Originally Posted by
rhender
Hi
Goosecheck
I have been bitten by the retro-mtb-to-dropbar-conversion bug and have been looking for a frame that matches what I'm looking for. Your Rockadile is exactly the kind of build that I had in mind and I would love to see some more pics if you have them.
Was wondering if you could give me some more details about it? Did you have to do any frame modifications to get it fit 2.8s? Is that the stock fork or did it originally have a suspension fork? Do you think you could go any bigger with the tires?
You might not know this off hand, but do you know if there is a significant difference between the Rockadile and the Rockadile SX? There's an SX on my local CL, and I might jump at if I thought I could achieve something like what you've got here. From the pics on the ad, it doesn't seem like it would take 2.8s but it's difficult to tell.
Thanks!
Ray
Hello Ray! I’ll hit your questions best I can.
-No frame mods required to fit the 2.8s.
-Current fork is actually a Surly 1x1 fork I put installed with the drop bar conversion project.
-The original stock fork was a Tange Cro-Mo standard fork. However, sometime in the late ‘90 I swapped that out with a Rockshox Indy C and ran with that up until I did the drop conversion.
-There is absolutely no more room in the back for more rubber! It’s a few millimeters of gap on the chain stays (pix below)
-Assuming the Rockadile and Rockadile SX
are from the same year, the only difference should be that the SX has the suspension fork. The rest of the components are the same between the two, and I would be confident that the frame geometry/spacing would also be the same. But if comparing between different model years then I would not be so sure.
Below are a few more pix of my Rockadile. Athens first two are from a couple years ago. The rest are current. It’s racked out right now and a bit dirtier than the original pic you saw. Here is the primary parts rundown involved with my drop conversion: Kept the original Front/Rear Shimano STX derailleurs and crankset. Installed Tektro Canti brakes, Cane Creek levers, Shimano bar-ends, SOMA Junebug bars, and Ritchey Comp stem. I also swapped out the original Araya wheelset for a set of Vuelta Zerolite clinchers from Bike Nashbar. A quite decent, inexpensive set that has been outstanding. I actually have two sets of Vueltas for this bike; one wearing 26x40mm Vittoria Randonneurs for streets/trails/gravel, the other wearing the 2.8s for more rugged/nastier surfaces. I switch between them depending on riding.
I’m curious to see the bike you are looking at to see if it’s the same year. Can you send a CL link or a screenshot of the picture from the listing? Hope this info helps, let me know there is anything else I can provide. Follow up if you pull the trigger.
Michael
