I think I've come to the conclusion that I just don't like flat bars, so this weekend I switched the Muirwoods over to drop bars.



I thought about doing this last fall, but I didn't think the fit was going to work out. It turns out that I had the top tube length wrong in my calculations. Once I realized it would work, it was just a matter of getting a new stem, handlebars, brakes and cables.

I used a Salsa Moto Ace Bell Lap handlebar, a set of Tiagra STI shifters I had sitting in the parts bin in my garage and the road version of Avid's BB7 disc brakes.

In theory the Tiagra shifters should work just fine with the XT rear derailleur, but I realized as I went to adjust it that neither shifters nor derailleur has a barrel adjuster, so until I can get an inline adjuster my shifting is gonna suck. I was able to get it tolerably close setting the cable tension by hand.

The front derailleur may be another story. Even when things are supposed to work I have a terrible time getting a triple derailleur set up to my satisfaction. Right now I'm using the XT front derailleur, but I didn't have time to fiddle with it much, so right now I've got it set up so that it will only use the middle and big rings. That works pretty well, and those are the only two I ever use for commuting anyway. When I get the inline adjusters, I may try it again, because it would be nice to have the granny gear for off-road use. I've also considered just going to a 1x9 setup with a 36T ring and a bash guard.

The Bell Lap bars aren't quite full on dirt drop bars, but they do have a slight flare. They're about 4 mm wider at the ends of the drops than they are at the hoods. That doesn't sound like much, but you can definitely feel it. Riding in the drops, it feels really wide. The idea is that this give you better control. I went with the flare and set up the hoods angle in quite a bit, and that feels like an even more natural wrist angle than normal for drop bars (which I think are already much better than flat bars). This is my impression after 11 miles on the new setup. I'll have to ride it a lot more to really know, but so far I like the changes.

I tried to get a picture that shows the shape of the bars well, but my camera wasn't quite up to the task. Here are the best shots I got.

Looking Good, Andy. I've been following this thread since before I bought my Muir Woods, and it looks like you came to pretty much the same conclusion I have, decent frame, good geometry, lousy components. Keep us posted on how you like it with the drop bars.

I'm getting ready to repurpose mine into more of an all-terrain touring bike, I'll start my own thread with pics once I make some progress, I am still in the plan and gather parts stage.

Kinda looks like my point reyes before you added the drops

Shimano road and mountain front derailleurs have slightly different cable pull, unfortunately, so that's likely your problem.

You can change the rings to ones that would work with a road triple front derailleur, or maybe get one of these:

https://jtekengineering.com/shiftmate_straight.htm

Cool bike by the way!

I know this thread is three years old, but I just had to comment.

This bike looks ideal as my next bike. I want a winter bike that can take studded tires and a bike that could be used for touring with a 20 to 30 pound load. I would also want to be able to do some local gravel trail and dirt track riding, nothing too demanding.

Thank you for posting.

Very inspiring. I have a Muirwoods with the Big Apples (60-622) and love the thing. Quick question: I can see that the combo of tall tires and disc brakes is going to limit my rack choices. What rack are you running there Andy?

Hey Andy, I have the Hamilton 29er from Marin, the singlespeed 29er from Marin. Looks very similar to my bike (except for the disc brakes and gears obviously).
I really dig the upgrades to your bike.

@Nikwax- I have the Axiom Journey disk (https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...&category=3538 ) on my Muirwoods, it will just clear a 29x2.1 without a fender. You could probably get creative with splitting a fender to mount ahead of and behind the rack.

@barretscv- Muirwoods is a good starting point to build a tough, multi-purpose commuter/beater bike from. I hated the Hayes MX4 brakes, when Andy went to drop bars I bought his BB7 brakes and installed them with compessionless brake cable housing, made a night and day difference. Since mine was getting used as a rigid 29er, I installed a mtb geared crankset (FSA and cheap, don't remember the exact model) and bigger tires. with a different front der I could just wedge in a 2.1" rear tire, front has room for whatever you want to run. I recently put a set of trekking bars on mine, and went back to 700-42 tires as I build it into a all surface touring bike. It is a jack of most trades, master of none sort of bike.

I picked up a Muirwoods 29er today and I was asking about the diameter which the shifters (Shimano Acera Rapid Fire Plus) and brake levers ("Forged Alloy 3 Finger") use and was told that it's 22.2mm! Does that make sense? I know the bar is 31.8mm and I get that this applies to the clamp area and they tend to taper down towards the ends of the bars. However I assumed it would taper down to standard MTB which is 25.4mm not 22.2mm which is BMX.

