then a regular rigid fork with a 440mm axle to crown distance will work fine. This is commonly the rigid fork one would use on a 100mm travel 26″ wheel frame.

If you’re using 29er wheels, then you may not be able to run thin road tyres, but you ought to be able to run 29er slicks (if such things exist) or just wider road/touring tyres.