Old MTB to road bike conversion 

Okay, listen... I'm a metal fabricator, artist, home builder, and now trike/bike touring (around the country) devotee. I did NOT once cringe while watching your build. In fact, I was cheering for you the whole time. Well done, brother!

Friend, this build is inspired - I love that you re-purposed a frame that you love. And that hack for lowering the rear caliper was genius - you get maximum kudos from me!

as a fabricator I applaud your use of resources and creativity in solving problems. As a bike builder this made me cringe. Final product is pretty cool. Well done.

Cool. The only thing spoiling it is the crazy bar angle which seems to be necessitated by the old style bars which have too much reach. I was always taught working in bike shops that the top of the bar should run parallel to the ground, or as close as possible and the lever hoods in line with that.

You did it! Im from Brasil and here the road bikes cost as a car. Is very nice to know that is possible to change some parts and get a good road bike.

Bike stand costs more than everything in that room put together!

I like modification just like this one. I have tride converting a standard road fork a threaded to threadless by using a set post from a child's bike which is exactly the same diameter 25.4 mm. I also change the headset to threadless type. Now it's super duper 👌 😍 nice like a natural one.

Lol when you had that silver riser stem on there I was thinking "I would have flipped that upside down." Didn't expect you to do it. That front fork brake caliper was pretty nifty.

You could have avoid some work and destroing that seatpost with some long range calipper allthough its an impresively cheap and functional solution The headset work is cool but hammering the cups in is bad idea. You can easely make yourself a press with a threatered rod some whasers and nuts and a piece of wood or nylon. All in all, well done.

I loved this video. What a amazing project! Thank you, it's an inspiration for me.

Thanks Bruce. This video inspired me to breath new life and purpose into my 2003 Marin Hawkhill Mtb (now customised road version)

You turned an old mtb that was a waste of space into a sweet road bike. Nice! Good work!

DUDE! Forget AZ the bike guy, cuz you got it going on! I really really really enjoyed that build conversion! Was in suspense the whole time. Loved the hammered ovalized tubing for the brake mount front extension and the angle grinder touch on the brake cable, super extra points for that one! And the stem looks cherreh! 💯👍 ENJOYED!

I wasn't hopeful that it would look good...Damn! Nice ride.

Exactly. I turned a Schwinn Moab into a fixie and I have had this bike now for 20 years and it just refuses to fail. Balanced and quick and not too squirrely in the front end which now has a carbon fork by the way. Excellent choice!

I did something similar to my old 26" Minelli. 27" front 700c rear fixed gear. Lots of fun. Fixed gear resolves brake alignment issue

I did a similar thing with a 1987 Rockhopper... its turning into a gravel bike with Jones bars. Its so great to keep a machine you have memories with going for a long time in a new incarnation. thanks for making the video.

I can not believe what I just saw.

The bike as my avator/emoji! This was a 2001 Mongoose Pro Massif 3x9 MTB Ti that I rode and rode and rode, had GR8 FUN! I ❤ed this bike, super quick/super fast! Problem: I wore out the 26er V-Brake Mavic Crossmax rims, I wore out the XTR M952 Crankset and Octalink V1 bb, I wore out the rear XTR cass. and they don't make these vintage parts anymore, EVERYTHING NOW is 27.5/29er Disc brakes! I have beat road bikes on my 26er Ti! My Ti frame does not support disc brakes, I have tried adaptors but they REALLY DON'T WORK! I have been plotting to upgrade it to a Cross Hybrid with a flat bar, mtb crank and rear cass., but with a carbon fiber 700c fork, road bike wheelset, canilever brakes, etc! The Ti frame is very lite and practical! I loved this video, gives me an idea of additional tools I might need! Thanks! 👍👍👍!

So inspiring ! making the forks fit with the shimmed out headset bearings, and the rear brake mod were just brilliant to see............Thanks for posting this video.......awesome ideas, awesome result

Submit this to GCN! You have a winner!!!

I'm just about to convert an old mtb into a bmx and was on the lookout for other crazy people. So glad I found you haha.

I did the same with my old miyata mtb. Converted into a gravel bike. Great video. Well done!

