RST Off-Road

[wheezy]

Bearing in mind it's supposed to be a road bike, how does your Sports Tour cope off-road?

Can it compare with the average rigid MTB?

[Swislon]

The only off-road I've taken it on are rough bridleways. The limitation tends to be the tyres because mine's set up for the road. Also reasonably close clearance for the mudguards. I guess if it had more off road tyres and no mudguards it would stand up to harsher terrain like the original steel mountain bikes of yore. If there is some rough or green road on my planned or not planned route I'd go for it but I wouldn't plan an exclusive off road excursion on my RST.
If you do a search you'll find Stutho had quite a jaunt on his.[]

[stutho]

Hi Wheezy,

The thread swislon is referring to is here  I have used my RST off-road several times now.  (Off road to me means bridleway or worse)  I actually really like the way the RST handles off-road however there are a few limiting factors.  (Most notably the low BB height and the tyre clearance.)

If you compare the RST to the Tour and the Nomad you will find that the RST has the shortest chain stay this should make it the most agile of the 3 and therefor the sweetest handling off road.  The caveat in this is that the RST also uses the thinnest tubes of the 3 and has the least tyre clearance

My RST is a MK1 short top tube version set up with drop bars.  This means it is not compatible with a shock absorbing forks.  Most of the time I don't miss them however on rough descents there is no denying the advantage of a good suspension fork.

One final note. the MK1 has (I believe) greater tyre clearance than new RST.  I use 1.95 tyres

[wheezy]

Thanks for the input, chaps.

This more or less summed up what I was hoping would be the case. I took my 700c hybrid with 35mm tyres out onto the South Downs Way this weekend. Only did about 15 miles (out and back) and although it wasn't in the least technical or difficult, the bike and myself took a bit of a hammering. It would suggest that while not ideal, the RST with front suspension would cope OK.

Perhaps the wrong place to ask, but how big a job is fork exchanging? Is it a workshop ordeal or the equivalent of changing my socks?

[stutho]

Switching over forks can be very simple. FSA headsets (standard on Ravens) are easy to transfer to a different fork. I would say the biggest issue is setting up the brake callipers. To simplify the process it would be worth getting a spare set of callipers and cable, which you could permanently set up on the 2nd fork - disconnect the brake cable at the lever end.  (NOT an option using drops!)

If you have got the fork set up (with a second set of callipers) you could make the switch in less than 10min

NB It might be best, for the 1st fitting, to get your LBS to do the work of fitting the star nut.