Piff 

[QUOTE=beicster;20037680]Dang, it's as if they were reading this thread. I'm usually against threadless stems as a rule, but that's promising.

cycletourist69

Hi Everyone,
I love all the cool bikes on here. Have a 1989 Trek 950 project im working on. Tried to post pics of it a few minutes ago but not allowed until after i have at least 10 posts on here.

cycletourist69

Found the 950 on CL and its an immaculate bike. Had the original tires. Not a scuff or blemish. Even the decals at bright looking.

cycletourist69

Got a parts list together which included origin 8 gary ergo bars, origin 8 stem, tektro canti brakes, tektro aero levers, sugino xd crankset i had laying around (hate the old black biopace cranks), 8 speed bar end shifters, had the brooks saddle laying around. Panaracer Tour 1.75 tires.

cycletourist69

Took all the parts and the bike to my LBS 3 days ago and went to pick it up today. The local or regional Trek salesman was in there taking pictures of my bike. Said he wished Trek would make a line of rugged steel framed bikes that are specific to commuting/touring.

cycletourist69

ok

treebound 

I’ve got a Giant Rincon with gummed-up shifters, this thread is giving me ideas.

OTS 

@cycletourist69

Welcome to the Forums

Would love to see your project when you get to 10 posts

beicster 

I ended up ordering one of these for my conversion. I'll post pics and my impressions after it gets here. I am pretty psyched about it.

[QUOTE=beicster;20037680]

degan

No.

cycletourist69

OTS thanks for the welcome. This is a super cool website.

cycletourist69

I joined here recently thinking i would just look at all the cool bikes but that morphed into an intense desire to convert the Trek 950. Now i have enough spare parts to build up another. Thinking about maybe getting a steel frame hybrid bike, something near 135mm drop out spacing for a set of wheels i had built for another project that never got off the ground.

cycletourist69

Tomorrow i will try and post those pictures.

cycletourist69

Everyone have a nice evening!

Coreyk

And now on to version 2.5 of the Caloi posted a bunch of pages back. I found that I couldn't live with the fork length and offset from the old red Bontrager swap-meet fork I had on, so mounted another obtained from E-bay. I do miss the red color of the Bontrager- it had a rough rasta thing going.

The bike *feels* lighter with the replacement fork (same weight as before), and the better length and offset transformed the handling. No hands? No problem! Still very curb-hoppable.

I am futzing with bar height, then plan to cut the steerer and add a V-O Cigne stem to lighten it up further.

bark_eater 

A 23" framed Diamond Back Ascent followed me home a while back. The sizing is dressed left French Fit, so I'm setting it up as Franken-Randonneur. I've started collecting parts. So far I've got a set of Ebay VO Rando bars, and a Blackburn front mountain rack to hold some sort of bag/cooler.
What I need to figure out is whether to go with stem shifters or a clamp on downtube mount. Aesthetically I like the the down tube location, but the shift levers might end up being a long reach with this frame.
Tire's are another question. Panaracers seem like a reasonable choice for cheap fast fat gumwalls.

browngw 

My experience with the stem shifters has been good so far. I generally don't want to put my head down to shift in the rough going. Roadies have made us dislike "stemmies" but they are functional (and cheap). The Panaracer Pasela PT (folding) have been extremely smooth and tough on my Canadian Raleigh 23" frame.

eom 

Pictures? Please.

due ruote 

Does it have braze-ons for shifters? Oversize tubing? Putting a set of standard clamp-on shifters on an oversized downtube isn't going to work very well.

Lots of people wind up going with barends, but stem shifters are an inexpensive alternative. Thumb shifters with a steel clamp can be made to fit road bars with a longer clamp bolt. You may need to be creative with housing runs to keep the front rack area clear of clutter.

OTS 

Good to know, thanks for the update.

bark_eater 

The bike has a 31.8 mm down tube with no braze ons. I would use a clamp on adapter if I went that way.

bark_eater 

Hanging with the rest of the "winter projects"

[IMG]DSCN2842 by woodersonj, on Flickr[/IMG]

mack_turtle

I have a nice mountain bike for trail riding, but it's a bit cumbersome for long-distance pavement/ gravel rides. I can "convert" my mtb to a more pave/gravel format, but the process is a PITA. I would like to have a second bike - steel, rigid fork, cantis, fast-rolling tires, singlespeed - for that purpose and I am looking at something like a State Warhawk, Surly Crosscheck, or All-City Nature Boy. Since my budget is tight, I would be looking for one of those bikes on the used market.

however, i know I could do it even cheaper by purchasing a used bike and converting it. I have my eye on a few old steel mtbs but I have to wonder: will I be satisfied with a mtb/drop bar conversion, or should i hold out until I have the extra money to buy a used CX bike? I don't want to pour a ton of my limited funds into buying conversion parts (bars, stem, brake and drivetrain bits, etc) into an old bike conversion if I am going to immediately regret it and start looking for a more modern bike for that purpose.

beicster 

Hard to say whether you will immediately regret it. If you really want an old CX bike, then you should hold out for one. That being said, I love my conversion but I was able to do it with a bike I already had and parts I had on hand. I had a Soma Double Cross and I like the fact that my drop bar mountain bike can use fatter tires.

mack_turtle

thanks for the feedback!

to clarify, i am fine with the labor - I build my own wheels and service suspension and all that after working in a shop for several years. I owned a Double Cross Disc for just this purpose, but sold it because I needed the money to replace the rear wheel on my mtb.

good deals on decent older bikes are hard to find where I live. everyone sells their old bikes as "vintage" to hipsters with money burning a hole in their pockets. the local thrift stores sell rusty old bikes that need $200-300 in parts to be rideable for hundreds of dollars to such suckers. I scoured the local bike co-op yesterday for a suitable 700c bike for this purpose and came up empty. however, I was only looking at 700c hybrids and didn't spend any time with 26" mountain bikes. I will have to go back and check those. I just don't want to spend the time and money on half-assing such a bike when i would be better off buying something that is purpose built. I don't see my financial situation changing any time soon, so the shoestring budget I am on now is going to stay for a bit.