Not very retro I know but a bit different.I currently do quite a bit of road riding and commuting on my Trek 1200,for those who havnt seen one its a very square horizontal toptubed gate tbh so I wanted to upgrade my frame to something a bit more sloping/attack style.Because im very tall everything I looked at including CX frames were still the same shape as my Trek,it seems that only short asses get the cool looking frames 
so i started looking into MTB framesets.
I did some research into this and it seemed loaded with pitfalls with gearing and compatability problems,still I seen this as a challenge so carried on.
Started off by getting a Giant XTC0 Alliance frame in 20" for a realy good price from the bay of evil.I wanted to run Ultegra SL groupo on it and this is where the first problem arose,the chainstays caught as the spindle length was too short,I came up with a theory...
Some measuring was done...
Distance(using a spacer) between frame & crankarm ctc (Driveside)..
this much clearance to chainstay..
And non-drive side...
As they sat...
So I took the cranks into work and cut the spindle in half :shock: made a 14.6mm spacer sleeve,then welded it and pinned for safe measure,an alloy spacer was made and fitted for the drive side to get the correct sitting alongside the chainstays then 2 ordinary bb spacer rings on the non-drive side...
I also wanted to run dropbars with Sti's,another problem apparently as the throw is different on stis to xc shifters,back one worked fine straightaway,after trying a few front mechs I found that an XT triple works fine with the double compact and brifters and loads of adjustability too
Onto brakes,I originally fitted Avid BB7's with road specific calipers for the brifters but another challenge arose,back to the drawing board...
This was my initial design using Avid Elixir hydraulic brakes but they were far too expensive to start hacking to bits,so I had an old Hope mono mini in the shed doing nowt.Usind the same leverage design as the original lever I designed a fulcrum lever which would be cable pulled from card,then cut it out of Teflon...
Used Hopes pivot bushes...
Cleaned up the lever body ready for paint as it was quite bashed up...
First fitting...
Drilled a hole through the body to accomadate the cable & Painted...
Was going to fit 26" wheels but I felt the bike would sit too low at the front for me,worked out that I could fit 29er wheels with CX tyres on with enough clearance so opted for these instead with 29er Carbon rigid forks up front,a friend of mine built the wheels for me as he's bloody good at them..
Thats about it really,long-assed way around of doing things I know but wanted the challenge,few things to be done yet,the RH side reservior diaphram is pants and leaks so new ones ordered and im going to make some Ti versions of the fulcrum levers,the Teflons very nice and light but gets grubby really quickly and eventually will wear.
Some pics,comments plus & neg appreciated.
andy
so i started looking into MTB framesets.I did some research into this and it seemed loaded with pitfalls with gearing and compatability problems,still I seen this as a challenge so carried on.
Started off by getting a Giant XTC0 Alliance frame in 20" for a realy good price from the bay of evil.I wanted to run Ultegra SL groupo on it and this is where the first problem arose,the chainstays caught as the spindle length was too short,I came up with a theory...
Some measuring was done...
Distance(using a spacer) between frame & crankarm ctc (Driveside)..
this much clearance to chainstay..
And non-drive side...
As they sat...
So I took the cranks into work and cut the spindle in half :shock: made a 14.6mm spacer sleeve,then welded it and pinned for safe measure,an alloy spacer was made and fitted for the drive side to get the correct sitting alongside the chainstays then 2 ordinary bb spacer rings on the non-drive side...
I also wanted to run dropbars with Sti's,another problem apparently as the throw is different on stis to xc shifters,back one worked fine straightaway,after trying a few front mechs I found that an XT triple works fine with the double compact and brifters and loads of adjustability too
Onto brakes,I originally fitted Avid BB7's with road specific calipers for the brifters but another challenge arose,back to the drawing board...
This was my initial design using Avid Elixir hydraulic brakes but they were far too expensive to start hacking to bits,so I had an old Hope mono mini in the shed doing nowt.Usind the same leverage design as the original lever I designed a fulcrum lever which would be cable pulled from card,then cut it out of Teflon...
Used Hopes pivot bushes...
Cleaned up the lever body ready for paint as it was quite bashed up...
First fitting...
Drilled a hole through the body to accomadate the cable & Painted...
Was going to fit 26" wheels but I felt the bike would sit too low at the front for me,worked out that I could fit 29er wheels with CX tyres on with enough clearance so opted for these instead with 29er Carbon rigid forks up front,a friend of mine built the wheels for me as he's bloody good at them..
Thats about it really,long-assed way around of doing things I know but wanted the challenge,few things to be done yet,the RH side reservior diaphram is pants and leaks so new ones ordered and im going to make some Ti versions of the fulcrum levers,the Teflons very nice and light but gets grubby really quickly and eventually will wear.
Some pics,comments plus & neg appreciated.
andy
