Modding the Mongoose Randonneur Part 1

To explain how I got started on this project, I'll go back about a year. It was just shortly before the What! No Spare Kneecap Tour, when we were at the local bike shop getting some spare parts to take with us on the tour. Whilst in the shop I noticed that they had a special on a Mongoose Randonneur Pro touring bike.

This was a 2005 Model, but it looks the same as the 2006 model shown in the photograph above except for the logos on the frame. I had previously thought about getting one of these as they are an aluminium frame with a Chromoly fork, and were in my price range. Previous enquiries at other stores about getting one had resulted in a quote for $1,295. The distributor's web site also quoted this as the recommended retail price for this model. This was about the maximum that I could afford anyway. This one in the store was on special for $695 and was a large frame which was my correct size.

Very nice, I thought, but I was pulling out on tour the next morning, and the day before a tour is not the time to be changing to a new bike. Oh yeah I was tempted, as long road trips on mountain bikes can get quite painful. It was on day 2 of the return trip, the Kalbarri to Perth tour as I was riding into a screaming head wind that the thought of that touring bike entered my mind again. The rig that I was riding was a Giant Rincon MTB with the BOB trailer.

It's specifications were:

• FRAME : 6061 Alloy Touring;
• FORK : Full Chromoly;
• CRANKSET/CHAINWHEEL : Shimano Sora 52/42/30t;
• BOTTOM BRACKET : Shimano BB-ES30 cartridge;
• PEDALS : Alloy body with Boron axle;
• FRONT DERAILLEUR : Shimano FD-3304 Sora;
• REAR DERAILLEUR : Shimano Deore 9 spd;
• SHIFTERS : Shimano Sora 24 spd STI;
• FREEWHEEL : SRAM 11-32t 8spd;
• CHAIN : KMC Z-72;
• RIMS : Alex Adventurer 700c Black;
• TYRES : Hutchinson Globetrotter 700 x 37c;
• HUBS : Front - Alloy Q/R, Rear - Formula Q/R 36h sealed;
• SPOKES : Stainless Steel;
• BRAKES : Avid shorty 4 Cantilever;
• LEVERS : Shimano Sora 24spd STI;
• HANDLEBAR : Ritchey BioMax Comp 6061 Alloy;
• STEM : Ritchey Alloy;
• GRIPS : Velo SuperLite foam with Gel;
• HEADSET : Steel 1 1/8 inch ahead;
• SADDLE : WTB Speed V Comp; and
• SEAT POST : Alloy suspension.

Whilst I was away, I got a nice tax return, so on the ride back, I weighed up what I would have to do, and the price was an extremely good price, so it was decided. Even if I spent the same amount on modifying the bike, it would still be a good price considering the original recommended retail price. The first thing I did upon returning was to visit the shop and see if it was still there.

It was still there, so it was meant to be mine, so I took it for a test ride. Compared to the mountain bike it was pure luxury. Having the drop handlebars also meant I could lean forward and stretch my back. One thing I used to get after sitting on the mountain bike for a long time was a back ache, and I would have to lean forward to relieve it.

I did a bit of calculating, and worked out that most of the touring related equipment could come off of the mountain bike and go on the new tourer. I could also pick up the bike with one hand, which was impossible with the mountain bike. There were a few things that would need changing, due to my personal preference or requirements, but these should be easy, or so I thought. This is the story of the long journey. The bike as it is now is pictured below.

This is how it looks now. (Click for larger view)

There was some things that I would need to change. Firstly the smallest chain ring was a 30 tooth which is way to big for touring with a load. A 24 tooth small chain ring is a much preferable option. Also having an issue with nerve compression in my right hand and having brain damage and reduced motor function in my right hand and leg, I had serious doubt as to whether I could operate those STI shifters. My previous mountain bike had been retrofitted with twist grips to get around this problem. A quick glance at the bike seemed to indicate that most of my touring equipment would fit the bike. I also had a lowrider rack of dubious quality on my commuting bike, which should fit this front fork. So I made my purchase.

I was still riding the mountain bike around, but started taking the new one out for test runs, and to see how it would handle. I discovered that due to the lightness of the bike, maybe I wouldn't need that 24 tooth inner chain ring. I also noted a few other things and then began the long journey.

I started removing parts from my mountain bike and fitting them to the Mongoose. I also borrowed some parts from one of my commuting bikes such as mudguards. The first problem I hit was the handlebar bag. With the STI shifters, the gear cables exit the shifter housing and run towards the center of the bike. When I fitted a wide handle bar bag, it interfered with the gear cables.

