Thinking of going a different route

[us56456712]

I'm thinking of building two gravel bike, mostly from my junk. Everyone seems to be making old mountain bikes into gravel bikes. I have several 1970s Japanese road bikes. I have an early 90s mountain bike with a triple chainring crank. I already have bar end shifters, a 700c single speed wheel set with 45 mm semi knobby tires already mounted, a long stem, seats galore, a vintage Breezer external spring seat post dropper, two 1930s drop bars, several heavy duty forks, three 23 tooth BMX cogs, brakes with suicide levers and pedals. I would need a chain and brake cables. The plan would be to spread the frame and fork, slightly widen the rear triangle and make a 10 speed based single speed gravel bike out of the whole mess. I have enough stuff to also make another Japanese based 10 speed based multi speed gravel bike with a twin chainring and a Megarange cassette that I already have. Everyone is going to the 1 x 10, 11 or 12 when they build gravel bikes but I already have all this other stuff. The 1 x 10 can approach a triple or a twin compact but not quite. So what if it's a little heavier and doesn't have the ground clearance, it's for gravel for crying out loud. I'll probably need a new rear derailleur, cables and chain for the second bike. The multi speed bike would have 27 x 1 3/8 cross type tires. Nothing wrong with 27 except for the limited tire selection. 1 1/8 inch is 35 mm and that will do for gravel, unless there is a lot of sand or it is wet and muddy. I have had a lot of crashed years ago on 1 3/8 tires, especially when blasting down a hill and hitting loose sand that washes out of the hill gravel and was deposited at the the bottom. 1 3/8 is no good for anything loose.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

This seems like a good idea to me. Some are doing it with cyclo-cross bikes, this isn't much more than that. I mostly made this post so I would be subscribed

 

[us56456712]

This seems like a good idea to me. Some are doing it with cyclo-cross bikes, this isn't much more than that. I mostly made this post so I would be subscribed

The difference from CX would be the massive 1.95 x 29 tires, bigger than monster cross. I measured the tires inflated on the rims and they are a little smaller than advertised, 45 mm instead of 49 as they should measure. If I build this single speed bike I would use it in an August 50 mile cross country race that has 5 miles of pavement, 5 miles of good gravel, 20 miles of two track including some hard boulder strewn climbs and a mile of sand that descends down a hard to ride steep sand hill into a sand pit mine and 20 miles of two track. This bike would be just right and would keep my tradition of doing this race on a single speed. I would gear it to the equivalent of 32 x 16. I have a 36 chainring and a 23 cog so that works out the same as 32 x 16. I will have to push a lot. It would be nice if I could have this built by early June so I could trial it in Hiawatha's Revenge, a 100 km gravel ride through the Hiawatha National Forrest (there are also 50 km and 100 mile versions). It would be hard to build this by then though.