Chrome Molly

Had the Croll out on real MTB trails today, and happy to report it does equally well on the trails as on the road. I was actually quite surprised to be catching a fair number of hard-tail MTB's and riding off the berms and jumps so well. It climbs better than I thought it would. Wrists a bit sore from some of the rocks and logs, but that's the rigid thing more than the drops. Best thing was instead of tossing it on a car rack like the full spen's, I just rode home on it (took the long way back).

frantik

^ on my univega i feel more in control in the drops than with flat bars. it's a more natural position for my hands. doesn't matter if it's on or off road

neo_pop_71

Craigslist 1987 MB-1 seller:
I'm selling my well-cared-for and Rivendell-mechanic-owned 1987 Bridgestone MB-1. It's in remarkably good shape for its age, despite a few scuffs and scratches, and will serve you well for years to come. The '87 MB-1 was designed to use Dirt Drop drop handlebars. The original bars are still on this bike, along with the original Dia Compe 982 cantilevers and Suntour power ratchet bar end shifters.

It's the 50cm size, good for riders 5'8" to 5'11".

Since this bike should be ridden, rather than collected, I made some changes to increase its usefulness. It comes with new wheels built by Rich Lesnik of Hands On Wheels -- NOS 8 speed Shimano 600 hubs laced to Velocity Aeroheat rims (worth about $400.) I also installed a NOS Shimano Deore XT rear derailer to handle the additional cogs. Many of the other parts, such as the Suntour XC-Pro cranks and front derailer, fancy Mavic bottom bracket, Avocet saddle, and Ritchey headset and seat post were added by the original owner, and likely came from his MB-0 and later-model MB-1.

$650 OBO.

Aemmer is right, go snag it... you won't find a nicer drop bar/dirt drop bike ever again... $650.00 is a deal for a decked out rider, especially with a new set of $400.00 wheels and $200.00 worth of "flip'able" vintage components! Grant knew what he was doing, the stock specs on the '87 MB-1 are amazing but Mr. Cunningham is the king of drop bar bikes! I love my dirt drop MB-1, I didn't hesitate buying it, but my heart is set on finding an unmolested '87, that is the Holy Grail of production bikes in my opinion. Get it man!!!

-D-

frantik

haha well it's not too far from you.. take a road trip dude Though this one is hardly "unmolested" as it sounds like at least a few things have been replaced/upgraded. The parts sound good but they're all mis-matched... I mean there's a big Suntour decal on the downtube, and he's going around buying NOS Shimano parts to put on it?! If he tried to sell that wheelset on CL he would NEVER get $400 for it, even if it did cost that much to have them hand built. Maybe $100 or a little more for the wheelset, tops. What were the frames made from? I'm assuming Tange MTB double butted tubing?

If it were a size up and half the price i'd be a lot more interested. Probably the only way i'd spend over $600 on an 80s mountain bike would be if it was made by Tom Ritchey or it was made from titanium.. this guy has a nice bike but I suspect he'll be holding onto it for a while at that price. The most i've paid for any of my steel mtbs was $150.

Oldpeddaller

Thanks for the encouragement Bill! Good idea about the seat post, but as you say, it's really too big for 'little ol' me'! Pleasant to ride at first but a pain in the everywhere after a few miles. Something I didn't realise (Doh!) was that the cranks are 175mm, not the 170's I'm used to, which probably made the sizing problem worse. However I'm lucky - got a sweet frame in my size that needs a bit of work - and a Deore LX triple in 170mm - not Biopace, so when I've chiselled out a bit more dead seat post and painted it, I'm good to go! Waiting for some better weather now.

Darth Lefty 

I've been reading this thread and just generally noticing that mountain bikes, and midgrade bikes in general, are really, really adaptible.

I was looking at my Hardrock - a 2002 base model, aluminum frame. I don't see many like it in this thread, since most of you are starting with a rigid fork, and the suspension forks were on nearly everything by then. Also it's aluminum and threadless, seems like most of the stuff here is steel and quill. And it's pretty long and low-stack for its size. So it probably isn't a good candidate for this sort of conversion. But still...

The thing has THREE different brake positions in the rear. It has the pegs for the v-brakes, which it came with. It has a brake bridge with a hole in it - presumably this is intended for rack & fender mounting but you could still put a brake caliper of some kind in it, I think. And it has a disk brake mount, though it sort of interferes with the rack holes in the dropouts. There's enough clearance under the bridge - enough for MTB tire plus fender - that I think you could put just about anything under it, including different wheel sizes.