Can any Muirwoods 29er owners confirm this? The OP wouldbe ideal since he's made so many changes and might already have come across this. I want to change the bars and stem ASAP to something more suitable for my riding style and comfort level but don't want to deal with using shims to make the levers fit.

Currently I am mainly looking at 25.4mm bars since I don't want anything too thin (22.2mm) since it might look weird on this 29er bike and I want to use cro-mo bars. On the otherhand, if the shifters really are 22.2mm it would open up a much larger range of cro-mo bars for me. I'd also need to make sure the 25.4mm bars I get taper down to 22.2mm I guess if I stick with that size.

Thanks

I'm going to do a search for the specs of the shifters and levers so if I find any official stats, I'll post back.

Well you can put 2.0 X knobbies on it and hit technical singletrack. Its built for it.

Its a true 29er. It does have more of an urban bike layout but you can take it anywhere. Its designed for tough city streets but would work well on dirt and gravel trails and singletrack.

I haven't seen this thread in a while. It needs a new picture. Sadly, I sold this bike a few years ago, so it'll have to be an old picture.

My reason for reviving the thread is I just picked up a 2013 Marin Muirwoods 29er off the Bay.

Marin calls it a reinvention of the classic French vélo de ville. I got mine in the 17" size for under $400. I think I scored a good deal with the bike.

I hope to get it within a week.

Sorry to hear you sold yours. The 29er can take 700 X 50 tires, correct? I'd like to put on some Fat Franks or Retro Ride tires on it in the future.

Yeah, the picture in post #51 shows it with 700x50 Marathon Supremes and fenders. A top-mount front derailleur may have rubber the fender in that case. I think the tires in post #62 were 29x2.1" though the fit was tight around the knobs at the chainstays.

Of course, yours is five years newer. It's possible they've changed the frame a bit.

Possible but I don't think they have changed the geometry much. For me, the selling point of a 29er is to be able to fit fat tires on it.

I like a fat tire bike and at the moment a Surly Krampus is far out of my reach.

It looks like they made some improvements since I had mine. The reflective paint is the thing that really caught my eye. If yours has that feature, I'd be interested to hear how well it works.

knew Marin Muirwoods 29er owner here(17inch frame). I'm not a huge fan of disc brakes prefer the old school calipers. Is that an expensive difficult change ?.
Another question:, I've always been used to 26inch wheels on my mountain bike. Would it be crazy to but 26 inch wheels on this frame. Does that even work ?, or am I'm talking crazy ? I'm a small man only 5'7" thought maybe 26 inch wheel is better for me
Love to hear everyones thoughts on this cheers ?

The disc brakes are powerful and that's one of the reasons this bike is so good! Love 'em. I'm 5'7" also and the 17" fits me like a glove. This bike is designed for 700 C wheels. If you want a 26" inch bike, buy one - but I don't see the point. I think the 29er platform is a great all-around choice for both urban and off-road riding. This is exactly why I bought the Marin Muirwoods 29er. No other bike in its price point has all the features I wanted, including the ability to upgrade to balloon tires later.

Thanks for your input Norman.
Its all very new to me therefore the bike feels weird. the disc brakes squeak loudly and stop the bike so hard I almost get thrown off.
I'll give it some more time and adjust to the new feel. I cycle to work daily so I'm sure it won't take long.
I am trimming down my handlebars though. They measured at about 27inches going to try them at 24 inches. My previous bike was 22 inches.
Thanks again for the input, its welcomed.

Squeeze the brakes gently! You don't need to grip hard to stop safely. The stock bars are wide on this bike and I swapped them out for some Wald 896# bars. It looks and feel more fit for riding in town.

There's a good chance that your wheels are disc only(no brake tracks along the sides),so swapping to caliper brakes would require new wheels. You'd also have to replace the levers. Because you have discs,swapping to a 26" wheelset is doable. My Bad Boy Ultras were designed to run both skinny 700c and MTB 26" wheels. 26" wheels will probably be lighter,but your gearing will also be reduced. Really no good reason to swap wheels unless you already have a 26" set laying around and want to play around with the bike.

If your brakes are noisy,try cleaning the rotors. You can use brake cleaning fluid or anything that doesn't leave residue.

That's more helpful information.
Going to 26 inch wheels now sounds like a dumb idea. The cost of going with calipers sound like a large expense. I should really just embrace my ride for awhile before I start talking about mods I can do.
Thanks again guys

The 29er platform is versatile. Originally 700 C was a wide tire standard, become a narrow tire for road bikes and is now a wide tire again.