cooperryder

Lucky brother in law.
That should make for a nice ride for him.
Easy to use with a 1x shifting set up and great stopping power with the V brakes.

Cool on the orange highlights of chainring and spacer to match orange decal!

DQRider 

Well, not exactly. This will be the last outdoor build of the season for me, and I think it is the best MTB build I've done this year. The rest of 2022 will be taken up with indoor builds of various 650b projects I've had in the works.

Some of you may remember this bike, which put in an appearance last Spring:



My 1984 Trek 850 was sold to me by its original owner. The red 1983-84 Davenport, Iowa bike license sticker is still on the bottom of the downtube. If I ever decide to repaint this bike, that has got to go, but for now it adds character.

Two things I didn't like about this initial build were the skinny tires and the stupid mirror. I had to use that mirror because the handlebar tubing is tapered on the ends for whatever reason - and it kept spitting out the expander on my usual Mountain Mirrycle rearview. So when my last pair of Eastern Growler tires were delivered on Friday night, I used that opportunity to take an angle grinder to the handlebar and persuade it to take the mirror that I prefer. Then I mounted the new tires, added a tweak here and there, and now I have the bike I always intended it to be.



Mods include:

• Full Deore XT 3x7 drivetrain with proper top-mount thumbies
• Cardiff Mercia saddle (superior to the Brooks standard B17, IMHO)
• Generic alloy pullback handlebar in black, mounted on the stock slingshot stem
• Eastern Growler tires - 40psi front and 55psi back for comfy, smooth cruising on city streets and paths of all sorts
• Woodie's anti-skunk-stripe rear fender
• Ostrich (Think Japanese Carradice) saddlebag
• Coming soon: red SE beartrap pedals

This is a very comfy ride, and I intend to photograph it in the wild as soon the weather cooperates, and the sun shows up again.
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GuitarlCarl

Gotta get my posts in before I can shoot ya pictures, but my old Schwinn Traveler and my '95 Cannondale Cad2 are both converted. At 62 and having broke my lower back at 25 I don't bend so easily for long periods. I recently picked up a Planet X Superlight and have bars to convert it too.

DQRider 

As promised...









... and she rides like a dream.
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Clyde1820

Any idea what the overall weight is, as-configured?

Looks beautiful. Look at that geometry! You "slacker," you.

cooperryder

Great looking bike!
The contrast of black with red or burgundy is very appealing to me as are the slack angles.

My Miele mtb has pretty slack angles and I like how it rides a lot.

It looks like your Trek swallows those fat tires with room to spare.

I know you're going to enjoy that bike immensely!

Oh, and nice pedal prop in some of the pics.
What do you have for ballast in that thing? Ha!

DQRider 

The flask was a present from Mrs. C to use on that Tweed Ride I did a few weeks ago. Wouldn't you know it, the jacket I wore had an inside breast pocket that fit it perfectly. It's empty right now, but for the Tweed Ride it carried Wild Turkey 101. Gotta represent the USA amongst all those scotch sippers.


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DQRider 

Well, you prompted me to get a new battery for my luggage scale. I just weighed it at 31.8 lbs w/o the water bottle. That's pretty good for a Gen-1 MTB with tools and spares.

If you want to see slack geometry, here's a shot of my Pashley Path Racer:



It's practically a recumbent!*

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Clyde1820

Now, that's what I'm talkin' about. Yeah, baby. Bring 'em on.

Actually, the older I get, the more I realize I'm likely going to need a custom-built frame+fork that has such angles. Something that'll cope with up to ~26x2.5" wheels, something with a low-step (low top tube) for these old bones. Have been noodling on doing a build with Rodriguez (R&E Cycles), in Seattle. Something with an upright riding position in very low gearing, with angles between the earlier Miele Aries and that Pashley. Hmmm ...

Say, a step-thru Rodriguez Adventure Rohloff:

Korina

🥰🤤

cooperryder

Regarding slack angles Rivendell Bicycle Works has various low step thru models with pretty slack angles, long wheelbases, that take pretty fat tires.

I'd love to have one of their Platypus or Clem L
bikes.

I have one of their Sam Hillbourne models with the traditional diamond frame which is a great riding bike.

I rode it 40 miles yesterday and it's a comfortable ride itself with 700x43 Gravel King smooth tread tires.

As I get older a lower step thru style bike will probably be one I'll buy if I can swing it as they are pricey compared with these vintage frames we like so much on this thread.



