# 700c wheels on a mountain bike?



## tombikess (14 Aug 2010)

is this possible? and would it work?


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## Ben M (14 Aug 2010)

No.


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## RedBike (14 Aug 2010)

Yes, 
Look carefully at the wheels on the bike in these posts. 
http://redbikes.blogspot.com/2009/04/leg-breaker-100km.html
http://redbikes.blogspot.com/2009/07/pennine-cycleway-bridleway-and-trail.html

You can use 700c wheels on most standard MTBs provided they're disc brake and provided you only use narrow tyres. 
(The overall wheel diameter of a 700c wheel with a 23mm slick tyre on is only slightly bigger than a 26" wheel with a 2.2 tyre on). 

There are of course 29er MTBs, which are designed to use 700c wheels. 
Aka my last bike
http://redbikes.blogspot.com/2010/06/peaks-bivvy.html


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## tombikess (14 Aug 2010)

RedBike said:


> Yes,
> Look carefully at the wheels on the bike in these posts.
> http://redbikes.blog...aker-100km.html
> http://redbikes.blog...-and-trail.html
> ...



Thanks!, Are there 700c wheels with disc mounts? im using Shimano CL rotors, does this cause a problem? but i assume 700c wheels with disc eyelets are going to be more expensive? Just for the record, would running a narrow (1 inch/1.25 inch) tyre on my standard rim be a big difference from running a true 700c wheel?


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## Ben M (14 Aug 2010)

If your aim is just to make a mountain bike quicker for riding on the road, then just fit slick tyres, don't go to the trouble of building up new wheels.


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## RedBike (14 Aug 2010)

You can't use rim brakes (without a major bodge) because the rim on 700c wheels will be in the wong place. 
.
Both the bikes in the links i've posted are using exactly the same set of 700c disc wheels . (Commonly called 29er or hybrid wheels). The Black bike is a Rock Lobster was designed for standard 26" wheels, whereas the second is a Kona 2-9was designed specifically for 700c wheels.


The CL rotors don't cause too much of an issue. You just need to get the correctly sized shimano rotor for your new wheels (as in 160/180). It doesn't really matter if the new rotors are CL or 6 bolt.



> Just for the record, would running a narrow (1 inch/1.25 inch) tyre on my standard rim be a big difference from running a true 700c wheel?



Yes. The main difference will be the gearing. 
With a 700c wheel the circumfrence of the tyre will be larger therefore all your gears will be higher. 

Also the smaller the wheel the smaller the contact patch of the tyre. The smaller the contact patch the more the tyre needs to deform and therefore the higher the rolling resistance. Simply pumping the 26" tyre up to a slightly higher pressure could easily compensate for the smaller diameter but by doing so you'll make the ride hasher. 

The 26" wheels should in theory be lighter and they should accelerate and climb better though


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## RedBike (14 Aug 2010)

Unfortunately 29er wheels seem to cost an absolute fortune. I wouldn't waste your money fitting them to your MTB. I would just spend your £100+ on a secondhand road bike.


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## RecordAceFromNew (14 Aug 2010)

If you are thinking about putting 700c road bike wheels on an MTB, an additional problem is that generally MTB (whatever size) and current road rear wheel hubs do not have the same OLN distance (135mm and 130mm respectively).


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