icemilkcoffee 

Things to avoid:
- Suntour groupset - yes I know some of you swear by it. But Shimano has wide compatibility and wide interchageability and endless possibilities for mix and match. And Shimano's index shifting just works better with no fuss.
- 126mm or 130mm rear drop out spacing. Yes- some of the older frames had 126mm drop out spacing. Look for something from the early 90's and on, with 135mm spacing. Reason is there are tons of 26" 135mm wheels on the used market. There are very few 130mm ones and no 126mm ones on the used market.
- Freewheel hubs. Early MTBs sometimes came with freewheel hubs. Avoid. If you get one of these you'll need to eventually swap out to a cassette hub wheel. And most freewheel hub MTB's came with 126 or 130mm spacing (see above), making the swap nearly impossible.

AdventureManCO 

I will agree with all these points, even the Suntour comment, sadly. I’ve seen more than one busted cage return spring. The older XT and XTR stuff has to be the pinnacle of quality and function : price ratio.

And yeah, you can find some really nice wheelsets on the cheap since 26” is so out of vogue amongst ‘enlightened’ folks.

Really some great bikes. The only gripe I really have is the short/low head tubes.

70sSanO

They used to be fairly cheap, but are probably a lot higher now; about 10 years ago I picked up a Serotta T-Max frame for $120. Made with Columbus Max tubing. Super short wheelbase and 72/73 head/seat angles.

John

georges1

Some of my favorite Mountain bikes are my 1998 Kona Kilaeua alongwith my 1995 Giant Bronco

albrt 

Funny how this thread went nearly 100% mountain bike as soon as somebody brought it up. Strawbunyan, when you said "smaller wheels" did you mean skinny like a road bike, smaller than a 29er like the old mountain bikes people are posting, or really small like a BMX bike? I agree with whoever said picking a wheel type is probably the place to start.

As for Suntour components, if you want index shifting then Suntour is not great, but it is hard to beat the Cyclone series for friction shifting if you are going with 1985.

Strawbunyan

i dont have a "preference" really. Just something that runs well on pavement and pavement eith loose gravel on it here and there. My MTB will be doing the heavier lifting.

Strawbunyan

i meant skinnier. I like the skinny wheel skinny frame drop bar deal they had goin on.

Strawbunyan

i like this idea and i think it is the way to go.

albrt 

There are tons of high quality steel road bike frames from this era available cheap, since a lot were sold and most people consider them obsolete. If you want to ride on gravel the thing you'll need to watch for is that they have enough room to run wider tires in the 32mm to 38mm range. Many do but many don't. You have to look at all three places where the tires need to fit (two in back and one in front) because many times it is only one of the three that is too small.

Some mid-80s mountain bike frames are also suitable for conversion to drop bars depending on your height (hard to find really tall ones). You can run 1.5" tires on the 26" wheels.

3speedslow

1990 Schwinn High Plains MTB tall frame which makes a great drop bar road/ gravel machine. I switch between 1.5 an 1.95 when the need arises.

7 speed cassette rear hub.

Strawbunyan

Just for reference. Here are a couple photos i found of the type of ride i have in my head when i harken back to the good ole days... i would 10/10 ride these till the wheels fell off.

curbtender

There are some nice old touring bikes if you go that way. This is my sight seeing bike...

icemilkcoffee 

Ha! OK. So all of us went off the wrong path and thought you wanted old MTB's.
Anyways, the big issue with a lot of these 80's vintage road bikes with caliper brakes, is that the tire clearance is limited. Most of the time you can't go beyond 28mm width tires. Some frames won't even go beyond 23mm! The touring bikes with cantilever brakes, as Curbtender suggested, will accommodate much wider tires - probably up to 40mm. Another option is the center pull brake road bikes from the 70's and early 80's. These have more generous clearance than the caliper brake bikes.

jdawginsc 

What size are you looking for? Since you want the flexibility for some gravel-packed gravel, you likely need to look more at sport geometries rather than race geometries. Brisk enough for road, but relaxed enough for slightly better gravel friendly tires.

Do you want brifters, downtube shifters or bar ends?

Triple or double crank?

