400 miles on an old MTB?
 

So, i've been attached to the saddle of my bike my entire life...it goes where i go. In the past this has strictly been up wicked climbs in the Collegiate peaks and the sierras. However, my studies have dragged me away from my beloved hills to Wisconsin. To prevent insanity i have taken to the road.
This august i will be riding in a 400 mile ride (6 days). I am a poor, poor unfunded treehuggin grad student who can't afford a bike.
Will i survive on my old, weather worn trek MTB?

Age of the bike has nothing to do with it. How well kept up is the drivetrain and components? Make sure any parts that look like they're about to fail gets replaced or refurbished. Check out this thread. This chap was able to cross the continent on his old beater.

You know - I'm touring again this summer on my 1989 Trek 8000 which I modified for touring back then. It's got close to 100,000 K on it and I have no problem putting a few more thousand on it. I mean, yeah, you need to replace a few components now and then plus keep it tuned - but if it's basically sound, why let some hot-rodder on a $7,000 bike give you any grief - it's your life.

John

Thanks for the encouragement. What would you recommend doing to modify it for touring?

Some slick tyres for starters -- unless you'll be riding some really bad dirt roads. I actually find slicks or cross-treads able to cope with most dirt roads, as well as being faster on the paved ones. As someone said above, keep it tuned and replace any worn parts. Also make sure the pannier rack you attach mounts to the frame rather than the seat-post -- otherwise you could be riding a long way without a saddle.

I actually did my first tour on a beaten up old MTB (and my second one for that matter) when I was an impoverished university student, so it's not impossible. I still remember hauling it up Cunningham's Gap (9km @ 8%) on Day 2.

I use a ten year-old, slightly modified mountain bike for commuting and touring, and I love it. Last summer, I did a 600 mile solo tour on it carrying front and back panniers, and the bike worked flawlessly. I had to do some creative rigging to mount a front rack on its stock suspension fork (which had only about 45mm of travel), but it held up fine and didn't complain a bit. My only modifications were 38mm wide street tires and bar ends mounted "inboard" to simulate the width of typical road bike bars. (I feel like I'm trying to wrap my arms around a tree trunk when I have my bar ends mounted at the ends of the bars.) I now also have an MTB-style rigid fork which I managed to find pretty cheap. My suggestion to you would be to adjust the bars and seat so you're comfortable for long days in the saddle and enjoy the ride. The bike itself is secondary to your position on it. Enjoy your trip.

I've converted a few MTB's to touring/commuter rides, and the best thing you can do is get some slick tires, like the Specialized Fatboy, or if you don't have the cash for a fancy slick, most bike shops carry some around $9.99-11.99 that will serve the purpose too. 80PSI+ is good too. Get some nice long bar ends to give you another hand position, plus they allow you to get more "aero" on the bike. A longer stem with about a 5-10 degree rise might be nice too. Not sure what you currently have but for road riding on an MTB I have used some 110-125mm stems. Again, gets you a bit more "aero" on the bike. Maybe throw a rack on the back if you think you'll need it.

2Liter,
You can certainly use an MTB to tour/commute with. I have an '89 Rockhopper Comp with a Scott AT4-Pro bar, 150mm stem, racks, lights, bags, etc. This bike has a little over 100k miles and still rides good. Take the advice above. Keep it tuned, get some slicks or minimal tread tires, and enjoy riding. I just returned from a 435 mile, 6 day ride accross Missouri. Loaded, self-supported tour. It was great. A couple of pics: http://users.solve.net/~jharte/Bike/...Katy-Trail.jpg, http://users.solve.net/~jharte/Bike/...Katy-Trail.jpg, and one snowy pic: http://users.solve.net/~jharte/Bike/...Parkbench1.jpg. After you get your bike the way you like it..."just being there" is what it's all about. Good luck!

I used my 10 year old Marin Hybrid bike to do a 600 mile trip, it worked great. You can read about it at www.thailand.crazyguyonabike.com I had a few problems along the way, but nothing a mecanic couldn't fix. I would recommend getting the wheels checked out, I had never had a problem in the ten years with the bike until this trip, and I wan't carrying that much weight, no more than 20 pounds.

I did 700 miles on my '97 Stump Jumper last summer. A pair of slicks (I ran with the Specialized Nimbus Armadillos) and a Bob Trailer (no mount points for a rack on my bike, unfortunately.) were about all it took. Unfortunately it was stolen last week, but fortunately my friends bought me most of aTrek 520.