Converting MTB for the road

[tpw1963]

Hello,

New to here and cycling. bought an older Fuji Boulevard the only mod to the bike is someone changed out the forks for SR Suntour suspension forks. I don't plan on seeing anything rougher than the gravel in my driveway. Only plan on riding on the road and paved greenway in town. In future want to get hybrid or road bike. Would it benefit me to change these forks to rigid ones? I plan on getting Tioga City Slicker Tire 26" x 1.95 or WTB Slick Comp Tire for the rims

TIA

Tom

[xerxes]

To start with, I'd just fit the road tyres and see how you get on. If they are adjustable, you could make the forks pretty firm, so that the amount of bounce was kept to a minimum. Rigid forks would be a bit lighter, and possibly sharpen up the steering a little, but if you're going to replace the whole bike soon, I wouldn't bother unless you can get hold of the originals or something compatible pretty cheaply.

[Joe_W]

You have to make sure that the fork geometry matches when replacing it. Otherwise you might end up with a bike that is unrideable. There are cheap rigid forks, check out the local bike shop, they might have some lying around from an upgrade.

[JonB]

Quote:you could make the forks pretty firm

He won't need to, I've had a set of those and unless you are about 20st the adjusters do very little; they will be near enough as makes no difference rigid whatever setting you choose.

They also weigh a metric ton and the internals rust in seconds if there's a hint of moisture in the air (after wet rides I had to take them apart to drain the water out of them because the seals are so poor). My advice would be to get some rigids as they will be considerably lighter and require less maintenance. But again as Xerxes has said there isn't much point if you're replacing the bike soon anyway. Riding them into the ground is perhaps the best idea (though a cheap 2nd hand rigid may be worth investing in), but it depends how soon you're getting that new bike.