My Hillbourne


Platypus


Clem L

DQRider 

Ah, Rivs... so beautiful! So expensive. That's why I try to build my own... I've actually contemplated selling most of my bikes until I have enough $ to buy one, but the one I really want is hard to come by now. The Bleriot is my ultimate grail bike.
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cooperryder

In lieu of one of the pricey Rivendell models
shown above I recently picked up this cool 49 year old step thru Nishiki Competition circa 1973 as best as I can tell.

It's a 22" frame and I'm digging it.

beicster 

They pop up for sale every now and then on the RBW and the Internet Bob google groups.

cooperryder

Well, the original 21.1 stem was not tall enough for me. I have sanded down readily available 22.2 stems to 22.0 for vintage French bikes several times with a bit of sanding effort.

Sanding and filing this stem adapter from 22.2 to 21.1 was a serious effort.

I finally accomplished the task and installed a 11cm stem and it feels spot on now for my preferences.

Out on a cruise upon the bike now.
Next year it will be 50 years old.

I have a few others changes in mind eventually.

Fatter tires will be coming soon and a bottle cage.

It doesn't have bosses so I'll use a handy adapter mount I've used before.

I think it will easily take 700x38 wide tires.

Currently it has the 27x1 1/4 tires that came on it.

It originally had narrow road bars and stem mounted shifters.

So far I've changed the stem, handlebar, shifters,brake levers, changed from centerpull brakes to caliper brakes , cables and cable housing, grips and added a brass bell.

cooperryder

DQRider,
have you checked out this thread?

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...rek-850-a.html

cooperryder

Perfecto temperatures today made for a nice ride on my 1990 Bridgestone CB Zip.
Rene Herse Rat Trap tires also added significant cush.

DQRider 

I have now. I wonder why they went to 531 in `84. I suppose they wanted it for `83, but it wasn't ready yet? And those tires? I've never seen those before. Pretty cool.
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cooperryder

I recently helped a good friend change out quite a bit on this 1990 Miyata Triple Cross and he really likes it.

Those angles look pretty relaxed.

cooperryder

I was able to get in a nice ride yesterday on my 40 year old Peugeot that I converted to 650b as well as a myriad of other changes to it. I think the only original parts left in it are the headset and bottom bracket.

The seatpost is a 24mm.

Only reasonably priced one I found I ordered from Europe.

It rides superbly !

daverup 

Did you post the details on this one? Which brakes did you use?
I love the color!

cooperryder

Thank you daverup.

I don't think I listed the details.

​​​​​​A quick list.
I have a pretty deep parts bin and just look through to see what might work when doing a build.
I often mix and match.

Frame...Best I can determine...1978 Peugeot U10

They call that color Blue Astral.

It looks more green than blue to me but if you look up blue astral color it looks like this.

Sunlite North Road handlebar ( 3.5 inch rise)
I like these bars and modest price compared to Nitto and others.

Generic Dirt drop style stem off Amazon(Hand sanded down to fit French 22.0)

Sunrace 8 speed thumb shifters
25NINE Ronin Grips Without Flange (a bit longer than typical grips)

Generic brake levers off Amazon

Shimano RSX Triple crank (changed out rings)
(I'll look but rings are around 26x 36 x 45 or pretty close)
The outer gold ring is from Pork Chop BMX.
This ring can fit either 110 or 130 crank arms.
Pretty cool, I think.

Shimano Exage Mountain rear derailer

Vintage Suntour of some sort front derailer

Tektro Caliper Brake for Beach Cruiser - 26" Wheel, Rear, 79-99 mm Reach, Silver
(For the 650b to work I needed around 85mm of reach on calipers and these worked. Decent enough stopping power for my purposes)

650b Dyad rims / Shimano T3000 hubs

8 speed cassette
Gravel King 650b x 42 Smooth tread tires

Origin8 comfort saddle (width is close to Brooks B17)

25 to 30 dollar platform pedals again off Amazon.

I think that's it.

Let me know if I forgot something or you have any other questions.

I can also add more photos.

I love working on and riding these vintage bikes.




I rode the bike a bit when I bought it a few months ago with original set up

I could not stand it.
Bars too low and narrow...skinny tires ...etc

But I knew I could make it over to be a super comfortable and fun to ride bike.

650B conversation is really not necessary as it would take at least 700x38 tires but I had the 650b wheels and tires off a previous bike I sold so decided to do it.

daverup 

cooperryder How is the chainstay spacing for the 650x42mm tires?
I haven't done a 650 conversion yet, but it's on my mind.
Thanks for posting the details!

cooperryder

It looks like 2 to 3 mm on each side of stays .
Those are some wide brake calipers.

Korina

@cooperryder, excellent setup, well done. It looks supremely comfortable and I love the touches of bling.