Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus front ra

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
User avatar
b1ke
Posts: 537
Joined: 30 Mar 2010, 2:17pm
Location: Brighton
Contact:

Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus front ra

Post by b1ke »

I've adapted my old steel mountain bike for touring. Front rack mounts provided by Tubus external rack mounts. Not tested these as yet. Does anyone have experience of using them?

The bike has two bottle cage mounts, but I could do with a third under the downtube for my fuel bottle/Bike Buddy.

I've looked at a couple of options and the Monkii one looks interesting. Has anybody used one of these? Any thoughts on how sturdy they are? I can't afford to have any movement because of the close proximity of the fuel bottle to the chainset.

I want to mount the fuel bottle below the downtube in case of spillage. I use unleaded petrol for cooking.

The other option is to have bottle cage mounts rivetted into the downtube itself. The frame is double butted Tange. Again, has anyone done this?

Cheers in advance
Last edited by b1ke on 7 Sep 2015, 3:10pm, edited 1 time in total.
http://www.farewellburt.wordpress.com - Europe on a Tandem....
http://www.thespokeandwords.wordpress.com - West Africa on a Tandem....
whoof
Posts: 2519
Joined: 29 Apr 2014, 2:13pm

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by whoof »

If you mean these sort of things for clamping to the fork when you don't have a braze-on halfway up the leg, then yes. I've been using them for about 25 years on a couple of different bikes without any problems.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/-gNp89Df2Zzk/TtPQf ... 1_Zoom.jpg

My front rack is a copy of the Blackburn one in the picture and is currently on a converted mountain bike.
User avatar
b1ke
Posts: 537
Joined: 30 Mar 2010, 2:17pm
Location: Brighton
Contact:

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by b1ke »

This is the bike...
uploadfromtaptalk1441634573702.jpg

... and here's the rack mount...
uploadfromtaptalk1441634514174.jpg
http://www.farewellburt.wordpress.com - Europe on a Tandem....
http://www.thespokeandwords.wordpress.com - West Africa on a Tandem....
whoof
Posts: 2519
Joined: 29 Apr 2014, 2:13pm

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by whoof »

The clamps look fine to me, I can't see the rack twisting around as it's held in place by the eyelets at the fork ends.

With reference to the bottle cage my old winter bike used to have only one set of mountings for a bottle and I used something like thing below for a second bottle. You could use the same for an under down-tube bottle. Not the prettiest thing but cheap and simple.

http://store.velo-orange.com/media/cata ... clamps.jpg
User avatar
b1ke
Posts: 537
Joined: 30 Mar 2010, 2:17pm
Location: Brighton
Contact:

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by b1ke »



Nice idea but it wouldn't work well with the Bike Buddy. I'd have to undo the retaining springs each time I needed to access the fuel bottle.

uploadfromtaptalk1441640780247.jpg
http://www.farewellburt.wordpress.com - Europe on a Tandem....
http://www.thespokeandwords.wordpress.com - West Africa on a Tandem....
User avatar
syklist
Posts: 1243
Joined: 19 May 2008, 6:43pm

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by syklist »

b1ke wrote:I've adapted my old steel mountain bike for touring. Front rack mounts provided by Tubus external rack mounts. Not tested these as yet. Does anyone have experience of using them?

The bike has two bottle cage mounts, but I could do with a third under the downtube for my fuel bottle/Bike Buddy.

I've looked at a couple of options and the Monkii one looks interesting. Has anybody used one of these? Any thoughts on how sturdy they are? I can't afford to have any movement because of the close proximity of the fuel bottle to the chainset.

I want to mount the fuel bottle below the downtube in case of spillage. I use unleaded petrol for cooking.


I fitted front rack mounts like yours on our old tourers to be able to fit Tubus racks. They are still working fine nine years later.

As regards a third bottle cage mount I have used these on the same bikes. http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/klickfix-bottle-klick-bottle-cage-adapter/aid:254953

The fixing comes with two straps a short one and a long one - the long one easily went round the large downtubes on those bikes. The only thing to be aware of is that the bidon holder is a couple of centimetres from the frame so you might can run into clearance problems with a long/large bottle hitting the front wheel. There is a bit of movement between the two parts of the mount but not much. I always mount my fuel bottle within the frame/above the downtube as under the downtube is rather too exposed for my liking. Only things I can do without go there.
So long and thanks for all the fish...
pete75
Posts: 16370
Joined: 24 Jul 2007, 2:37pm

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by pete75 »

These sort of clips to hold an extra cage are neat, unobtrusive, inexpensive and were used for many years when braze ons weren't usually fitted. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Velo-Orange-B ... 2ca0f27df8

Image
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
User avatar
b1ke
Posts: 537
Joined: 30 Mar 2010, 2:17pm
Location: Brighton
Contact:

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by b1ke »

I fitted front rack mounts like yours on our old tourers to be able to fit Tubus racks. They are still working fine nine years later.


