greasemonkey

Hey guys,
Long time lurker around here.
I've been trying to sell a perfectly good MTB 26" wheel size for a while now, and it seems nobody seems to care about this wheel size anymore.
Good excuse to take most of the parts out and convert an old Norco Kokanee Tange Cr-Mo frame I got on local Marketplace for next to nothing...

This is how it will look in the end (hopefully!)... CAD design is my other obssession interest lol I decided to model everything to better visualize and anticipate possible issues.







The idea is to weld disc tabs, add some braze-ons...and then pedal away! Also planning to use an alternate handlebar like the Cinelli Double trouble...the Jones H-Bar is a bit out of my budget.

Any comments and/or advice at this stage?














And this is how it looks now:







Also planning on 3D printing some "anything cage" type mounts...but that will come later.

Korina

Sweet! Your CAAD skills are impressive. I look forward to seeing the completed build.

I love my 26" wheel bikes!! I can heartily recommend the Velo-Orange Tourist Bar, at less than half the moola of the Jones bar and supremely comfortable.

Quick question; why disc brakes over rim brakes? Both will stop the bike, but one doesn't involve welding.

Paul Barnard

Looking forward to seeing this play out.

N2deep

Love CAD and your skills are amazing. Your bike looks like it will fun. Are those Surly racks, front and back? What did you think of the width?

veganbikes

Looks cool. I am excited to see what happens. I would highly recommend these 3 bars: Koga Denham, Surly Moloko and Velo Orange Crazy Bars V2 (I haven't tried V2 yet but looking at the specs and having ridden the Denham which the originals were based along with some brief time on the original I can get a good feeling). I found the Jones bars to be way too swept back to be comfortable 34˚ or maybe a little more or a little less is the sweeter spot at least for me. I also would suggest in the highest degree to use Ergon GC-1s they are the best grips for swept back bars and super comfortable for longer rides. Touch points are a spot that are worth spending a little extra or upping the budget. For flat bars nothing but Ergon grips and make sure you have the right bars for your usage. Maybe for you that more extreme sweep is going to do the job but I did not care for it.

Obviously check out Whatbars.com which is an excellent resource for figuring out handlebars though it could stand to add some more like the Cinelli bars you are looking at and some others but it is a small project so no pressure towards them.

alcjphil

For the rear brake it might be better to locate the disc mount on the chainstay so that it won't interfere with the rack and so that braking forces don't try to remove the wheel from the dropout

greasemonkey

True. Only reason is that I had the parts and I don't want to buy extra parts to complete the build. The idea is salvage the majority of the components from another bike.

The racks are from a Trek (forgot the model) in the back, Bontrager brand. Front is a Blackburn Basket. They both fit fairly well with disc brakes. I bought them locally after testing with the actual frame in hand. They are rated 25kg each which is more than enough.

Thanks for the reccomendantions! it's my first time trying Alt-Bars like these, and the price was right for th Cinelli. We'll see how it goes, but the fact they cost less than half of the Jones kind of helped :-)

That would require a flat mount caliper, right? how would you mount if otherwise? I have a set of SLX mountain bike disc brakes that I would like to use...parts from another bike that I plan to use as much as possible.

Any other comments and/or suggestions...by all means share!
I'm planning to add more mounting points and hydro cable guides. What do you think?

veganbikes

No worries, happy to help. Hopefully you enjoy those bars but I just couldn't do that extreme of a sweep. If Jones does a sweep in the mid 30s I am game.

In terms of rim vs disc, I would probably have stuck with rim brakes, yeah you are buying some parts but you don't have to weld up the frame and re-paint and all of that which is a hassle. I may have some v-brakes in the parts bin that I might trade if you are interested. I think I got rid of the XT cantilevers that I had but I may still have those as well. Not that disc brakes are bad at all but having to modify a frame significantly is maybe more hassle and cost than just sticking with some rim brakes. However I like the idea either way it looks to be a good bike.

greasemonkey

Thanks for the offer, but I have a local frame builder here in Montreal that will make me a good price. And to go with rim brakes I would also need new rims, because the ones I have are disc only... so.... new wheels, new brakes, new levers and cables...that's not what I have in mind.

Hopefully all will work! I'll post pictures of the progress.

In the meantime, if you have any other comments...please share. I'm new to this whole bikepacking/touring experience!!

mstateglfr 

Why not just buy a disc fork? It will have been designed to handle the disc brake torque.

greasemonkey

Good point. Budget and availability mostly...but I got that surly fork for a very good price, from a Long Haul Trucker and it is essentially the exact same as the disc trucker - minus the mounts. I double checked with Surly btw, and of course they don't "approuve" the modification, but I got confirmation that the forks are exactly the same except for the mounts.

And I like the challenge :-)

mstateglfr 

Well there ya go then- a good challenge. Surprised they dont design the forks differently, but it makes for a fun project!

veganbikes

Cool but the welding it up is a lot more work, at least I would think I could sell the other stuff pretty easy peasy or trade for what I need.

greasemonkey

Tomorrow is welding day!

Here are a few more pics, now with handlebars and racks installed. Any suggestions?

Frenzen

Is it C&L by any chance = the local frame builder?

greasemonkey

Nope. It's Tullip Cycles. I found him on instagram, and he seems like a cool guy.

Only found out that CLCycles is the home of Bassi frames and that they also do custom work...

Why do you ask?

Frenzen

oh I was curious to what kind of connections you have/had in Montreal lol. I also wasn’t sure if there are lot of builders in Montreal. As I’ve been trying to buy a vintage touring frame or even a bike itself but for now I think I’ll be rewarded with patience to find such frame for a low budget build. Yes Bassi frames are good but I’m no builder!

greasemonkey

There are quite a few builders in Montreal.

Tullip Cycles, C&L Cycles, the_cacti (instagram), rebycicle, Jacques Gallant (instagram) - he teaches frame building classes... I'm sure there's more.

Well...I got that frame for 15$ on Facebook Marketplace...Mine won't be a budget build though...between the extra parts, the price for the welding service...and eventually a powder coat later down the line...it's not budget, but shure is fun!

Frenzen

Awesome well I hope you do some fun touring on it!

greasemonkey

Update! Almost done :-)

icemilkcoffee 

Why is there another stem lower down on the steerer?

greasemonkey

It was just to keep everything in place for the picture :-)

greasemonkey

First ride pics! Loving the Cinelli handlebars. Still a long way to go with sandblast, paint, etc etc....but rides great!

phughes

Lookin' good!

ridethecliche

This is so awesome!

I'm in Philly so Bilenky is nearby. They're usually up for shenanigans so.... this is giving me all sorts of wonderfully terrible ideas. Might have to start keeping an eye out for things on the side.

Also, if you can't get it to paint soon, just spray some rustoleum on there for now to keep the welds from getting some rust on them. You're going to sandblast and paint at some point anyway so...