I have been toying with the idea of making my 2017 Kona explosif into more of a road, gravel all around fun bike. It is a hard tail with a Fox 34 120 mm front fork. I am thinking of replacing the front fork with a rigid carbon fork, adding smaller, smoother tires. Also maybe cut the handle bars shorter and add short bar end levers and also maybe tighten up the rear cassette with closer cogs. I have looked at Carbon Cycles forks and see one that has a 15mm QR front fork that looks pretty sweet. Anyone here done something like this or have ideas for me or can suggest another fork option? Thanks, Cheers Roscoe

Need to check the axle to crown length on your current fork and your possible replacement. Tightening up your rear cassette isn't as easy as it sounds. Road bikes had to change to a wider free hub body when they went to 11 speed. Mtn bikes get around that by having the biggest cog just set in over the lip of the freehub body. What I'm poorly trying to say is you can't run a road 11 speed cassette on a mtn bike hub so an 11-40 is as tight as you are going to get.

Canker's right, But, you can also run a road 10s cassette on that freehub and just be very very sure to readjust the inside limit screw to take out the missing cog.

My LBS seems to thing I can replace the Shimano XT 11-42 with a Sram PG-1170 11-36 cassette, in fact they just ordered one for me. Not sure now, but hope they are right. Thoughts?

According to a quick search that's around a $2,000 bike. No way would I personally go modifying something like that that extensively. You can end up changing it into something both unrideable and unsellable. Nothing wrong with changing the tires, nearly no risk for that, but more than that I've seen "conversion" projects go bad so often...if I wanted a different bike I'd buy a new one that already has the stuff I want and sell the old one.

The PG-1170 came in yesterday and I took my bike by my LBS today and it did not fit. The Shimano 11-40 is back ordered so I just ordered one on line and I told the guys at the shop I was. My Schwalbe G- one all round 27.5 x 1.50 tires and tubes also came in yesterday and I put them on around noon and went for a rip, man what a difference in weight and speed compared to the stock Maxxis mtb. tires. Got a nice little fun bike to play around with now, besides my carbon road bike and my touring bike. The carbon forks I wanted are out of stock, they said check back in a month. I dropped off a six pack at the shop this afternoon because they really tried a bunch of stuff to try and make the Sram cassette work for me, great bunch of guys.

probably a good idea

Great bunch of guys?

If they were they would have known the PG-1170 wouldn't have fit. Sounds like they don't know what they are doing.

As noted above...not sure why you are doing what you are doing to a $2000+ bike. You're better off leaving it as is and purchasing this...

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/bi...hroad-slr-2019

For the type of riding I am interested in ( 70 next month) this suits me more. I sold a 1988 or 89? Kona explosif this summer that I rode for 30 years and really loved the bike. It had smooth Specialized Armadillo tires on it and it was a really fun bike to ride. See if I can post a pix of both. Cheers

I have a '95 GT Tempest with cro-mo fork and it does everything I need it to which is mostly cross country. Long, rugged down-hills take grit and patience however. I just bought a new 27.5 frame and am already looking for the right carbon fork for it.

Try Carbon cycles in the UK, they have some nice forks at reasonable prices, just follow there fitting guide. Cheers Roscoe

Thanks Roscoe. They have a 650B fork but only with 15mm QR. I really want a thru axle.