Pace RC200 Gravel / Adventure Conversion.. A little Help Here?

[Betsy]

You could cure the damp cellar with some diy lining, active ventilation and dehumidification. it would make the space much more usable.
Workshop? Bike rack? Minibar?
The choice is yours

It's an early Victorian house with a deep cellar but no dampcourse.. the water comes up through the floor.. wet / dry season has no bearing, the floor can be dry in the winter or wet in the summer, it's the water table moving up/down, we have underground streams making their way to the Porter.

Fullwood, in ye'olde times, when this was all farmland was called foulwood.. so basically swamp land .. folks down the street have an underground stream passing through their cellar with some of those plastic duckboards on the floor, the type you see on CalMac island hopping ferries, to keep your luggage dry.. other folks have had their cellars converted, tanked, sumps, pumps ect.. but all this does is force the problem away from the floor and either into your foundations or the neighbouring property.. we live in the end terrace so have less of a problem.. when we moved in, i linned the cellar ceiling with 12" of sheeps wool i had imported from Ireland to keep the living room cozy, with a membrane, like Gore-Tex, pinned over the joists, so the wool can absorb moisture and the directional membrane allows it to breath and keep the joists dry.. wooly jumper theory!

I opened up the old coal shoot and i have a fan down there on a timer to keep air circulating so it's not too bad but the floor is pretty much always damp, when the Porter floods, we have an inch of standing water.. i used to bail this out but it disappears when the water table drops.. if i use a dehumidifier the source of water never stops.. it's like dehumidifiing the outside

 

[phatboytwo]

Great advice above

we build quite a few touring bikes, wilderness riders, World tourers, local mileeaters...

Here's what I'd say 1st off if you came in and asked my advice:

1: rim width effects fitted&inflated tyre diameter. a narrower rim gives a smaller max od.
It's hard to know max tyre size without fitting it on the wheel in the frame, and different riders are comfortable with different clearance.

Buy 1 27.5 tyre at max poss size, see if it fits ok, if it's too tight, use it on the front, and just go 1 size down on the back.

A slightly larger volume tyre up front gives a little more front suspension, and once the front wheel has gone there, the rest will surely follow.

2: thru axle front makes a big difference to stiffness/strength hence control, weight and feel.

Thru axle rear allows different frame design/ compliance, but irrelevant here anyway

Thru axle front/ qr rear is common for good reason -it makes plenty of sense.

3: same size frame 90s mtb and 21st century tour/ Gravel setup.

Drops with STI pull you forward, so a shorter stem gets your comfort back.
(Bar end shifters put you firmly in the Dropbar 90s MTB camp)

If you went smaller in the frame size, the bike would feel less stable.

4: many of our customers riding sometime on tarmac don't get on with 1x.
1x's a mtb thing really. Nothing wrong with a f.mech on a gravel frame -
1x's roots are in fullsus, where chainline is less important than freedom in frame design.

The double choice up front allows 11-40 or so to be plenty on the back

I personally use 105 34/50 on 11-40 11 speed, and have built a lot of all round bikes for faster customers with this setup, they are all happy.

Grx is good if you want little gears and can sacrifice top speed, so a good choice for heavily laden plodders.

5: 105 hydros if you want good brakes. Simple.

These recommendations wont suit plenty of individuals - one of my colleagues uses klampers- they are good... for a cable brake.

Shimano hydros properly fitted and maintained (which is almost never) are incredibly reliable and amazing in function.
Personally though I use hope rx4 calipers

Sounds like a great idea - the only risk is raising the BB, which might be higher than average to start with given the period of frame design.

If you want to ride the pace though, bb height is pretty irrelevant, you might not even notice.

 

[phatboytwo]

Sound advice