blart

Finished tweaking the street stomper today:

Velocivixen

Looks great! Are those 26" tires? Look to be maybe 26 x 1.5 Paselas. Paint looks good too. Really nice work.

blart

Those are the exact tires. Thanks!

polishmadman

I'm thinking of going back to geared next. I have the derailers and cassette. I just need barend shifters and crankset.

henry_hops

Finally had a good day for riding my fresh build; a free side-of-the-road 91 Trek SingleTrack 950... I call him, baby blue

SamStewart

Here's my 1988 Rocky Mountain Hammer.
thinking about changing the components to 10 speed deore shadow

OG + fenders/rack


Then with some new schwag

blart

@SamStewart I like the colors

imabeliever1

My Trek touring wannabe. Bought the frame and fork at a swapmeet last year. Was covered with a light fog of paint overspray. Cleaned it up and the original paint was 90 +%. Frame appeared to be near unridden. Hope to get to try it on a tour this summer.

whatwolf

Now with Thunder Burts!

oddjob2

Looks great @whatwolf. Glad you are having fun with the 950. What are the fork brackets for?

Had dinner in West Village last night with Noglider and he showed me the AllCity you built for his bride. Very nicely done.

whatwolf

Thanks, this bike is super fun. Those brackets are for the front rack. Quicker to bolt it back on if I leave those on.

debit

I never see Cimarrons in the wild, and I know people have asked about them in this thread previously, so thought I'd post a head's up. It's at the Minneapolis Police auction next week (April 16) if anyone local has a burning desire for one. Too large for me, alas. Forgot to mention, also a Bianchi Grizzly. Also too large. It sucks being short.

mountaindave 

Those are some sweet bikes and somebody clearly loved them. I feel bad for the PO's.


The thief obviously didn't know that those roller cam brakes are potentially worth more than the rest of the entire bike.

Medic Zero

I love my T-Serv's. Be aware the 1.75's run on the small size, probably closer to 1.6, if not smaller, I actually pair them with a 1.5" rear tire and they look the same. I find T-Sev's to be very supple and rubbery, with excellent flat protection. I favor them as a front tire. I'm a Clyde so I run something with a stiffer sidewall (Vittoria Randoneur Pro, 1.5") for my rear tire. I don't think the T-Serv's are quite as durable as the Rando Pro's, but I still get a good 3,000 miles out of them before I start getting flats from all the little tiny cuts they've accumulated. Nonetheless, I keep buying them, as they are a great ride (seem to soak up impacts and I feel comfortable getting pretty far over in them cornering, even in the wet) and so totally worth slightly less durability to me.

Medic Zero

I agree. Even though I'm 6'2 I feel more stable on 26" wheels compared to a 29er, particularly off-road. I feel like I'm perched up too high and somewhat unstable on the bigger wheels.



Nice build!

mattk42

I may actually, finally have some photos to show of my Drop Bar Conversion soon. I was going to get it together this last weekend, but I realized something I didn't consider. Stem clamp width (not diameter)... "This doesn't seem right. This stem is not going to fit over these bars." Why didn't I buy the 2-Bolt stem right off?

Pompiere

Sometimes, it is like solving a puzzle to get a stem onto a set of bars. Each bend has to be rotated just right, before proceeding to the next one. But if the stem is wide all the way around, you may just be out of luck.

cyclotoine

Many of the early rigid MTBs have high bottom brackets, which to me makes me feel very much over the bike. The feeling can be changed by lowering the bottom bracket and therefore your center of gravity. There is no reason a 29er can't have the same bottom brackets height as a 26 wheel bikes. So you may find that you want to look more closely at geometry. Your name isn't Mike by any chance is it?

I much prefer the feel of a 29er at over 6'3" as I feel more in the bike than on the bike. My current MTB is 27.5" which isn't that different from 26", I am going back to 29" when I purchase my next MTB. Changing crank length is another way to change your center of gravity and give you a more in the bike feel.

I built the bike below partially modeled from a singular peregrine. I can't remember if I lowered the BB or not, but I think I might have. The intention of this bike is similar to what a lot of the drop bar conversion are in this thread so I feel it is appropriate. I wanted a drop bar machine that would be fun on gravel roads and light trail/ATV road riding that I could kit out as a back roads adventure bike or take touring with a 2" semi-slick for comfort and good handling on gravel. I wanted to improve on my Soma Saga which at 42mm tire width lacked the off pavement capabilities I was looking for. I sort of succeeded because this bike didn't handle super awesome with panniers on rough gravel, but was far better than the Saga. It more a short light and fast machine, but I'd do long distance on it again. My center of gravity is much lower on this than a vintage MTB, the 185mm cranks help, but I also use 180 on it.

mattk42

Hm, maybe I shouldn't have rushed out and picked up a face plate stem. I measured the one I tried to fit and compared the dimensions to the stem on my road bike. The road quill stem measured 3cm across the widest part. The riser quill measured 4cm across the widest part and 3cm across the narrowest.

Squeeze

I'm just about to give up on finding a black 25.4 Midge bar. I even have a wanted ad on my local craigslist and still no luck.

In looking around the web today, I found these, which seem to be so new that I didn't see any pictures of them on a bike online. 31.8mm clamp size only, so they won't work for me, but I thought others here might be interested.

"Here is your alternative to "alternative drop bars". It's wide and takes MTB grips as well as bar tape. The grip area is long; long enough to run grip shifters and flat bar levers. But the Gator will also take aero levers just like the Junebug. Try it bikecamping, offroading, or touring."

Soma Feed: The Gator Bar Can Swallow the Junebug Bar!

Gator Handlebar

due ruote 

This can help, but you don't want to go too far with an alloy stem I guess.
https://janheine.wordpress.com/2012/...r-into-a-stem/

himespau 

That would be cool if it were in a size that could fit in a quill stem.

Medic Zero

Neither of our converted MTB's have dropbars, but both my girlfriends '96 GT Pantera, and my '93 GT Outpost rock 1.75" T-Servs as front tires. Love them, great tires! I'm also building up a '98 GT Nomad frame as my flat bar road bike, and it'll be rocking 700C T-Serv's on that. Gotta wonder if they run small in the 700C size as well, because the 26 x 1.75's are closer to 1.6".

Good info on the Compass tires, thanks for sharing!

scale

Im in the process of doing up a 26 inch drop bar. I just got my wheels and now i cant decide on a tire. IM looking at the Forte Metro-K as they are onsale right now at ~$15ea. I see alot of that tire in this post. Can anyone comment on them? Im torn between those and the panaracer pasela...both i believe are a 26x1.25. That said.......im used to riding my road bike/SS but with this......id like it to be able to handle a tiny bit of crushed limestone, gravel and single track. IT will mostly be used on paved surfaces...but i want to make this more versatile without giving up rolling resistance. I love speed as well.

Velocivixen

I have Paselas 26x1.5 on a bike and Forte Metro Road & Mountain (without the Kevlar). When inflated the Paselas have more of a "squarish" look to them in regard to how the rubber is shaped where it meets the ground. The Forte tires angle up the sides more quickly and have more of an oval shape where the rubber meets the ground. I hope I'm making sense. I find the Forte tires to feel a little more "zippy" and nimble. Of course the Paselas with the tan walls are nice, but I also like the simplicity of the all black Forte tires. I've got those on both my '90 Trek 930 & the '88 Rockhopper.