Quiverofbikes

Thinking about converting my old Sandvik Ti mtn bike to gravel bike. This bike has seen some years of hard service on the north shore of Vancouver. I've pounded on this bike. So it owes me nothing, but it time to sweep the dust off and repurpose. The frame is old school mtn bike geometry, originally designed by the guys at Cove cycles. I've slightly ovalized the head tube through abuse, and it will need some thoughts and prayers (heat) to get the bottom bracket out. It was last changed in 2003 when bike was retired to the garage of "I'll never sell you, but other shiny objects in favour". Now wife has gravel bike, and this frame is worthy of fresh look. It has V brake mounts in rear. I've got a rigid IRO CroMo fork that is suspension adjusted that I can put on front with a disc. Frame and fork will take a 700c wheel with more than enough clearances. It has square taper Race Face Forged cranks, 24, 36 46, some old 8speed xtr bits and the worlds heaviest handlbars. I do have an old BontragerTi flatbar kicking about. Also has an Thompson seat post. So some good stuff to work with a least it was good stuff from the mid 90s.


Some questions for you guys.


1 Should I, or put back it in the rack of one day I will get it fixed up?

2 Drop bars or Flatbar?

3 new groupset or stick with the old 8 speed and keep the cranks and xtr bits on a flatbar?

4 would the rideability change much if I went with a modern carbon fork with no suspension adjustment? The frame was designed for 3-4" or suspension.

JaccoW

It depends on how much money you want to spend but I would suggest just giving it a quick overhaul and clean to get it riding again and see how you like it on a gravel ride.
What you mentioned (700C wheels fit, possible disc brake compatible) sounds like a great basis at the very least.

You can go completely crazy and spend a lot of money on it if you love the bike but I would suggest taking it to a bike shop or a frame builder to take a look at that ovalized head tube. That sounds like it might be a problem.

Some inspiration:

• Vintage MTB To Upright Bar / Urban Bike Conversions - C&V Subforum
• Show Your Vintage MTB Drop Bar Conversions - C&V Subforum

I would love to use an old-school titanium MTB as basis for a gravel build but it's hard to find for decent one in my size around here.

P.s. Get your post count up to 10 through interacting on the forum here. Then start a thread in either the Classic & Vintage or Mountain biking subforums.

EDIT: If you want an affordable group set suggestion, take a look at Microshift's Advent X 10-speed groupset.

DorkDisk

I'd start with stripping the frame down bare to asses its overall condition, especially the head tube before committing to any type of overhaul.

grubetown

Sounds like a great project to me

Agree with what has been stated so far to get the frame checked. Only other obstacle of converting to 700 might be getting the rim brakes to line up correctly.

Quiverofbikes

They do make adapters for 26" to 700c for brakes. Looks like an old school brake booster.

Frame should be fine. Might go through bearings in head set quicker though. I've riden lots on this bike with the headtube as it is.

dwmckee

Normally converting a flat bar frame to a drop bar does not work out well because flat bar frames have pretty long top tubes for a given size and you want to put the drop bars right on top of the steerer tube to be in proper position, but an older MTB frame might work a little better than a newer one to convert. Still, I think safer to stay with a flat bar for best fit. I do worry about the ovalized steerer though... I'd go 9 speed Sora with a sub compact 2x crank to keep the costs down and still have a versatile bike. 9 Speed means you can mix road and MTB parts and all are compatible so you can use a 36 tooth cassette and long cage rear derailleur, etc.

tredleyboy

I'd say do it. I picked up a mid 90's Ti Voodoo frame 2nd hand about 5 years ago and have been giving it plenty of love since - as a single speed, as a geared trail shredder, but for the last few years a bikepack rig and a kid cart. It's set up as a mullet with the rigid carbon fork. The frame is confidence inspiring as it never shows as much as a scratch in response to all the abuse it has received.

Dylansbob 

Problem with those horseshoe adapters is they really restrict how big of tire you can fit. I've got the old Mavic Speedcity one and a 28c is a hard fit.

