Drummerboy1975

I'm looking at a really nice Cannondale Slice TT bike and I'm thinking about using it as a road bike. Would I put drops and brake/Shiites on it an converting it. I know your wondering why id do this and not.just use a road bike, but I like the look of it and want something different.

valygrl

You'll be fighting the wrong geometry / weight distribution / bad handling. I wouldn't do that.

datlas 

Bad idea for reasons above.

Looigi

I think the above posters are overstating it. It'll be fine as long as you can get the fit right: saddle height and setback from crank, reach and height of bars from saddle... After all, riding a TT bike holding on to the outer bars is not much different than riding a normal road bike.

Bacciagalupe

I agree with those above that it isn't optimal. The bike won't explode, but it'll be difficult to get the right fit for comfortable road riding.

FixedDriveJess

TT bikes are bad at climbing and turning. Road bikes are good at exactly those things.

grwoolf

I agree that you can make a TT bike workable, but it's going to handle significantly different (worse) than a road bike in my experience. Even sitting up on the bars, it's not a good choice for any twisty stuff or fast descents. I've taken mine on group rides, but only if it's a non-technical route and I always stay on the bull horns when in the group (unless on the front).

StanSeven

You have to understand what a tt bike is and how it works. You're most efficient in an aero position (out over the bars with a flat/curved back). To get that way, tt bikes use a steep seat tube angle so you are leaning forward and your forearms extend over the front more. So if you got rid of the aero bars and used drops, your bars would be a good bit forward of a normal road bike. Plus you use your quads more and hamstrings less in a tt setup (a tri carryover) so you face two different variables.

hueyhoolihan

if you can get the bars in a position you find comfortable, it'll be fine. i see 'em on the road all the time. there's little real world difference. it's being exaggerated here, because this, after all, is the ROAD FORUM, right?

StanSeven

I have both. I wouldn't like riding my tt, with drops or not, as a regular bike all the time. The difference between touring bikes and road/race bikes is a couple degrees in the seat tube angle and longer stays. Add a couple more degrees to that.

You can do it and I ride my tt bike for 100 miles all the time but there's no advantage and several disadvantges

rpeterson

I put drops on my old TT bike, jammed the saddle back, and put a longer higher stem on. It rode just fine.

curiouskid55

There's no reall reason a tt bike geometry couldnt work for you. However, unless you already have the parts the conversion could be very expensive. Also anyone that doesnt think a tt bike can climb should try my Tequillo. For me the main disadvantage of riding the TT bike around here is changing hand position in an emergency braking situation. Bike handles very fine and quickly with short wheel base. Will pound the crap out of you if you sit up.

Reynolds 

My friend did the same to a Fuji Aloha (except for the stem) and didn't have any complaints about it.

DubT

I have a Trek 9.9 SC that I put road bars on, I also bought the seat post top mount that allowed me to move the seat in a normal position. It rides, handles and climbs great. I am very happy with it.

sced

Me too. Ride it all the time with no problems. I also have 4 regular road bikes. Once you set them up to be comfortable they're all good, but different in their own ways.

StanSeven

So you have an $11K tt bike you put road bars on and moved the seat to a normal position? Why???

carpediemracing 

Here's my short answer: If you normally ride a 48-50 cm frame then you won't notice a huge difference. If you normally ride a 52 or taller frame then you'll be shorting yourself some agility and fun as far as bike handling goes.

Some TT bikes (I think the Fuji falls under this) actually use normal road geometry. A US pro team's sprinter actually used the Fuji TT frame for his road bike because the TT frame had the same geometry as the road frames. Some other TT bikes use a true TT geometry which includes a super steep seat tube and a shallow head tube.

You can make up for the super steep seat tube by slamming your saddle back more if necessary. Because of my short quads my standard road bike has a 75.5 deg seat tube angle - for me a TT seat tube angle isn't off much from my normal fit.

A TT bike usually has a much more shallow head tube angle. TT bikes favor straight line stability - if you're on aero bars, with tall aero wheels, in a windy situation, you want the bike to go straight, not wiggle all over the road. A shallow headtube angle gives you a more stable straight line set up. This is a valid and purposeful use of a shallow head tube angle.

However that shallow angle affects handling - it affects responsiveness when turning in. I've ridden, due to the smaller size frames I've used, head tube angles down to about 70 degrees, a virtual chopper type angle in the world of mainly 73 deg head tube angles.

Short frames use shallow angles for a different reason - as a compromise for fit. By having a shallow head tube angle the front wheel ends up further out and your foot clears the front tire. In Europe I think there's even some standard a bike has to pass as far as clearance to the front tire. The problem is that this compromises fine-control of the bike in exchange for being able to steer sharply at low speeds with your foot in the wrong place.

I finally got a chance to ride a proper 73 deg head tube angle bike and it was like magic after about 20 years of 70-72 deg head tube angles. I thought it would only affect me when turning into a corner but the (relatively) exquisite control meant I was also more smooth in a long bend (think a curve you could take at 50-70 mph in car) or when out of the saddle (climbing a hill or sprinting). With the shallow head tube angle the front wheel took some effort to move off of "straight" and it would flop, accentuating the movement. If you've ever watched a bulldozer or a tank try to go around a sharp turn that's how a shallow headtube angle bike handles - straight-turn-straight-turn etc. It's a coarse action, not smooth at all.

