DMC707

This is an old pic that i have shared before , but i am also in the camp that favors these old Raleighs for the type of use you are describing. Mine is a '75 Competition and it has loads of clearance under the centerpulls. Mine is still wearing the factory tubular rims, and i have considered speccing a set of tubular cyclocross tires to make it a vintage gravel bike, but alas, the bike is a tad big for me and i dont want to make much of an investment

mechanicmatt

'91 750, 700x42 Conti Speedrides

ctak

'83 Centurion Pro Tour 15 gravel/winter bike: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ctak/s...7718067791732/

mstateglfr 

Very few vintage mtb drop bar conversions look good. Most look exactly how you would expect- kludges.
They can be neat and creative projects, even if they don't look great.
The ones that do look good are just flippin awesome.

1989-1995 hybrids from Schwinn, Trek, Miyata, Univega, Bimachi, etc are what I would go for. They have good clearance and are easy to modernize.
bonus- you get some killer period paint schemes like this...

ehcoplex 

While it is obviously aesthetically subjective, I have to agree. Seems there are two directions to come at it from- 'slim down' a MTB to make it more road-friendly or 'beef up' a road bike to make it more rough-surface capable. My tastes are definitely more 'classic' inclined, so I anticipate pursuing the latter approach, though if a particularly cool MTB comes along that could change...

RobertUI 

I have to put my vote in on a Schwinn Cross* series... love mine set up as a 2x10 (chain is a little short and the phone mount is broken, but it's more or less complete)

ehcoplex 

I've been doing the daily trawling (trolling?) of the various classifieds for something in vintage steel for a new project (I probably don't really need..!). There's a Ross 292s 'signature' frame listed not too far from me. Asking too much, but seems worth watching. Any opinions on these? I know it ain't a Kellogg built frame, but from what I've found online it seems like a lot of the folks who have one like 'em. And there's a very slight nostalgia tug, as the first non-department store bike I ever had was a Ross Professional Super Gran Tour (Shimano 600!)...

The Golden Boy 

The term "hybrid" refers to a hybrid of ATB and "road" characteristics- it would have to come after MTBs to reference it being a related to- so you're roughly talking around 1990-ish. The idea was to have an "all-rounder" to take off road (according to marketing) with road-ish design, higher BB and ATB/MTB components.
Yes- the old Schwinn frames were the original Clunkers- Tom Ritchey and Joe Breeze started making bikes with the Schwinn geometry as a vague basis- slack angles and a long wheelbase for downhill riding. Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly started their company in 1979- it was called "Mountain Bikes." (Charlie posts here from time to time). The name kind of got coopted by industry- sort of like Kleenex or Xerox. Early mountain bikes had long wheelbases, slack angles and were (generally) made of heavy tubing. From that time, the bikes were built to that standard- often outfitted with bottle, fender and front and rear rack braze ons, hence the ATB name. The short wheelbase and more race oriented bikes didn't come around until 1987-ish with the MB-1.

It's a really cool history- and it's super interesting how those guys changed the entire bike industry and how many of them stayed in the industry-

I have a 1984 Stumpjumper Sport. It's a tank. I've never weighed it, but I'd guess it's in the mid 30s- I also have a 1987 Schwinn High Sierra- it's lighter, around 30# and does have front and rear rack braze ons, fender mounts, a pump peg, bottle mounts- it's essentially a touring bike with 26" tires- again with a long, slack geometry.

bcstones

I agree it's a cool history...that said, I first heard of the term "hybrid" in the mid to late 70s (I don't ever recall hearing, at that time, hearing the term ATB (All Terrain Bicycle?). At the time I was looking for a bike for my Son. The "hybrid" was explained to me as a road bike with upright handle bars, so that the rider rode straight up, not bent over like a 'normal' road bike. The tires were either 27 1/4" or 700C with wider tires more like touring tires that the narrow, high PSI road tires and the components were basically that of the "road" bike. The "road" bike was designed to ride pavements, the "hybrid" could ride pavement & cared for trails, like the RtoT trails & MUP's (most of which I'd call 'pavement' anyway). At least as it was explained to me at the time.
I'm thinking that the 26" tire came into being with the Mountain Bike phenomenon. An older Sister still has her bike from her teens, w/24" tires. I still have my "Clunker" from 65+years ago, I'm pretty sure it also has 24" tires (btw...weights around 45 lbs LOL ).

The Bridgestone MB-1 thru 3 shared the same frame but different components (showed in the price tags)...the MB-4 thru 6 did the same but the frame was not the same as 1-3, tho all frames were Chrome/moly. My '90 MB-2 also has the front & rear braze-ons and bottle mount braze-ons. But no pump mount, guess Bridgestone figured their riders never got flats LOL

thook

my triple cross is an '89. just softly making the point hybrids did predate the 90's

bikemig 

My 1993 Bridgestone ticks all these boxes. It has road geometry and fits 26 x 1.75-1.9 tires.

bcstones

cool...beautiful piece of history (tho the XO-2 in the beginning had Bridgestone's mustache handlebars)...here's a quote from Grant Peterson, the Bridgestone Marketing Director USA: "...Petersen was loathe to call it a hybrid as, contrary to modern bikes that are slotted into that marketing genre, it actually could do everything it set out to do — very well..."

bikemig 

Agreed, this was smart engineering in '93. Grant Peterson wanted to design an all roads bike and he chose a road geometry (not a hybride) and 26 inch wheels because there was a good supply of fat tires for them in '93 (the 29ers came later).

The '93 XO 2 was originally spec'd with drop bars. In fact the bars, stems and headset are the only original parts left on this bike.

dddd

Those Univega hybrids look great and seem to turn up in pretty unused condition every once in a while around here. Mine has a Suntour 7s gruppo and perhaps oddly is spaced at only 130mm. I'm looking forward to building it up with one of my clearance-purchase Mavic Allroad Elite wheelsets and tubeless tires.

Note about any tubeless-compatible tires, expect a really hard time seating those on any pre-tubeless rim designs designed for a slightly-bigger bead diameter! You may not be able to even get the tire seated out on the road after a flat, without some bead lubricant and some very high pressure. It's not the tire's fault, they have to have a "tight" bead diameter in order to snap onto the ledge features in a tubeless rim. Fine to run tubes though with these same tubeless rims, should be much easier to get seated on the proper tubeless rim, still may take some work and some real air pressure, but far from as bad mounting the TL or TC tires on traditional rims.

With today's CX and gravel bikes now virtually all being sold with disc brakes, I am looking ahead at buying a high-end carbon CX bike from a few years back. It will be much lighter dollar-for-dollar than any bike having discs, especially compared to any NEW bike purchase.
I'm considering a well-used (by both a Euro pro and by a big local dude, both rims were shot) 2013-ish Cannondale Super-X having mini-V brakes which work really strong and silent. The balance is all SRAM Force/Red 10s stuff, and it weighs all of 18lbs with my Allroad Elite wheelset on it for testing (I've been given a most generous testing period with this bike already). For about a grand all-up, it's going to be quite a ripper, and even feels pretty sprightly on road rides with the Mavic 30mm (33mm actual on i22mm rims) Yksion Elite Allroad semi-slick tires.
This one'll be vintage soon enough(?):

StarBiker

The paint on that Schwinn is smoikin'. Like the frame geometry. No wonder you paid up for it. (Yes old post)