ProMax makes some bmx v-brakes that have superlong pad adjustment slots. I've used them to go from 26" to 650b, they'd probably make 700s.

mstateglfr 

Do the math on the front end fork change. 4" difference is massive. You will have a totally different feeling bike because the head tube angle and trail will be wildly different than what it was designed around.

If you want to spend a bunch of money to lipstick up the frame, then use the tire size the frame was designed for and get quality wide tires. Then use a fork that has the same A-C measurement as the bike was designed around. Lastly, set the bars up so the hoods are at/close to the flat bar grips.

Getting 700c wheels for it is a kludge. Using a fork with 4" difference on A-C is a kludge. And this doesnt even address the fact that the head tube is oval...how does one garage DIY a titanium head tube back into roundness?

Quiverofbikes

Ya i beginning to agree. I'll mock it up and see if looks fugly.

I already have the fork that has a similar axle -crown number to the original design. I had it set up as commuter bike. It is still a fun bike to ride and puts a smile on my face.

Oval head tube is fixed by throwing money at one of my local guys, Dekerf or Brodie. But it isn't that bad..... yet. Might just ride into ground, and hang on wall. The water battle cages rivets are toasted after decades of use too. No dents, and no cracked welds which was a problem on these frames from the riding they got on the north shore.

The top tube of mtn bike 59cm and my road bike is 57cm with a 100mm stem and 100mm reach bars. I'd need to keep in same ball park, so a 90mm stem and 80mm reach bars gets me close.

As I rummage through parts bin, I realize how much worn out crap I have. If nothing else it has helped me purge the bins.

mack_turtle

can you make it fit with a drop bar? if it fits well with a flat bar, adding a drop bar will add several inches to the overall reach. if you can make it fit by using a shorter stem without getting silly, that could work.

msu2001la

Is it really possible to run 700c wheels on a 26" MTB frame with a rim brake? Seems like several inches of difference, no? And assuming you can solve the brake alignment challenge, you'd end up with a much higher BB and toe overlap.

Does anyone have photos of such a conversion? I've always loved 90's MTB bikes.

Quiverofbikes

IDK. I will put some wheels on it and find out. The rim is only 3/4" bigger in radius, plus tires will be less tall than the 2.35" I used to run at the front. So how much toe overlap. It will also go from a 4" shock to a steel fork with rake.

I'm more playing about it with it. I have most of the bits to make it happen. Right now it is set up with a 70mm 25° rise stem, however it origanlly came with a 130mm stem and I rode that for years too.

Rear brake is the biggest challenge if i went to 700c and drop bar. I can bodge something to fit im sure. Who uses rear brakes anyways. Lol Ride dont slide, and don't hurt the dirt or so says the race face headsets.

dwmckee

Well, I would not do this, but good luck. If you want to compare current stem to the replacement options here is a tool we ise for conversions at our shop. You can compare before and after bar positions when you change a stem to figure out how much rise and reach have changed:

Stem Comparison Tool | yojimg.net

It is a very useful tool for such things.

Quiverofbikes

Thanks for the link. Love the graphical display of angles. Wish I had bothered to learn coding better when I was in engbeering school, but there was a keg to be tapped.

vgmightyp

This video from Spindatt may give you some ideas

Quiverofbikes

I cant post pics or links yet.
on pinkbike there is the same frame built up with 700c flat bar set up. Search Hummer under gravel/cx in buysell. He had DeKerf weld on the rear disc mounts. I think it looks pretty good. Hmm i think I'm going to spend a few hours seeing if I can make it work as a Franken bike with a part from every different bike part manufacturer i can pull out of my box. A six pack of beer and several cuss words later I may get it riding after long weekend.

dwmckee

This way we can still drink beer and benefit fron the fruits of other people's labor!

It is a quite useful tool for such things and for people that want to raise bars but keep same reach. etc. We use it occasionally; it takes out a lot of guesswork from holding up a different stem and going hmmmm with one eye closed.