I can't think of any reason this would be a good idea - by the time you followed the conversion to its logical conclusion you might as well have bought a hybrid for similar coin. But it's still really cool. The engineers are making sure to take care of us.

neo_pop_71

That era was still coming out of the "downhill" era and saw a few frames with adjustable rear brake bosses. Some downhill guys and many dual-slalom riders were running 24" wheels in the rear, hence the option of running a 26" or 24" rear wheel. That was also when the 29'er thing was catching on so some forward thinking companies were designing frames with a 26" or 29" brake option as disc only frames were just beginning to take over the full suspension market. I seem to remember a Vicious Cycles frame coming out with a sliding rear drop out for a single speed set up but it also came with a derailleur hanger attachment and had the option of adjustable brake bosses for running a 24", 26", or 29 rear wheel. The engineers were caving to the riders who craved a do everything frame but that didn't last too long. Imagine a long travel fork on a poorly reinforced frame, lousy little aluminum gussets, most are scrap metal since so many were made from 7000 series that always seem to crack at the head tubes. If someone made one out of steel, that would be a cool frame with touring options, but it seems like only small builders recognize steel tubing anymore.

frantik

so, an update on my CL drop bar listing.. each time I've relisted the ad I've gotten someone emailing me asking about the bike, though no one has expressed a ton of interest. I don't think it's showing up in anyone's searches and only really being noticed when it's near the top of the list. I feel like it'll probably sell, though it may take some time, at least at the price i'm asking

anixi

Here's my Stumpy conversion, weighs 25-1/2 lbs as shown. If I had money to throw at it, it would be a lot lighter: lighter wheelset, brakes, shifters, crankset and Ti binder QR/fasteners/wheel QRs
I'd really like to keep replacing the heavy stuff and get it much lighter...

Chrome Molly

Sweet stumpy

hairnet

I finally received my On-one Midge but the drops are much shorter than I expected. My bike already looks stupid and it is only going to get worse with this bar.

acoffin 

I agree! Nice ride, anixi. Looks like a fun gravel grinder setup.

acoffin 

Wanna trade for a Gary II? I find it too deep and wide in the drops, plus I'm not crazy about the angles. Should have stuck with my instinct to get the Midge.

frantik

if you find the Gary II too wide in the drops, you may not like the midge which is even wider..

acoffin 

It's the combination of width, depth, and angle of the drops that I don't like about the Gary II. Wide I can deal with, deep and wide doesn't feel so comfortable to me on a mtn bike frame.

frantik

i do agree that the deep drop makes it tougher to match with an mtb. since you u need a very tall stem

hairnet

I'm going to give the Midge a shot but I dont think the Origin 8 will be any better

frantik

the gary II bar has a much longer flat section after the drop. on the midge you pretty much have to ride in the hooks but on the gary II there is room to ride on the actual drops.

anixi

Thanks! I'm hoping you convert that Peugeot frame likewise. Or am I off-base here?

jhboyy7

Shouldn't have came here now I'm shopping for an old hard tail... wish me luck. I got some 14 speend bru fters that I'm gonna throw on it probably do a custom paint job

cooperryder

Nice job on the Stumpjumper anixi.

What size and year is it?

Why did you decide to go with sidepulls rather than cantis?

It seems pretty light as is to me. I would love to get a mtb / drop bar build to come in at under 26 lbs.
I ride a 22.5 to 23" frame so a little extra weight with the taller mtb's but not all that much more I guess.

You must have fairly light wheels and tires as it is. Which ones are you using?

It would be interesting if some of the bare frame / fork weights and components were posted. especially you guys that have achieved
the lighter weight build ups.

My tall Specialized Hard Rock is rolling at 29 to 30 lbs. with middle of the road parts and pretty heavy wheels & tires
which I hope to change out b4 long. I have done a couple of 40 mile urban setting rides on it so for and find it to be pretty comfortable.

Safe riding.

neo_pop_71

You should just scrap the build, give it to me, and start over! C'mon man, you don't want to have to replace all that stuff... the hassle!

Damn nice Stumpy Comp, easily one of my favorite bikes ever! That's the size I need to do a drop bar conversion... curses... now that I've seen yours all "dropped" and tasty, I'm going to be haunted until I find one in that same size. Soon after Specialized went to the "Metal Matrix" frames, I think the first was a M2 in '93 or so and those frames were okay (kinda' lifeless was the thought floating at the time), but they were in no way equal with the Tange Prestige of yours! Lucky, yep, I'll admit it... I'm green with envy! Thanks anixi for sharing, now I need to go comb "the internets" (thanks Ex-Pres. Bush for those words of intellect) and find your bike for cheap. Dream and dream big, right?

Taxi Rob

I'm having the same problem with my friend's Asahi. I thought extra small frames were harder to come by, and given the components relative to others on the local CL I'm not asking a whole lot. I've had inquiries but the lack of low-rider mounts seem to be a big problem for some people, Surly LHTs have them and the Asahi doesn't. I really thought somebody would think they aren't worth the extra $1000 for an LHT but I guess I misjudged the bike snobs of SD.

anixi

Thanks!
I believe that it's a 1981. The wheels are off of a 700c hybrid, nothing special, but, they're lighter than my low-end Shimano road wheels. The side-pulls are because the frame is designed for 26" wheels, there's no way the original canti's will reach...

anixi

Sorry, I'm keeping this one. BTW, your good buddy BO made the same mistake:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_891781.html