Want to make a cheap all terrainish bike, need advice

[Ch1mp]

Hi,

From not being massively into bikes I now ride about 600km a month to get to and from a job. I live int eh Castelli Romani in the country and to avoid the truck ont he main road I have a few options down the lanes, it's hilly, one of the options is gravel with a ouple of km of muddy tracks with some rocky bits. 90% of the route is italian style potholed crumbly tarmac

I'm currently riding a too small for me MTB frame on 26" wheels, I got some half decent tyres for it and pumped them up to their max psi and the difference on the road was just unbelievable. This got me thinking (I have too much time for thinking now I commute on my bike) that I must be able to do other dramatic improvements to the machine I pedal to get the most of the appearance of actual muscles in my legs (something new).

Sooo, the dilemma is, how best cheaply make something durable and fast over a variety of surfaces and (very) steep hills. Start with a 29er MTB frame in aluminium and build from there? An old cyclocross steel frame and build from there? An old road frame which will take fatter rims? I'm not interested in suspension as my current MTB is fixed and even coming down the rockier stuff I survive ok.

Can anyone give me some advice?

 

[02gf74]

I suggest 26 or 29 with lockout on forks. You can be rigid on roads and smooth tracks but have suspension on rocky stuff.

 

[Ch1mp]

I suggest 26 or 29 with lockout on forks. You can be rigid on roads and smooth tracks but have suspension on rocky stuff.

So I guess to make that as fast as poss on the road, I'd go for a 29, skinniest rims possible and a tyre with low rolling resistance that can handle some loose stuff every now and again? My only doubts with this is that like I said I'm 90% on tarmac (albeit the sketchy potholed Italian variety) so having the bike more geared to offroad is going to make sure I can handle the more "country" bits but is it too penalising on the road? I'm finding with decent tyres for tarmac at high pressure that the biggest chain ring isn't enough on the MTB I have now, so I guess going down the 29 route I could put a more road oriented gearing on it?

 

[cce]

Sounds like a cyclocross bike could be the way forward

 

[Ch1mp]

Re:

I like the idea of the cyclocross I think, should be faster over the tarmac than a mtb but be able to handle the more rustic stuff?

Any suggestions on what sort of makes/models I should be looking at? I have absolutely no idea where to start, I'm on here because I thought something that was a great frame 20 years ago will be more than good enough for me. I don't have the money to drop a couple of grand on a new bike and I would like to increase my speed as much as possible (I know most of that is going to be down to heart/lungs and legs, but just changing the tyres on the MTB was a real eye opener to what changing kit can mean...) so something older should be cheaper to do right?

I don't mind doing it piece by piece and learning how to put it all together, actually I would love it as a project and to be in a position where I know the machine inside out would be ideal for keeping it on the road longer term.

Good old skool steel cyclocross frame that will be easy to find the rest of the bits for? Is £100-£200 realistic?

Cheers.

 

[jimo746]

Sounds like a cyclocross bike could be the way forward

I would agree with that ^^^.

Ch1mp, do you mean £100-200 for the frame only ? Or a complete bike?

You can get decent enough modern cx bikes for a few hundred pounds, have you considered buying new?

 

[Ch1mp]

Yeah £100-£200 for the frame, then monthly about £100 on bits till it's finished.

As for new, yeah I've looked at lots of stuff, but over here it seems I'd have to part with at least €500 for something decentish (I admit to having little clue what decent is). Whereas used, and older I'm thinking, I could get better parts for the same money?

Or am I wrong there?

 

[hopper22]

Re:

Im new to road bikes, I'm concidering taking on a long commute I've been looking at the Saracen hack, looks like cross bike but I might be wrong, I find the whole road bike category thing confusing, I know you want to build your own bike but have you considered finance, most places in the uk will do 0%, you don't have the fun of building the bike yourself but you can get a well sorted bike for a good price.

Vid of bike.

http://youtu.be/R54qqk1d8fk

 

[Ch1mp]

that certainly looks like it'd handle most stuff you could throw at it! I'll check out prices here but finance is tricky as I'm self employed. Good idea though.

On the cyclocross tip, does this look ok? https://translate.google.com/translate? ... inio-XL-57

translation (dodgy) by google. hopefully enough to get an idea though, €400 is roughly £327, plus I'd need some rims.

 

[jezzaboy]

I had a great time in Tuscany, riding on and off road last year on an 1996 steel kona Hahanna. It only cost £50, I took it as a spare for my pals, but folk fought each other to ride it. It had skinny dual purpose tyres, with a bigger 46t chain ring I fitted, on a modern-ish chainset. Great fun blasting up and down twisty roads.
But I agree that a second-hand cyclocross bike can be brill. A buddy just put cross tyres and rims on an ols Raleigh tourer, a great ride.