Upgrading my old mountain bike into a touring bike.

I purchased my Carrera Vulcan mountain bike in the late nineties from Halfords in England. Made of aluminium with steel forks equipped with 7 speed Shimano twist grip gear shifter's and V brakes, it was a great bike for pottering around with the family and the odd day trip. Then as life changed the Vulcan became a dust collector in the garage moved occasionally but going nowhere exciting.

A couple of years after my fiftieth with my expanding body and dodgy knees, I needed to change my life style and luckily Jenni my wife was happy to join me on this adventure. She also had an old bike from Halfords, which came with a training aid of binding brakes, which meant she was peddling down hill as well as up, after which her legs would heat up and explode.

After a few rides and the after effects of hot burning legs, Jenni was beginning to be discouraged,  a trip to the local bike shop was needed, she was then the proud owner of a new mountain bike. For a few weeks we bumbled off to the next village a grand total of 10 km. It felt so far... But over the next 2 years we explored our local area, it was never flat but the vista's and a reward of swimming in a lake was always worth it.

Our bikes were doing the job, but heavy. So I did some research and found a couple of light weight bikes. Jenni a fitness bike and for myself a gravel machine, these bikes have taken us up the Swiss Alps and explored many corners of France.

This involved mostly driving to some sort of accommodation for a few nights and us exploring the area doing local loops. Our bikes were fitted with handle bar bags and 6 litre saddle post bags, we were now set up as trendy bike packers but for our planned adventures in bike touring mode, the diverge did not cut it. Jenni's fitness bike could handle the touring but we had to be careful not to overload it.

So what happen to the Vulcan ?? Well unlike me it had gained a few more kilos, things thrown on top and plenty more dust. So it was time to get it back into shape, as the Vulcan would be reborn as my new touring bike......

So where did I start?

Phase one was "The Strip." The poor bike was attacked from all angles, everything that I could remove was removed, and ended up in two boxes, keep and throw.

Phase two was the clean up and rub down of the Frame until it sparkled.

Phase three was giving the Vulcan a new paint job, I set up a spray room with a curing area, but for some reason my design just would not work and after several failed attempts the bike was painted a dark blue.

Curing room and failed attempt.

While all this was going on I was on another mission to hunt down affordable good quality replacement parts for the bike including a new groupset, wheels, and brakes.

Avoiding amazon I managed to find everything I needed :-

The groupset was Shimano Alivio Shadow 3 x 9 speed with a 12 x 34 cassette and 48-36-22 triple front. I needed some help to get up the hills fully loaded.

The brakes were V-brake Shimano with new cabling.

Wheels were the hardest to find I did not have a large budget so no way could I pay 600 euro for a pair of wheels. Eventually I found a pair from a German company call Taylor Wheels which came with a bonus in the form of a dynamo.

A kick stand, bell, pump, mirror and glowing orange water bottle holders arrived as finishing touches.

 

Once everything had arrived, I would have loved to do the rebuilt myself, but was missing the tools to do the cabling, fit the bearings and the rear cassette, so handed the job over to my local bike shop. A few days later the Vulcan was collected and was ready for a test ride.

Cost was about 350 euro including paying the local bike shop, so giving the Vulcan a new lease of life, in my opinion saved me money and reduced my carbon footprint compared to buying a new bike.

I spent about 20 enjoyable hours doing the conversion, the majority of this was the strip, so many fiddly places to clean and rub down...

If in the future I needed a new touring bike I would definitely restore another bike, the Vulcan has now been on a few short tours, it is easy to ride and copes well fully loaded. 

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