freesafety22

LITESPEED blue ridge versus appalachian?
anyone know the difference between these two? i am looking for a gravel bike. anywhere else good to post this? THANKS.​​​​​​​

Badger6

Thread here on Blue Ridge owner opinions. May/Jun 2006

Two threads, here and here, Mar 2009.

I'm not sure if you've found these. From what I gathered here and in a few very old scattered reviews, since these bikes were most prominent in the early days of the internets, the Blue Ridge came into existence as the Appalachian was phased out. They used the same frame, supposedly, Appalachian was sold as a CX bike and Blue Ridge as a touring bike.

dwmckee

If they only support 700x28 they do seem pretty outdated for a gravel bike. If you can still find them, be sure tire clearance, fender clearance brake mounts, fork, axle style. bottle mounts, rack mounts, dropout style, etc. meet your needs. None of those specs are listed. You do not want to be surprised when it shows up with SS dropouts, no rack or bottle mounts and a QR 130 rear axle spec.

freesafety22

hey man. THANK YOU for all that.
so can i please ask you if you know what i need to do to find a proper fork for a litespeed appalachian? it seems i found a bike and now i need a proper fork for it.

Badger6

You're very welcome. Unfortunately, I don't know much about those bikes other than chats with a couple of friends who had Litespeed bikes and what I could find in a quick internet search. To get a fork, you first need to know what headset it uses, and what diameter steering tube fits through it.

freesafety22

so diameter steering tube is the ID of the tube? which i am almost positive is 1”?
what is meant by “what headset it uses”? i ees to google headset (sorry) but am i looking for depth snd a brand? or a type of headset? or what?

freesafety22

also. does this get me closer?

freesafety22

also. does this get me closer?

beech333

Appalachian and Blue Ridge are the same framesets, marketed to two different customers. The Blue Ridge was sold with 700x28 tires, while the Appalachian was sold with wider tires. They are nice riding bikes. I have a 58cm App, but I am searching for the 61cm. (No, it is not for sale.)

Badger6

freesafety22 it doesn't help me. I just don't know about the bikes, but if you know how to look, you could probably call Litespeed and tell them the frame serial number and they could tell you all you need to know.

About the headset, and why I mentioned it. The the inner dimension, inner diameter (also abbreviated ID), of the bearing is critical. They might be the same size, or tapered (this means the top will be smaller than the bottom). You need to know this when buying a fork to make sure the fork you buy is the right Outer Diameter (OD) to mate to the bearings' Inner Diameter(s).

beech333

I think that is pretty close in age to mine. I bet it is a 1" steerer.

dwmckee

Not 1-1/8"?

beech333

Mine is 1". It was 1" threadless(with a spacer to get 1 1/8 for the stem. It is now 1" and threaded.

freesafety22

thanks. sorry for being such a knob. all the terms are new to me.

i will try to find a diagram i guess.

i do understand the 1” ID of the tube. which means i need a 1” front fork.

i don’t understand how (or why) you convert from thread less to threaded. actually i don’t understand what this means either.

i also don’t understand what is meant by 1 1/8” for the stem. is this 1 1/8” of a stack to raise the handlebars? or something else i guess.

also there is aluminum, carbon fiber snd some kind of moly steel as options? but no stainless front fork?

beech333

No worries. They were new to me once too.

1" threaded is the old standard. Imagine just about every bike from maybe 1985 back to 1920's(there was no real cutoff date, as they all overlap a little). The fork steerer (part inside of the frame) has threads at the end of it and when the headset is inserted, the end of the fork does not really stick out so you see the threads. They take a stem that is shaped like a 7. The longer portion fits down into the forks steerer tube.

Threadless bikes do not have any threads on the steerer. (Realize this makes me sound like an arse, but not meant that way.) These usually stick about 1-1.5 inches out beyond the headset. The stem that attaches to these is straight, with holes at both ends. These are threadless stems and they initially were 1", because that is the diameter of forks before the threads were added.

