Combining road and mountain gear setup!!?

[Gingerbread Man]

A friend has a bike.

Marin Redwood - like a road bike/ mountain bike cross....Hybrid!?

Years ago it broke and never really got fixed.....

Cue last week, we got it back out with a determination to getting back on the road.

Now it seems the bike has mountain bike gear on it. It runs a 7 sp cassette at the rear and three cogs up front.

He wishes to change the three cogs at the front to a two cog setup. Two cogs from a road bike. So biggest cog is 52 as opposed to 42.

Now is this possible to setup? The cogs/ cranks for a 2 cog setup fit on the bike fine. But we're at a loss with what to do with the shifter and front derailleur. The shifter and derailleur are for a 3 cog mountain bike setup.


1. He wants a 2 cog setup. You can buy road bike front derailleur's for 2 cogs, so no problem here.

You can't buy 2 sp shifter pods for mountain bikes, problem here.


2. You can buy 2 sp shifter pods for road bikes, no problem here.

But road bike shifter pods are built into handles and not similar to the mountain bike shifter pods, problem here.



Bottom Line - Is this setup possible? Can you make a 3 speed mtb pod work with a 2 sp rd bike front derailleur!?

[snotrag]

Use existing 3pd shifter. Buy Road bike mech - the cage is a different shape to match the larger diameter chainring. Set shifter to suit - use the redundant click either at the top or in the middle - in the middle can help with chain rub in extreme gears.

[Gingerbread Man]

Will that 3rd click not chuck the chain off one way or tother? This was our main concern.

Other than this, we hoped that it could be done with the the 3sp shifter staying put.

[sjg]

Just set the limit screws on the front mech so it can't fall off.