#281 - Road Biking for MountainBikers Part 2

Gel to be put under bar tape
- pic grabbed from Goggle Images

Fizik Bar Tape with Gel.
I've seen this in CRC.
- pic grabbed from Google Images

 

 

4. Choose your Grips
Mountain bikers are spoiled in the choice of grips.

You can have thick grip, thin, sticky, short, etc.

There are soooo many combinations.

For road bikes, there are just long strips of tape.

I know that these tapes come in gel, cork, etc. but

still it is difficult to get the right tape which will

prevent my hands and by extension, my brain, from

being jarred by the rough road. That is until Roadie Rio

told me to use 2 tapes. One on top of the other. It worked!

Alternatively, you may also use gels under the tape.

 

 

See the black thumb screw near the brake lever?
Screwing in / out that screw would adjust the
distance of the brake lever from the handle.

 

Compare the MTB solution to this rather crude solution
for the same situation. Above piece is the 10mm shim.
Below piece is the 5 mm (stock) shim.

 

The shim goes at the notch

 

5. Adjust the Distance of the Brake Lever
Mountain bikers are again spoiled in this area.

Most of the disc brakes that mountain bikers use

have an adjustment for the brake levers.

 

There is a screw that you can adjust so that the

brake lever can go out or in depending on the

size of your hand. Now for road bikes, the brifters

are so expensive and yet this very simple adjustment

is nowhere to be found!

 

What you need to do is buy a 10mm shim (most

probably what you have installed in your brifter is

the 5mm shim) that goes inside the brifter.

 

Take note though that different brifters will

require different shims! John from Hup Leong

had to rummage around for the precise shim that

will fit my 105 brifter.

What this shim does is to act like a 'door wedge'.

The brake lever can not return to it's normal

position properly because the 10mm shim is there.

 

 

 

6. Change your Brake Pads
Again, mountain bike win here. The hydraulic disk

brakes that we use on our mountain bikes really give

meaning to the cliche 'stop on a dime'.

Road bikes will never get this kind of braking power

(of course unless you have hydraulic disc brakes on

your road bikes). So, the best thing you can do is go

and get Shimano R55C3 brake pads for aluminum
rims (I'm assuming you have aluminum rims). I have

used the very popular KoolStop Salmon brake pads ...

 BUT I think the R55C3s have more bite.

 

 

7. Change your tires
Normally, bike manufacturers, be it on mtb side or road

bike side skimp on the tires. That alone should be sufficient

grounds to change your tires to a better gripping one.

 

A little bit of a warning here, roadies
talk about a tire being grippy ... BUT I don't think they 

are referring to the same GRIP that mountain bikers are

used to.

 

If you have cycled in Butterfly Trail AFTER a downpour

and you find your tires are so grippy that you were able

to shrug all (or most) of the roots there THEN we have
a REALLY GRIPPY tire!

 

Do NOT expect this same "grip" when talking about
road bike tires!

  

Anyway, I have two recommendations : the currently

very popular Continental 4000S and the

'lagging in popularity' Michelin Pro 4.