Dual pivot or traditional brakes (side pull, centerpull or cantilevers)?

Straight Bae or drop bar.

Strawbunyan

i am about 6' tall with approximatly 32"inseam. I ride a 19" mtb and i think i read i need about a 58cm road frame.
I think i may be over selling the "gravel" i encounter.. its quite literally pebbles on pavement and mostly avoidable if need be. I see a lot of road cycleists arou d here in the nicer months on their race bikes so i am guessing it cant be an all bad spot for the skinnier wheels. I have my MTB with 29" 2.5 wide tires on it that I am currently commuting on and can keep commuting on if the skinnies are not suited to my commute route and then just ride my vintage out of love on the smoother pavement on weekends. The only reason i mentioned gravel bikes or old MTBs is out of the idea that anything other than a smooth highway was a no go for the road bikes
i like the idea of brifters but it is not a deal breaker really.
i ride a single crank 1x9 right now and it is the first multi speed bike i have ever owned so i dont really know if i have a preference on 2x or 3x..
i want drop bars for sure. I like the hunched over aggressive feel over the upright of comfort bikes etc i dont know why but it feels good on my hips and back (i sleep in a similar position)its actually something i hate about riding my MTB..i dont feel like i can get low and forward enough even after fully lowering my bars and flipping my stem.(gonna be trying new stems).
as for the brakes...i have no clue at all what the difference is in any of those...which ones stop the best? I have a lot of wicked hills to bomb near me.

albrt 

Most early to mid-80s all-around road bikes will accommodate at least 32mm, which is the equivalent of 27 x 1 1/4 that many of the bikes came with in the US. That is generally wide enough for light gravel, although if it can fit wider tires it's nice to have that option.

If the bike comes with wheels, you will want to know whether they are 27" or 700. The difference is only a few mm but the tires are not interchangeable. 27" is considered somewhat obsolete so you have fewer tire options.

The racier you go or the later you go toward the 90s, the more likely it will only fit narrow tires like 28mm or less.

The quickest way to tell whether a bike is likely to fit wider tires is to look at the gap between the back tire and the seat post. One finger is a racy bike, two or three is more of a sport or touring bike. But that's just a rule of thumb, you still have to check the bike carefully to see what tires will fit.

Jeff Wills

Yeah, this went toward “mountain bike” when the OP mentioned gravel riding,
The thing is, in that era bicycle design was really divergent: either a “mountain bike” for off-road or a “road bike” for not. The latter often had very minimal tire clearance, many times you couldn’t fit larger than a 25mm wide tire under the fork crown.
The space between these two designs was so great that the “hybrid” bikes started to appear around 1990. These had space for 35 to 38mm wide tires, flat handlebars, stable geometry, 700C wheels, and mountain-bike-ish components. Look at the Trek Multi-Track bikes for examples.

PhilFo 

There's also cyclocross, which may be perfect in some respect, but tend to be quite aggressive in geometry.

Strawbunyan

sorry about the confusion. That is my ignorance showing. I really do appreciate all of the help.

Jeff Wills

Hey, you don’t learn anything unless you ask questions. It also helps us old farts blow the dust off old memories.

Classtime 

1986 Ironman. Done. Size 58 or 60 will fit you well and you can use 28s — but they are better looking with 22mm tubulars. The one in the classifieds is too small for you.

Strawbunyan

copy that, thank you.

Strawbunyan

UPDATE: bike found. I poked around on the CV classifieds as recommended. If you have been on the forums for more than a minute you will recognize the parts and seller. Frameset: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage-sales/1281019-fs-austro-daimler-sle-57cm.html
touch older than I originally posted but still from the era and with the look i was going for so I am very pleased. the gear set https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...-wheelset.html The seller, @jdawginsc , has been more than kind and very helpful. I hope I can do this bike justice and keep it on the road for another 40 years. I will start a new thread for the build so you can all be forced to watch as it progresses through the ages

RustyJames 

Strawbunyan Nice grab and I fully agree that Dave is an aces guy. I look forward to seeing how things turn out.

jdawginsc 

Thank you for the compliment! I am looking forward to the build!