I replaced the large size handlebar bag with a much smaller on from Ortlieb. The next problem I noticed when riding was that sometimes the chain would come off of the inner chain ring, and after much adjusting I still could not stop it. I also noticed that the shifter for the front derailleur only had a trim adjustment in one direction. My mountain bike had a steel plate fitted to stop the chain from doing suicide gear changes and falling off.

I decided I would get a 24 tooth inner chain ring and fix the chain's problem, but first I had some other things to do. Luckily my beefy rear rack from the mountain bike fitted without any problems. I took the mudguards off of my commuting bike and fitted them as well. I discovered with the rear mudguard that when the chain was on the inner chainring, the chain and derailleur would hit the mudguard, so I had to grind away part of the mudguard. My rear rack was made from aluminium, but I had no intention of carrying a load on it, as I had the BOB Yak trailer.

I also fitted the dubious quality lowrider rack to the front, and had some problems in fitting that as explained here. After approaching several bike shops about the 24 tooth inner chain ring, I was banging my head against the wall. One shop told me that it was impossible. Another told me that it wouldn't work because you can''t ride a road bike with a 24 tooth inner gear because it is too low a ratio. My comment in return was Obviously you have never ridden a loaded touring bike up the side of a mountain in Tasmania then?

Two more shops told me that I would need to change the bottom bracket, cranks and it would cost me around $400. This was ridiculous, because the Sora cranks are splittable, and the rings can be changed independent of each other. Finally after contacting a bike shop in Melbourne, I purchased a 24 tooth inner chain ring, had it shipped and fitted it myself all for the price of $60. It was after fitting this that the chain became more suicidal. I was also now running with the new handlebar bag on, and it was a vast improvement.

The next thing I always change is the tubes and tyres. I prefer thorn resistant tubes due to the large thorns here in Western Australia and I also prefer Continental Touring tyres as they are made of real rubber. My previous bike had these on and survived many thorn penetrations, and I never had a puncture.

Tracking these down in a 700c X 37 size was fun. Eventually I sourced these from Melbourne as well. When fitting the tyres, the rear mudguard had some issues, so I had to adjust it out, which was to cause some problems later on down the track. I also ordered in some new plastic 1 litre water bottles. I also discovered that the third water cage was going to give me some problems. That was after the other water cage. The water cage mountings on the seat down tube, has the derailleur mounting clamp in the way.

I was able to source a Velocity cage which has moveable mountings, but also the necessary height to clear the derailleur clamp. With that fixed, the third cage took some ingenuity. The third cage does not have enough clearance to the front mudguard, and also the gear cables run down the tube. I had a plastic water cage, that I was able to modify, by cutting part of it away to allow for the gear cables to pass through. The cage also had a large base to allow it to clear most of the cables. I then cut the bottom out of the cage and bolted in a new bottom, further down. I then dropped the Air Zound air horn''s pressure tank into this cage, as a standard water bottle still would not clear the front mudguard.

So at this stage I had the mudguards, racks, speedo, air horn, rear light, water cages and bottles onto the bike along with the new handlebar bag and the 24 tooth inner chain ring along with the resulting suicidal gear change and subsequent chain dropping off. I had also managed to get a bar end mirror and a road morph pump. Why the road morph? It was the only pump I could operate, as I can't hold the other pumps to the valve. The road morph allowed me to use one foot to hold it to the ground and only required one hand to pump. It was also able to get the pressure up to 70 psi quite easily.

I'd also taken a fancy to what are called aero bars or tri bars. These bars were actually invented for touring cyclists long before they were used by tri-athletes. But, and definately but, if I decided to get a pair of these, I may have some problems with the handlebar bag. I found out after the aero bars arrived, that the aero bars were exactly the same width as the handlebar bag's mounting. So for the meantime I lost the handlebar bag. I fitted the aero bars and taped them up with cork tape.

I also obtained a water bottle for training runs that dropped in between the aero bars, but found that it tended to knock my teeth out when trying to drink from it whilst riding. I found the aero bars were a worthwhile investment and were quite comfortable when riding. I could almost fall asleep. It did allow me to take the weight off of my hands.

At this stage I still had some major problems to sort out and I'd discovered a few more. I had lost the handlebar bag due to the fitting of the aero bars, I had a suicidal chain, and I'd also discovered that when on the 24 tooth inner chain ring, I could only use the top three cogs on the rear cluster because the chain was too long and was landing on the chain stay. I'd also discovered that the handlebars were too low for my liking, but as is typical in Australia, the bike shop had cut the neck off as short as possible and I couldn't pull them up any more. The most serious problem was that I was unable to operate the STI shifters. The little lever on the side, especially with the right hand, was totally inoperable as I couldn't feel it properly.