Hey Bruce, I see you are not afraid to do your own thing, I love it. We love it. Wanted to share one of my little custom touches with you. I'll start by saying I believe electrical tape has no place on a bike. I don't like finishing tape on bar wrap or zip ties holding cables. That said, I start my wrap at the top of the bars. I get some guff from purists, but who cares. I also dislike cable under the bar wrap, so most bikes I build up now I internally route brake cables through the bars. I've done it on vintage bars and modern. Haven't had any problems. On my touring style road bike, I made my own quill stem adaptor so as to facilitate modern stem and bars on an old steel frame. This old touring frame had cantilever brakes, so I decided to go one step further and route the front brake cable not only through the bars, but also the stem. Drilled hole in bottom of stem and installed a barrel adjuster to terminate housing. Bare cable then exits stem directly in line with cantilever. My rear brake cable runs through bars to front center, exiting a hole in bar and through a hole in bar clamp. It's pretty clean. I'll find a way to send you photos. See ya.

Brilliant stuff! Basically it's a Frankenstein bike!

Dude. I love this stuff. Do-it-yourself home engineering. Awesome .

This is kind of fun just to show how much modifying is possible, and sometimes a little even makes sense, but 68 degree headtube angle and super long chain stays? That's going to handle like a cruise boat. You can usually find used frames of at least the right shape for free in the trash if not a few dollars at a garage sale.

Respect for you listening to company flow, I heard big juss in there. 5:32. I'm doing the same to a 08 Kona dew deluxe up to a 11 speed. Nice work.

I forgot how heavy those old Rockshox were at 187, the old Headshoks were 1300+ so a little over a pound lighter! Which is quite a bit of weight in CX, even back in the era of 50-80mm travel, when bikes routinely weighed 23+ pounds. I’m glad they are not that popular (they make excellent front suspension on city-whips, where you encounter pot holes, trolley-light rail-train tracks, small curbs, jutting road cuts or In the early 1990’s Cannondale had been working on demand for a beefier urban commuter, and answered that call with 700 cc wheeled MTB-looking frames. They must have sold fairly well; they kept on developing with front suspension forks they gave the customer 15 to 20mm of travel. “Gravel” biking started to gain popularity as well, and some of those frames had front suspension. Then in 2000 along came the Big Bad. The Bad Boy: 26” mtb frame, straight mtb bars, 700cc wheels w/disc brakes, hardtail in the back 70mm travel Fatty Ultra up front. The paint job was very different all black, what they call “all-stealthed-out” 23 years later.

I have no idea why you received 223 dislikes. At the end of the day, you thought out side the box to solve your problem to make a bike thats suits you, instead of having two bikes not working for you at all. You salvaged a bike that makes sense for you. The cost saving must have been really good too! Bike shops nil, you 1

Nice video with practical solutions to issues that arise when doing modifications. Good skills

i did something like this as well, went from mountainbike to gravelbike. Pain in the ass to do, but cheap as fuck and could never ever afford a cannondale gravelbike, so i did it myself. And i was hell of a fun.

It seemed to be boring, but I can't stop watching it! Nice Build!

Nice work, I'm glad you got rid of that angled stem, that hurt my eyes!. I did a similar thing to my mountain bike, only i turned mine into a TT bike. ;-)

I gotta say good job on making the spacers to downsize head tube. I make some of my own parts too, and see in you a kindred spirit, one who spends a lot of time cutting, filing and sanding.

Turned out really cool, food for thought and inspiring great work all the best Andy

You can use 27" roadbike wheelset instead of add an extention for the brake.

i hope my bike will look like this, i'm already starting my 26er MTB Converting to 27 Roadbike, and this Video gives me Hope. 😁

I bought a 2000 Jamis rigid mountain bike to do something similar but ended up liking it and kept it for trail riding.

Great job man, really great idea, I love how original you are, I thought I read the title wrong at first

I don't even know how I got here, but i'm glad I did... Damn, that's a great hack'd bike! Cheers, mate!

you"re doing what i been wanting to do with my 2005 specialized hard rock mountain bike so far i completed installing modern road bike handle bars break handles and breaks new rear derailleur my bike shop said the couldn't put those type of forks on my bike so im stuck and frustrated with having shocks that's all i have to do now is put rigid forks on it i'm hoping i don't have to do what you did in this video just find some forks that fit the riser and down tube that's it

One of the videos i enjoyed the most on RU-vid, great project! Congrats!

Great video! Very good restoration/mechanic work!

Never whack the headset off with the bike frame on the stand! Stabilize the steering tube directly!

Thats the real DIY spirit! Awesome!

That is some seriously cool bit of work, it ended up being a gorgeous bicycle

Wow, I can’t believe what I saw. Very resourceful!

Love it! One of the best youtube videos.

Very nice work! I want to do something similar so I wanted to ask you, was it a 26" wheel frame? and did you use 700c wheels? If you did that, what size of tires you use? A lot of questions tho but Im really interested on what you did here hehe

I have same 3ttt bar like in your video, good job!