Reassuring. Cheers :)
http://www.farewellburt.wordpress.com - Europe on a Tandem....
http://www.thespokeandwords.wordpress.com - West Africa on a Tandem....
User avatar
b1ke
Posts: 537
Joined: 30 Mar 2010, 2:17pm
Location: Brighton
Contact:

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by b1ke »

These sort of clips to hold an extra cage are neat, unobtrusive, inexpensive and were used for many years when braze ons weren't usually fitted.


This is the same one that another poster suggested. Unfortunately they won't work too well with the Bike Buddy.
http://www.farewellburt.wordpress.com - Europe on a Tandem....
http://www.thespokeandwords.wordpress.com - West Africa on a Tandem....
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8443
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by Sweep »

I followed the advice of someone on here and did something similar - good old fashioned jubilee clips gripping onto the wilkinsons cheap but perfectly decent bottle holder - you need a bottle holder with metal in the right places for the jubilee clips to clamp around.

Worked fine for me for the price of the bottle cage - i already had the jubilee clips.

Oh, have also used those tubus mounts on the front forks - they are fine.
Sweep
nirakaro
Posts: 1578
Joined: 22 Dec 2007, 2:01am

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by nirakaro »

I fitted a bottle cage under my downtube using rivnuts: they cost pence (ebay), easy DIY job to fit into a 7mm (IIRC) hole.
mrjemm
Posts: 2933
Joined: 20 Nov 2011, 4:33pm

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by mrjemm »

nirakaro wrote:I fitted a bottle cage under my downtube using rivnuts: they cost pence (ebay), easy DIY job to fit into a 7mm (IIRC) hole.


Think I'd leave drilling holes in my frame to the experts... and minimum.

I had mounts brazed onto my forks and drop-outs (by an expert :D ), but my positioning of the mounts on the forks wasn't so great and resulted in a sloping Tara. Couldn't blame the frame-builder as I only gave him the removed forks and not the rack either. Silly me. Anyway, the forks were a spare pair and can still have more mounts added another time... There'd still be far less than the clutter on Thorn forks! :lol:

As for bottle cage mounts, I got a super cheapo rubber thing from Decathlon the other day for the Brompton, which could be used temporarily, but would be no good for your purposes over time. Monkii could be good, dunno.

Nice bike, btw. Is it a Marin? Actually looks a bit like the Park Pre Mme used to have. I like the tyres too- Big Apples? I want to get some of those.
nirakaro
Posts: 1578
Joined: 22 Dec 2007, 2:01am

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by nirakaro »

mrjemm wrote:
Think I'd leave drilling holes in my frame to the experts... and minimum.


That was my view too, until I noticed that the rack mountings on my seat stays look remarkably like rivnuts. 7mm hole in an 18mm diameter tube? I'd have called that reckless, but Mr Dawes has made a lot of bike frames, and I assume he knows more about it than I do. So I consulted - informally - a friend who's a chartered structural engineer, knows nowt about bikes but a lot about structural beams and tubes. He said he thought the effect on the strength would be negligible, so I've now got bottle cages on my downtube, and also on both sides of my front fork (44mm x 24mm cross section, roughly). Granted I'm not overweight, rarely ride offroad, and generally treat the bike fairly gently, but it's done a good few thousand miles since with no hint of a problem, so I feel it was an OK call.
User avatar
b1ke
Posts: 537
Joined: 30 Mar 2010, 2:17pm
Location: Brighton
Contact:

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by b1ke »

Nice bike, btw.

Cheers :D
Is it a Marin? Actually looks a bit like the Park Pre Mme used to have. I like the tyres too- Big Apples? I want to get some of those.

Not sure what the brand is. I bought it second hand minus decals (other than the Tange sticker). I suspected Marin, but it's got quite distinctive grooves in the top tube. Not something I've ever seen on a Marin - or any other bike frame for that matter.

Yes, Big Apple tyres. They're great for suspension and they roll really well. I've picked up some folding Mondials for my next trip, but the Big Apples are pretty good on both towpaths and tarmac.
http://www.farewellburt.wordpress.com - Europe on a Tandem....
http://www.thespokeandwords.wordpress.com - West Africa on a Tandem....
mrjemm
Posts: 2933
Joined: 20 Nov 2011, 4:33pm

Re: Converting an old mountain bike for touring - Tubus fron

Post by mrjemm »

Some old GT frames have a groove on the underside of the TT, but that is clearly no GT.

Colnago do tubes with kinda fluting, and IIRC a friend has an older Merlin (UK) with shaped tubing, maybe grooves, not sure.

Seems a few bikes had ribbed downtubes and some had spirally tubes;

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=106213

Seems from reading that thread, Tange made some of the spiralled tubing, so perhaps they made grooved tubes too.
Post Reply