The good news was that both pairs of panniers would go onto the rear rack and I wouldn't have heel strike especially with the largest size Ortlieb panniers. The BOB trailer also fitted on quite well, even though the clearance to the rear mudguard was very small. I countered the lost handlebar bag problem by fitting a rear rack top bag, and a Tri Bag.

The loose chain problem when using the inner chain ring, wasn't really an issue, because when using the inner chain ring on any of my bikes, I only ever used the top three rear cogs anyway. I kept adjusting the front derailleur to try and stop the suicide change, but it was getting hard to change onto the inner chain ring. I had already started looking for an anti derailment plate.

I managed to locate a neck extender and fitted that, which allowed me to place the handlebars higher. This had the effect of making the gear cables really taut, because they had been cut too short. This didn't really matter, as I planned to change them, when I could figure out what to do about the shifters. Preferring friction shifters, I decided to go and look for some. I approached several shops with the bike and explained my problem. I was told that it was impossible, and even if I could find some friction shifters they wouldn''t work with my rear derailleur. The best option was to go to bar end shifters, but I would lose the bar end mirror, and several shops advised that they could only get 10 speed bar end shifters, and that these wouldn't index with my rear derailleur so I would probably have to change that as well. None of them mentioned that the bar end shifters run in friction mode anyway.

I was already getting problems with the shifters and the indexing, and the lack of front derailleur trim in one direction, that I wonder, why ever get rid of friction shifters. Crank came to the rescue with two lucky finds at the local rubbish tip. He sent me two sets of original Shimano stem mounted friction shifters. However, here was the problem. My bike had an A head stem, and these shifters were designed to be fitted to old quill stems.

All of the bike shops I approached were of no help, so I had a beautiful set of friction shifters and nowhere to mount them. My down tube was out of the question, because it is ovalised aluminium. Several other stores also pointed out that these shifters would not have enough throw to operate the rear derailleur. It didn't matter, because I couldn't fit them anyway.

So now I was getting disheartened because I was finally getting a good comfortable touring bike together, that was a joy to ride, but I couldn't feel the shifters to change gear. So I decided to tackle something slightly easier to deal with. On all of my previous touring bikes, being mountain bikes, I used the toe strap clip, but removed the straps. This was mainly to stop my foot from sliding off of the pedal and those metal teeth digging great chunks of skin out of my shins. The Mongoose came with toe straps, and I found them quite good. It brought back memories of riding in my youth in the days before cleats.

I then picked up a pair of Shimano road shoes that use SPD-SL cleats. However the shoes didn't come with cleats, but came with the old fashioned cleat that had a slot that fits the rear of the pedal. This fitted the toe strap system perfectly and I found that I could get much better pedaling power with this set up. However these shoes were lethal to walk in. Not only are they slippery, but also make you walk like a duck.

The cycle tourist in me always wanted a pair of those sandals, but I discovered that they are pretty hard to find. I also found out that I would have to change the pedals and use SPD cleats. Guess what? My newly beloved shoes use SPD-SL cleats. Also several people had convinced me that using cleats would make a great difference. Several other tourists recommended using dual platform pedals. These are the pedals that have a standard platform on one side and a SPD cleat on the other.

I would also need to get multi release cleats, due to the right leg not always doing what it is told. These allow you to release by twisting in either direction, or pulling up at an angle. So I headed off to the local bike store for some multi platform pedals and some of those multi release cleats. What a twist in the long saga of things being made of unobtanium.

The shop had the pedals in stock, but he told me that he had no cleats in stock, only the multi release ones. Well that's what I was after. But wait! It gets even better. He had no shoes in stock my size. He said the only thing in stock my size was a pair of Shimano sandals. They were the only sandals he had as he doesn't stock them anymore. I got them at a two year old price as well.

So pedals fitted, cleats fitted to sandals, and out for some rides. It makes a great difference. I still haven't tracked down a new pair of shoes yet, but it will eventually happen. The next piece of luck solved another two problems in one go. I was also at this time running out of room on the handlebars with the bell, air zound horn, speedo, and a small light, so I was looking on the net for any gadgets that might help.