I turned my old FS 26er into my road bike. I just put on slick tires and a 42t chainring. Sure I'm averaging 12mph instead of 17 like roadies do but that's fast enough for me. I like the comfort of FS even when I'm mostly on asphalt and it gives me the option to hit a trail here and there if I want.

8:52 so clean, keep up the good work 👍🏻

Nice work using parts you had on hand. Shimming the headset and stem may not be real good long term solutions, but hope it works out for you

Man this build is so lit also currently working on a build like this thank you so much for the inspiration much love from Philippines

Nice work man! Smart ideas for the fitting new parts ;)

Nice build looks way better as a road bike

I loved your job man, congratulations!

Nice work. I also have a 1992 Giant ATX 770 that I've been thinking about converting to a road bike. I'll probably stick with the original fork and headset and just change the stem and pick a nice drop handlebar.

Woah. Nice workaround with the front break mount

Very cool brake and headset work.

I'm been thinking about doing this very same thing to me old GT MTB. I think I am going to now. Holy chrome that thing looks good.

till i saw this i thought i was the only one dying to have a road bike

Looks very pretty! The problem is the geometry of a MTB frame with road forks = scraping pedals when cornering and a twitchy too steep head tube angle. You probably could have found an actual road frame on eBay that would handle better and cost under $100, but to each his own...

As you said in the intro, "I've been a lot of places with this bike". And with this conversion you've just done, you could possibly even make a touring bike from it! I'm just saying...but I think that would've been a great idea if you want to travel in the future.

Inspiring! Neat solution for the rear brake.

I loved this video, I have specialized Rockhopper 1994 and i want tranform un a gravel bike and you video Is perfect, and brillant! Thanks for idea

I'm impressed keep up the good work. thanks for the vids

That is soooo cool! Makes me want to convert my old Specialized Rockhopper... Nice job.

This sounds like the most awesome channel on youtube. I had to describe on the name alone

Did something similar with a steel frame mtb I had, long drop calipers solved the brake reach issue. It was great until I crashed and broke the frame

It looks sleek and fast flexible great build

Really nice job. Great work!

i recently did a Frankenstein road bike build featuring a MTB frame but i used one with disc brakes and compared to this is was wayyy easier haha! i choose trekking bars and rigid disc fork ^^ its prolly more a cyclocross/gravel than a pure road bike me thinks....

The problem (or not) when converting 26" MTB with 700c wheels is that the bottom bracket is very high. For example, you have the seat height adjusted appropriately for the best performance, with respect to the position of the legs. When you stop at a traffic light and put one foot on the ground, it will be uncomfortably high, you will only reach it with the tips of your fingers. I have tried it to create a hybrid bike / commuting bike in this way, but I preferred to use a classic road bike with 28mm wheels (30 or 32mm sometimes also fit). With a bike like this, Orbea Sierra Nevada + Michelin Classic 28mm, I've gone down stone stairs and hold on!

Well, nice work indeed! I just change my tires of my Btwin Rockrider 500s to a 1.50

Congratulations, this is now a TCR

Did you have Clarence for gravel tires? That would have been a brilliant gravel bike

Great Idea and it works. Beautiful vintage RB. God Bless You

Having made bikes that aren’t supposed to be the way they are ( single speed XC hardtail with a 200mm downhill fork) that is awesome

This is an awesome vid

Love your videos man!

Great video! Enjoyed the film and music.

Yes, it happened to me too. My mtb become roadbike now & my track bike become TT bike. 🚴‍♀️🚴🚴🚴

Nice engineering skills....the bike turned out great

Well done! Great fabricating!

That rear brake caliper mount solution was brilliant. Get it done with what you got engineering. You got a new Subcriber.👍🏽

Being a do it "yourselfer" myself, I was wondering, do you ever worry about bending your frame when you hack off headsets or hack off other things? Seems like you have to hit it pretty hard sometimes. Great video!

Really cool transformation!

Awesome and impressive video! I think it'll be nicer to respray or polish (or change) the black stem to silver, just my opinion.

Half of the time whilst listening to the audio, I thought Desperados by The Eagles was about to play!

Wow! This made my day!!

Fair play mate, I normally pass on these conversions cause there bodge .. this however was very well done. Should be proud of that effort .. cheers

The negative angle stem looked so sick.

A great conversion you have some great videos, will spend a lot of my spare time catching up, loved your cycle chap with Richard Lake.

thank you for creating a video where you use your brain to find solutions instead of just buying all the fancy tools. Thanks!

Nice video bro!👌🏼🔥

You think out of the box for sure.

I almost built my own bike but then realised it's really fucking complicated and I'm very lazy. Nice job man.