Later, I think they were made to be 1 1/8 because they are stiffer (guessing here) and therefore considered faster. When 1 1/8 caught on, some people wanted to try to convert their 1" threadless forks to allow 1 1/8, which is much more common, so you can get shims.

Pictures would probably help, but I don't have time atm.

tleeds

These look like the same frame, but they are not. I have one of each. The bottom bracket clearance is higher on the App. I have run 38mm knobbies on both of them, even with fenders. I bought the Appalachian brand new in the late 1990s and have put untold tens of thousand of miles on it, ranging from racing 'cross to doing multi-day loaded touring on Forest Service roads in the Cascades, to Dirty Kansas and loads of gravel and trails in Colorado, Kansas, New England, and Georgia. It has also served as my in-town commuting and shopping bike. I currently have Avid Shorty Utlimate brakes on the BR and Paul brakes on the App. The BR has a Litespeed-branded Kinises Aluminum fork; I have long had a custom-made steel fork from Kelly Bikes (Chris Kelly) on the App. That fork has been great for touring, cross, and gravel. Interestingly, The App weighs a little less than a Specialized "Comp" level Diverge. It currently has wheels built on Dura-Ace hubs with DT-Swiss "Belgian+ "rims.

I've never run tires wider than 38mm, but I would guess, by looking, that 40s would be fine on either bike.

Both of these bikes are more than able to handle gravel.

lml999

So...does that mean that the Appalachian was designed as the 'cross bike due to the higher bottom bracket?

I love my Blue Ridge...bought it many years ago and ignored it for a while. Now it's my go to gravel/singletrack bike. I've got a 1" Alpha Q canti fork on it, and I think I'm running 40 mm tires. They're tight but they fit.

It certainly isn't "current" whatever that means...but it works. I have it set up with Campy Record 10 Compact gearing and am about to swap vbrakes off in favor of Paul Minimotos...

Camilo

There's two possibilities for the fork options: The bike's head tube will either be 1-1/8 or 1"

Wait, If your bike requires cantilever brakes (i.e. the rear has cantilever brake studs), that brings that into the equation for finding a fork. You need to get that kind. But the following still applies.

If it's a 1" head tube, the fork and headset will have to be 1", but could be threaded or threadless.

If it already has a headset, but not a fork, you can identify whether it's threaded or threadless - or if you can't you could post a photo and people here would help.

If it does have a threaded headset, you need to find a threaded 1" fork with the correct length of steer tube and the correct length of threading. This can get a bit tricky unless you go with a new, usually steel, one. You have to figure the "stack height" of the headset, and know the length of the head tube of the frame then get the threading correct so it extends far enough, but not too far to tighten the headset. You would then get a "quill" stem in whatever size you need for your fit. Nitto is a source of excellent quill stems and if you know the rise and length you need, are easy to find.

Or you could simply replace the threaded headset with a threadless one to fit a 1" threadless fork and stem. Fine quality threadless headsets are probably less than $50. This isn't the same aesthetic as the quill stem option, but it might be easier to find an appropriate fork and experiment with stem options..

If it has a threadless headset, you can find very nice, but somewhat expensive, 1" carbon fiber threadless forks. Columbus Minimal is one example. Stems from a variety of sources in a variety of costs are readily available and cheap and easy enough to experiment with length and rise.

If it's 1-1/8, it needs a threadless headset and the fork will have to be 1-1/8, also threadless. This is because there's no such thing as a 1-1/8 threaded fork and head set.

I bought a used 96 Litespeed Classic. 1" steer tube, and it had a threadless headset. I'm pretty sure it didn't come that way originally, but I stuck with it and bought a 1" Columbus Minimal to replace the fork that was on it (it was too short in the steer tube). I've looked for a "worthy" threaded fork because at one point I wanted to get it to the quill stem, mostly for aesthetics - and didn't want to get a cheap new one, nice new ones I found were $$$ (Woundup for example). It was hard to find a nice used one with exactly the right amount of threading + headtube length. Anyway, it was easier for me to just stay with the threadless fork. And the Columbus Minimal fork is very, very nice.




If it's a 1" head tube