Thats when I happened upon a pair of speed sticks on clearance sale. I didn't want the speed sticks, but their mounting brackets. I was able to devise a way to get the handlebar bag onto the bike. You can read all about it here. As mentioned in that article, I had some spare space on the end of the bar, and was able to fit the friction shifters. Not mentioned in that article was the fact that both shifters are now controlled by the left hand, the taut cables are no longer taut, and the gear shifts are so smooth I can't tell if they've changed sometimes. The levers also operate the rear derailleur and have plenty of throw spare for another couple of gears. I was even able to rethread the gear cable inners back through the outer cables. Neat trick isn't it? The secret is to do it in the dark, and you don't fray them.

At this stage I also changed the seat because I found the one with the Mongoose was too soft and causing numbness. I still had a seat from a bike a couple of years ago, and fitted that for a vast difference. It has the gap in the centre of the seat and minimal gel so that was a quick and easy fix. Also at this time, I discovered that what I was needing for the chain's suicide jumps was an N-Gear jump stop. Chainging down from a 42 tooth to a 24 tooth is not really recommended either, and that was probably the biggest cause of the problem.

Not a single shop that I contacted knew what an N-Gear Jump Stop was. It was also at this time that I was still trying to find a replacement front rack that I approached another store. When I asked for a front lowrider rack, they did not even know what one was. Their answer to the chain problem was adjust the derailleur.

So by now I have all of my problems solved except for the suicidal chain and the lack of a front rack. By now it had also been six months since first placing an order for a Surly Nice Front Rack. This is ridiculous. I'd also placed an order somewhere else and still hadn't got one either. Meanwhile one local shop fished out a $3 plastic part that the racers use on their bikes to stop the chain coming off. But guess what? My down tube tapers towards the bottom, so it's an undefined size. I left it off in my continual search for an elusive N-Gear Jump Stop.

Lucky strike. Another two birds killed with one stone, and a myriad of other problems. I finally located a store in Melbourne that had a Tubus Tara front rack (article) in stock, and not only knew what the elusive N-Gear Jump Stop was, but actually had one on stock. A day later they were both here. The rack's fitting is mentioned in the above article, but when I fitted the rack, the mudguard's stay would need shortening, but I left it to when I would cut the rear mudguard to allow some more clearance for the BOB Yak trailer..

The next job was to fit the jump stop. After removing the cranks to get into the area, I found that the stop would not fit because the derailleur's gear cable comes up from behind and the clearance between the cable and downtube are minimal. There was no way to get the N-Gear jump stop in because of it's bulky mounting towards the rear where the cable is. Also the inner chain ring is fairly small and the plate would have problems getting close, because of the large welds. Things are pretty close in there. I would take a photo, but I can't get a camera in.

At this stage I gave up. It is Australia, maybe you aren't supposed to have low gearing on a loaded touring bike. So I removed the 24 tooth inner chain ring and replaced it with the original 30 tooth. I was able to shimmy the $3 plastic part with rubber and get it mounted to stop the chain doing it's suicide trick from the inner chain ring.

That's it. I thought to myself, only two things to do and that is to shorten the rear mudguard, and sort the front mudguards stays out. But first I better test the 30 tooth inner chain ring and make sure everything works. When on the inner chain ring and on the upper rear gear, the chain is getting caught on the mudguard again. This is a result of moving the thing around when the larger tyres went on. So being sarcastic, I said to myself This is Australia, maybe you are not meant to have mudguards. Maybe the holes for mudguards are only there to make the bike look nice.

So out of desparation, I dropped the rear wheel out, undid the bolts, and took the mudguard off. I then removed the front one as well, which solved the issue of clearance to the water cage. It also saved me having to cut the end off of the rear mudguard to make clearance for the BOB trailer.

I suppose the thing to note here, is that from losing the 24 tooth chain ring and subsequent low ratio gears, I've saved some weight by removing mudguards that were never meant to fit in the first place. At least it's lightweight now. I'm not really sure the low ratio gears will make a difference, as the bike is quite responsive and easy to get up a hill. The reason for going lightweight in the first place, was to carry less weight on tour, which is what I will be doing. That will be the subject of another article shortly. How I get everything ready for a tour, then remove two thirds of it. It's knowing which two thirds to leave behind which is the tricky part.

For anyone wondering why I went to all this trouble with this bike, there are basically two answers. Firstly the price was right for the initial purchase, and it allowed me to test whether I would enjoy this style of bike, and my other answer is really a question. Considering the trouble I had getting help, and sourcing parts and other odd things, can you imagine how hard it would be to walk into a shop and buy a bike set up like this?

Next - Part Two and how it all worked out