In contrast a "proper" head tube angle handles more quickly. The straight-turn-straight-turn motion is much more subtle because you can make super minute corrections. It's how you balance on a bike anyway - you start to tilt one way and steer that way and then you tilt the other and steer the other. You watch a kid do it and it's really rough and coarse. You watch a pro and it looks super smooth. The 73 deg head tube angle is a great compromise between responsiveness and agility. This is why most normal size road frames have a 73 deg head tube angle.

There's a huge, huge, huge amount of confidence that a solid front end gives the rider. With a good head tube angle (73 seems to be a magic number) I feel significantly more confident in corners and bends than even a 72 deg head tube angle.

There's the additional variable of fork rake (with 73 deg head tube angles a 43 mm fork rake works well) which results in trail. Don't get caught in the trap of comparing trail. That compares stability in a straight line. Trail does NOT tell you how the bike will turn in - basically a steeper head tube angle allows you to turn in harder or to make more subtle corrections while mid-turn or while out of the saddle.

I think Slice frames are more all-round TT frames with not-too-steep head tube angles. I just looked up the current frame - it's 71.5 or 72 deg. It's not great but it'll work for a road bike. One grassroots team in the area has at least two riders on Slices in criteriums (they're not pros or anything, just regular racers). They're both on smaller frames, which is significant, but the end results is that it can work.

If you have an older Slice I don't know what the geometry is but it'll be similar I think. There are at least two older versions I know of, the all carbon one with a larger seatpost and the aluminum one with squashed tubes.

Why does a smaller Slice work as a road bike? Since the head tube angle is similar to a shorter Cannondale (48 and 50 use a 72 and 72.5 deg head tube angle) you're not losing much, you're still going to have wheel flop, you're still going to have compromised control in a turn or out of the saddle. Once you hit a 52 size then you get the nice 73 deg head tube angle. Personally I wouldn't sacrifice the handling of that to get "something different".

headstrongpkm

I would be curious to see some examples of these tt converted road bikes (if some of you have pics please)

ThermionicScott 

I think if I found myself with a TT bike on my hands, I'd try to enjoy it for what it does well. I do enough converting one type of bike into another as it is.

valygrl

Wow cdr, that was really interesting, and as a rider on a tiny bike with 70.5 head angle (road) and 71 head angle (TT).... I now wish I could try a 73* bike and see what I'm missing!!!!

thirdgenbird

I haven't done it, but here is a converted shiv:

carpediemracing 

I'm fortunate in the sense that I have a long torso so although I normally ride a 50-52 cm frame I can spec out a 73 HT angle and never hit the front tire. When I got really heavy I tried a size M Giant with a 73 deg HT angle (and higher bars so my legs would clear my much bigger torso), racing it for a year. It handled incredibly well. The only thing I can compare it to is when I went from "regular" cars (Civic, Outback, older Golf GTI, Passat GLX, Sentra, etc - cars me, my family, or my now-wife owned) to a 350Z. The turn in was crazy, the car went exactly where I wanted it to go, no hesitation. I would literally go out and hunt entrance/exit ramps so I could corner in that car.

With the Giant I didn't notice much until I went to do an all out sprint, on my favorite road in CT (Summer Street Sprint - a tongue in cheek clip where I Walter Mitty a sprint). Before I had to really think about where I wanted to go, like if I wanted to jump past someone to the right I had to really prep for it, think about it, and go. Within half a second, okay, maybe less, but it was still a "think ahead" thing. With the 73 deg HT angle I could just go as soon as I thought about it - it was so quick to swerve while out of the saddle it was almost scary at first. Within a couple sprints/jumps I was good.

It's nice on hills too because the bike wiggles nicely when standing. Proper technique dictates that the body go in basically a straight line (like your head mainly) and the bike does a small swerving motion with the tires while the bottom bracket basically follows that same straight line as your head. With a shallow head tube angle this out of saddle rocking motion is much more forced, much less natural. With a 73 deg HT angle and the 43 mm rake fork it's much more natural, much quicker, no forcing the bike side to side.

I found that subtle corrections mid-turn worked better too. I never felt like I had to pull the bike to turn, like pulling it right to turn right, the sensation I had for virtually all my bikes. Instead I could just tilt a bit and I'd be going that direction. I can make minor trajectory adjustments without freaking out everyone around me. I can really cut things close if I have to because I'm totally confident that I can put the bike where I need to put it.

The best handling frame I've ridden was a SystemSix Cannondale with a 73 deg HT angle and 43 mm rake. The super rigid front end helps - just like the Z (or other cars I've been in like an Si or a massively modified Focus). When you want the bike to go "that direction" it just goes. Therefore when I had my custom frame built (an inexpensive one, $750, not some $5k thing) I specified the same 73 HT angle and used a 43 mm rake fork I had. I think for me that's the sweet spot in handling geometry. Super stable (I've drafted trucks at almost 50 mph in extremely gusty conditions) but super responsive.

HT angle is a handling thing but it's compromised for fit.

ST angle is almost 100% a fit thing. It does affect how far forward the rear wheel can go so in that respect it affects handling, but otherwise it has nothing to do with handling per se.

sced

headstrongpkm

Thanks thirdgenbird. Despite possible handling and geometry issues, it's a nice looking rig

datlas 

Needs back up barz to complete the picture.