Gravel Bike Genesis

[allenh]

This will probably appeal to chaps of a certain vintage but back in the 70's and 80's before the gravel bike was a glint in a marketing mans eye, long before the advent of the Mountain Bike and for that matter the Raleigh Bomber, those of us that couldn't convince our mums to buy us a Raleigh Grifter had to be resourceful.

During that time the Tracker was born, no one knows who was first to fit a set of inexplicably wide cowhorn handlebars on a bicycle but when they did it sparked something in a generation. They were a hodgepodge of whatever the builder could lay his hands on but all had a very similar look.

I must admit I had pretty much forgotten about these cycling mongrels until someone posted a picture of theirs in one of the Facebook cycling groups and it breought back a lot of memories of the things I'd put together in my youth.

So due to work and home commitments I haven't built anything for a good while but I bought some bars and grips in preparation and when they'd arrived had a free day yesterday and set to work digging in my boxes of tat I'd probably not use.

First stop was this Falcon 531 frame, but its a bit too good but also too scruffy even for this build.



So next up was this old BSA TDF I'd been looking at doing something with for ages, its a bit too modern as it would have been a current bike when I was a lad but is the correct level of frame for this purpose.



Next up was to collect some bits together.

The forks were intended to replace the very scruffy ones on the Falcon frame and might still end up on there at a later date for a different build

 

[allenh]

On the BSA all the bearings were as dry and tight as could be so that was the first job but the cheap bearing shells cleaned up well enough


So back together and bearings all cleaned and greased a bit of assembly started.


.

 

[allenh]

Last bit of the jigsaw is gumwall tyres.



And finally the tracker is born.

Not one of my longest builds but hey ho its sued up a load of old bits and I reckon it will turn heads while i'm out on it.

 

[Blacktopdisciple]

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing. I think Trackers were born in the 1940's when kids built cycle speedway tracks on bomb sites and raced around. I built a Tracker when I was a kid. It was a singlespeed. A schoolfriend built one as a fixed gear with a Grifter front wheel and Honda C90 leading link front fork (or something smiliar).

 

[Ralph_the_Rohan]

Love the bike!

Here’s a pic of my Dad and Nan with his Tracker back in 1958...



We built loads round our way back in the 70s, only with 26” wheels though. 27s were exotic racer wheels for us!

 

[allenh]

We built loads round our way back in the 70s, only with 26” wheels though. 27s were exotic racer wheels for us!

That pic is superb.

And yes we built shed loads of them, its probably where my insistence on having a garage full of bikes and bits comes from, I mean you never know when you're going to need to put a bike together do you?

I was born in 68 so my bikes were more late 70's early 80's and by then 27" were common enough so the 700's would have been the exotic ones, in my time most would have been 5 speed bikes so my BSA is a tad on the exotic side for my era being a 10 speed.

 

[Ralph_the_Rohan]

Ours were all either single speed or occasionally 3-Speed SA Hub. Again, 5 and 10 speeds were beyond our means!

You've made me want one now!

I still have the frame from my last one in my garage, built around 84. It had Renthal Motocross handlebars, the ones with a bolt-on brace, so it could be fitted to a normal stem. Needed a pretty thick shim (Coke cans) though.

Perhaps I'll knock one up when I get the opportunity.

 

[allenh]

Perhaps I'll knock one up when I get the opportunity.

Sounds like a very good idea to me but I'm taking no responsibility for when you take it up the woods and fall off.