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Hi,
I signed up for a charity London to Paris ride today. My main bike is my hardtail Rockrider 8.1, and on occasion I use my dads old tourer (with gear levers on the downtube!), which has 700c wheels and drop handlebars.
Anyway, I am more comfortable on my mountain bike, and feel with slicks on, I may be able to do it.
However, I understand that due to the gear ratio and wheel size (not a 29er convert), my tick over speed would struggle to match that of others on road bikes or tourers.
Just wondering if anyone had any experience of using a mountain bike for something like this, and any advice you may have.
Thanks very much,
Sam.

I would say 100% use the tourer and get used to it fast. My sister did london to pairs last year on a girls racer pretty tailored to her and she said it was hard going.
You can always ride on the hoods or the bars rather than the drops.

I have an Allez and wouldn't give it up for the world on long distance riding

Yep did this ride a few years ago on my Marin HT bike. 272 odd miles, no aching back, able to walk after and kept my own with the road wafer thin road tired bikes... Loved every minute of it....

We went from the London Eye to the Eiffel Tower, the cobbled roads in Paris I was laughing at the others being shaken to bits..

You need to break up the route into stages, we had a mate in the backup vehicle would meet us every 45klm or so, with fresh cold water, chocolate and other nice stuff, with out that we would have suffered.. Also did it in mid July so temps over in France where nudging 32deg so hot hot hot....

Advice is get some good fitting cycle shorts and tops.... and practice doing long rides on roads before hand... English roads are potholed monsters, French roads are better a lot better....

I also did London to Paris a few years ago and I did it on a 2003 Claud Butler Rock (hardtail)
I did all of the training on my XC tyres and swapped to same size slicks (1.95) a couple of days before the ride (same size tubes!). It made a BIG difference, the tyres had a deep “V” profile and were like roadbike tyres in a straight line with very little rolling resistance, and the cornering was superb as there was a lot of tyre contact.
You’ll struggle to keep up with the roadies as they’ll be running 50 or 52 front rings and your 42 or 44 will mean you’re spinning faster. BUT what you have to remember is that it’s not a race and there will be compulsory food and drink stops where everyone regroups. Also as these rides tend to have a load of mixed ability riders, you’ll be faster than some of the roadies anyway. I managed to find a guy riding a Marin hardtail who had a similar fitness level to me and we rode along together most of the time. One of the best moments for us was after having been overtaken on a long drag uphill, we absolutely owned them on the way down the other side and overtook all of them. One of them was particularly p!ssed off with me because I undertook him on a bend whilst shouting “I thought those road bikes were supposed to be fast!”
You can put bar ends on if you need a change of grip (I didn’t).
Bottom line is, if you’re comfortable on your Rockrider, then go for it, because it’ll be much easier on a bike you’re used to.

Not trying to start a fight over it it but do either of you own a road bike or have regular access to one?
i think you would be impressed at how much easier they are to ride

Nope

Road bikes just don't do it for me. found the ride no problem on the Marin HT (had slicks fitted as above made all the difference)

I know road bikes are better on the road than a full bread mountain bike will ever be....Even doing the training for this ride I was beating the roadies I did it with. I have better power to leg ratio than they did as all the XC riding I do. Saying that one of the guys I rode with has done the Lands End to John O'Groats twice one each way, big respect for him doing that...

Hav to say, I would pick up a newer road bike for a few hundred, second hand or new.

It will make a massive difference over both you currently have.

fair enough each to their own

Yes I have a road bike, but it's an old one from the early 90's when I used to do 10 & 25 mile Time Trials with Southgate Cycling Club. For me it just wasn't an option. I knew my road bike was pretty comfortable as I had done a 24 hr ride with the club on it many years ago (237 miles). I've just "gone off" road riding and road bikes. I was pretty confident that I'd be ok on the mountain bike as I had also done Amman to Petra on it over 4 days in 2001 - across the desert in Jordan. So hours in the saddle wasn't a problem as far as comfort was concerned. Also, similar to Chatman, I didn't have a problem keeping pace with the group .... and you get some Kudos for even attempting something like that on a mountain bike!

Each to their own, though - there were a lot of novices on the London - Paris ride that I did and I think there was something like 60 of us in the group - mixed ages, mixed abilities and mixed equipment including a brompton and a couple of "town bikes". Those that couldn't ride up the hills got off and walked - as I said, everyone regrouped regularly and to be honest, the "roadies" who got to the stops earliest, ended up waiting the longest before we all set off again.

A couple of miles from the Eiffel Tower we all regrouped and rode in "en masse" with evryone taking turns to cover junctions to make sure that no one got lost in Paris - so something to remember ... if you are at he front when you leave the last "regroup", you'll soon be at the back as you have to stop at a junction and point the way for everyone else before rejoining the back of the group.

All of my posts relating this have assumed that you are on an organised and probably sponsored ride, rather than doing it with a bunch of mates!

Another option is to stick a bigger chainring on your mountain bike - if you can.

I have done london to south twice (and a few other ones) on my old kona cindercone. First time was with mountain bike tyres, the second with slicks (they made a huge difference). The biggest problem that i had was not with fittness or anything like that, it was speed. Wheels were two small so had to work harder to keep pace with friends on there road/hybrids and then came to tthe second problem of running out of gears (even on the flat sectons at times).

I would say go for a hybrid if you was going to buy a bike for it, more speed than a mountain bike but more comforable than a road bike. If not stick with the mountain bike and have a play around with the front crank and weight loss

I recently did 200 miles for charity on my HT 29er (RIP) so same size wheels as a road bike or hybrid.
My view on it is this, if you have access to a road bike use it, the gearing alone is worth it, the weight of the wheels and tyres will also make a massive difference. (also make sure your brakes work and dont rub, at all, not even a little bit)

previous to this trip i would of said a MTB with slicks would be fine, and it is, but it would be more fun and easier on a bike doing what it was designed to do.

Thanks for all the help and advice. Really appreciated

I think I shall take the tourer however, as I am probably lacking the necessary leg power to take the mountain bike. I took it to my local bike shop in Wanstead, and I think I'll try to put on a carbon fork and some new tyres and re-tape the bars to make it a bit more comfortable, and then I'll try to clock up some miles.

Thanks again.