noglider 

Where is this? I love the scenery. Google tells me Idaho.

Rides4Beer

With her gravel shoes on, and after Saturday's race.

big chainring 

After looking at new bikes for about a month now, I decided to turn one of my vintage 10 speeds into a gravel bike. Couldnt see spending $1000 on a new bike. So got a qt. of gloss enamel, painted my frame, and put on some Kenda tires. Waiting for the paint to dry so not completely built back up.


This is what a lot of cyclists used back in the day for cyclocross racing. No one would use their road racer off road, and no one had the money to buy a dedicated cyclocross bike. So you found a beater bike boom 10 speed and made do.

mstateglfr 

^ Perfect for all that North Shore gravel.**

...i guess the Des Plaines trail is crushed stone for much of the way.

noglider 

@big chainring, I did the same. I like yours very much.
1971 Raleigh Super Course with 2x8 indexed drivetrain

big chainring 

And southern Wisconsin

pcons713

My converted mid-90s Giant Chaos MTB. Decent frame with double butted tubes including stays and a threadless headset. I used MicroShift / MicroNew 3x7 shifters to match the original Deore LX drivetrain and they work perfectly. All around a great budget gravel build (approx. 130 EUR all in).

DorkDisk

Had this Diverge Elite E5 for a day. Picked it up Monday, returned it on Tuesday. BH in Chelsea said rotor rubbing is normal and will wear in. Nice bike, bad QC. This is what I get for trying to buy my first new bike in 28 years.

mstateglfr 

Fantastic color! The light tan skinwall tires work great against the frame color.
Whats most impressive is that this looks like a drop bar bike vs an mtb thats coverted to a drop bar bike. Some 26" mtb conversions end up with really wild bar placements and whatnot due to frame geometry. This looks like it belongs.

mstateglfr 

is the bad QC the rotor rub? If the rotor is not straight, thats an easy fix( i assume the shop checked). If it is straight, then it could just be the brake caliper needs to be aligned(again, I assume the shop checked). Every disc brake bike Ive set up had rotor rub to begin with, and aligning the calipers to the rotor solved the problem. The whole system is meant to be adjustable, just like rim brakes are adjustable.

Rides4Beer

That is one lazy bike shop. Rotor rub is not normal, and can def be adjusted for. Either the caliper is out of alignment, or the rotor is out of true, or a lil of both. But it's easily fixed.

pcons713

Thanks, I got lucky that the original owner installed a beefy steer tube extender and that heavy overbuilt spacer. I know there can be some concern with using stem extenders but it's rock solid and the solid metal spacer and steel steer-tube gives me a little more peace of mind. With this I could get a good fit and still a 'traditional' stem angle. That super short stem (maybe 40-50mm) compensates for the long top tube and doesn't seem to negatively impact handling either. Rides as good as it looks, but my spouse thinks the camo bar tape proves I have no style 😂

DorkDisk

The first day I returned and told them about the rubbing rotor and they did nothing. I am standing on the sidewalk and the rub cannot be heard. The next day I returned and this time the manager came out, asked me if I have ever had disk brakes before. I confirm that I have, for about 16 years now. She then asks, "hydraulic?." "Yes." She then points out the orange stickers on the rotors and removes them from me, tells me that there is no rubbing, and that she will be there the whole day. I live like 6 blocks away, I return to my apartment and noticee that they did NOTHING to my rear caliper. I record the clearly audible rubbing and send it to the manager. At the same time, I call Specialized and they confirm what everyone already knows and recommends a warranty claim. Store manager offered me a refund so I took it.






The thing is, overnight I tried to adjust this. The caliper is crooked, so my guess was that the mount needed to be faced. Or the piston was sticking. Something; anything, except nothing.

I'm not the best mechanic, but I have worked in bike shops off and on over 30 years of cycling. My last stint was a few years ago and as an old school MTBer, I am very familiar with hydraulic disk brakes. I have four bikes with hydraulic brakes that I built and none have ever had rotor rub.

Upon return, the manager said there were three people who wanted that bike so it was not a problem for me to return it.

There were some other issues with the bike, the compression cap was not installed correctly, the few threads I saw (stem bolts and rear axle) were dry. I was told that was how they come, and they don't touch that. Not impressed. They tried to blow off the scuffed bar tape, altogether it was too much for me.

Oh, and they charged my card twice. So I had to call the bank. But it got me thinking. I bought in online and was charged. I got an email saying that they'd rather return that bike to S instead of selling it to me. I was maybe charged a second time because I got a different bike.

tdilf

Run don't walk away from that place.

tangerineowl

Recently tried the 27.5x2.2 Conti SpeedKing Racesport, for mild gravel and sand across flatter gradients and sealed roads. Running tubeless in the back with an S-Tubo up front, as these tyres aren't tubeless from what I understand. Very fast for a 650b (faster than the extralight ReneHerse 48mm slick. Plus, I prefer the larger tyre height/rolling diameter, over those).

Phatman

So I bought this:



so I took this:



and turned it into this--Kona Jake the Snake EVOO!!


so I could have a townie/baby trailer puller/commuter bike. The fit is very short with the flat bars, and I might get a set of wider risers to stretch me out and raise me up a pinch. For now it works. The brakes are awful though, I suspect the road calipers with the mtb levers is the source of the issue. I might just have to get some mtb hydraulics to fix that issue!

Caber Guy

My poor sweet Olive, just before disaster struck...

daanbr78

cool picture!

daanbr78

very cool a single speed!

Rides4Beer

New wheels.

mstateglfr 

Wow, a lot going on here.

Beautiful traditional diameter tube frame with wrap around stays.
Modern enve rims with canti brakes.
Modern crankset with mtb RD and suntour barcons for shifting

Its such a hodgepodge and really cool.

pbass

Well, I've never raced 'cross (the closest I got was riding the course pre-race one time while all the actual racers either blew past me or got pissed 'cause I was in the way), but I do have a Cross Check that I adore. It's been singlespeed, drop-bar, flat-bar, 1x11, alt bar--you name it. Currently ss flat-bar which is a ton of fun (excuse my saggy chain pls!).

Wolf Dust

Surly is the best bike company in the world, and the Cross Check is probably the best bike they make.

Wolf Dust

Might I ask what the disaster was?

jan nikolajsen 

Thanks, yeah parts bin bike.