so old MTB frame to gravel bikes? thoughts? update on 30/06/24

[bikeworkshop]

Lack of disc mounts.

Old rigid mtbs work well enough with flat-ish bars.
You can put drops on them if you want, early 90s mtbs mostly had straight touring geometry, many were quality steel, but discs and larger wheels offer the benefit for gravelly touring.

I'm just putting some disc mounts onto a dawes edge to see if we can find a modern market for it. 27five or 700.

26 is dead in the bike marketing world - not my choice, most of my offroad bikes are 26.

 

[klunkrider]

Lack of disc mounts.

Old rigid mtbs work well enough with flat-ish bars.
You can put drops on them if you want, early 90s mtbs mostly had straight touring geometry, many were quality steel, but discs and larger wheels offer the benefit for gravelly touring.

I'm just putting some disc mounts onto a dawes edge to see if we can find a modern market for it. 27five or 700.

26 is dead in the bike marketing world - not my choice, most of my offroad bikes are 26.

Not sure if that was in response to me.

I've looked back through some of my old builds and found this Muddyfox which has a bit of a dorky stem fitted

But also this of my Surly that has a somewhat better (imo) stem set up. I remember I also had this built with a very 'normal' looking 100mm 6deg Thomson stem but switched to this one to get my weight back a bit.

These are from way back before 'gravel' bikes were a thing, I was just messing about building stuff.

Not sure I've got the right geo chart for the Surly, might be for one of the later ones with a more sloping toptube, but if it's right then the toptube on that was 63cm which is a bit longer than my Arkose and quite considerably longer than the similarly sized (according to the seattube) '86 Rockhopper I have which only has a 55cm top tube.

 

[klunkrider]

The Surly but with dropouts for gears and maybe made of lighter tubing is what I need to find.

 

[bikeworkshop]

The Surly but with dropouts for gears and maybe made of lighter tubing is what I need to find.

Soma have some frames made of nice tubing, likewise salsa or all city? Surly ride quality is a bit plain for the current price tag.