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I am wanting to participate in a charity bike ride. This ride is on road 250 mile. I do have a hard tail I could put slicks on but think that for this distance a road bike would be the better choice. As the event is only 4 days long I don't think it is worth buying a road bike as I prefer mountain biking. Does anybody know of any bike hire shops, sites? Thanks
Your start/end location?
I'd say your HT would be fine BTW, with 25mm slicks.
Start at Emirates stadium and finish in Huddersfield Town stadium so I would need about 1 week rent.
Suppose I could put 80mm forks with lockout on HT aswell as slicks.
Up to you dude but my touring bike is a converted MTB (rigid forks and slicks) and it's capable of putting the tarmac miles in.
You'd definitely be better off with a road bike and probably enjoy it a bit more.
Why not look at a 2nd hand bike and then sell it on after the event? You're unlikely to lose much if any.
Are you used to road bars? They can get some getting used to and might hurt your wrists used all day every day.
It's only 60-odd miles a day. A set of reasonably smooth tyres on your MTB would be more than suitable.
I'd rather go with a bike I know to be comfy than risk having to spend 4 days on something that might not suit. Stick some City Jets on your HT and away you go!
Pedal4Pounds5? Pair of slicks on a hardtail will be absolutely fine. That's how I started off road riding. If you want to get some practice in with an organised group then turn up around 6.50pm on Tuesday evenings outside the Safety Centre in Lockwood, and join in the Hudds Star Wheelers mid-week run. 3 groups of different abilities and no one ever gets left behind.
It is pedal for ponds yea, no I haven't ridden road bars before. Well im currently running 130mm forks so I think these should be changed. Any recommendations on slicks? And should I change anything else on bike? Eg stem or handlebar width?
Thanks
I just put a longer stem on, added a pair of bar ends and got a pair of Schwalbe City Jets in 26" x 1.50" flavour. A pair of suspension-corrected rigid forks will also make a big difference.
I should also mention that, despite being a member of HSW for a few years, I'd never bothered with the tarmac side of things. I just turned up one week on my 'converted' mtb and was made very welcome. I had no bother at all keeping up either. At this time of year we'll only be doing 25-30 miles anyway, as we're back in Lockwood for 9.00ish.
Suspension corrected ridged forks?
Narrower bars if your running these cowhorns that seen popular, & some bar ends might give you some room to move around a bit for comfort. If your on a 26" wheel then a 29er rigid fork (470mm) should have the bars at roughly the height they are with your 130mm fork.
The rest has been covered, narrower road tyres, run at higher pressure.
And full guards will make it bearable if its wet.
Or, try asking someone like Declathlon to see if they will [i]donate[/i] or loan you a bike for a bit of publicity even if it's just wearing a shirt.
Something like these:
Why would you hire a bike that you don't know, that may not fit you and may not be comfortable?
Hire a Boris bike
These guys rent out road bikes for £125 a week, by the time you have mucked about with slicks, bar ends and forks you probably wont be far off, they can deliver too (they are in Newbury in Berkshire)
I havent tried them, or had dealings with them but they seem to have good testimonials.
How much extra training do you think you'll need?
Whats everyone else going to be on?
If the pace is slow and everyone else is on MTBs and you reckon you can ride it without any extra preperation then just use that. If its a group a fast guys on race bikes and youre going to have to get a lot fitter to take part then may as well pick up a cheep second hand road bike. Mine originaly cost me £300 and would probably still be worth that 8 years on if I wanted to sell.
Assuming you need to do some training then having a second (road) bike ready to go might be a lot less faff than having to swap bars, stems, forks, and adjust saddle angles each time.