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A very silly bike

whyamiherewhyamihere Posts: 7,629
edited July 2019 in Your road bikes
This one will probably annoy people, and if the bike doesn't then the state of my garden will...

I had a 'normal' gravel bike and only rode it relatively infrequently. For long rides on relatively smooth terrain, I have road bikes. What I wanted from a gravel bike was the ability to go a long(ish) way off-road, but to still have fun on singletrack if I came across it. The one I had, built around a London Road frame, wasn't really particularly capable off-road. So I decided to build this. This is what happens when a mountain biker builds a gravel bike.

d07zg4S.jpg

Admittedly, it's basically just a mountain bike with drop bars. The gearing is higher than I'd want for a true MTB (36t up front, 10-42 at the back), and I'm looking into fork options for it. I'll probably get a rigid at some point, but my eye keeps being drawn to Laufs... It should be fun anyway. It cost me nothing - The frame was spare after replacing it as one of my mountain bikes, and most of the other bits were from the London Road, which has been rebuilt into my commuter.

Posts

  • sniper68sniper68 Posts: 2,910
    Er...no image.
    Lynskey R480

  • andy9964andy9964 Posts: 930
    Sniper68 wrote:
    Er...no image.
    Yeah, that's what happens :D
  • whyamiherewhyamihere Posts: 7,629
    Should be there now. I blame Google (and Wiggle).
  • veronese68veronese68 Posts: 26,289 Lives Here
    Seems perfectly reasonable to me, the lines between the two are getting more blurred at any rate. How does it ride? Not sure why but I think I’d set the forks up stiffer than I would normally.
    Kinesis Pro6
    Marin Nail Trail
    Cotic Solaris
  • lettingthedaysgobylettingthedaysgoby Posts: 1,731
    I love stuff like this.
  • whyamiherewhyamihere Posts: 7,629
    It rides pretty nicely. I did a 40km spin this morning, mostly off-road. It was a mix of canal paths, dirt and some paved stuff along an old railway line, a couple of laps of some local-ish mountain bike trails (mostly sticking to the blue lines) and finishing off with about 10km on road to get home. I'm still not particularly happy with doing some of the techier MTB stuff on drop bars, but it was significantly more confidence inspiring than a rigid bike with 40mm tyres. It was decent on the road ride home as well, being able to get into the drops or flatten out my arms while on the hoods makes a big difference compared to if I was doing the same ride on a proper MTB.

    There's a few niggles - I think the mech hanger is a bit bent, and the front brake is squealing and rubbing a lot, but they're easily fixed.

    Edit: On the fork, I left the air pressure as it was, but the Reba I'm using has a crown mounted compression adjuster which goes to almost locked. That means I was able to turn up the compression damping when on the road or smoother bits, and open it fully for the trails or some of the bits of canal path which wouldn't look out of place in Paris-Roubaix. The perfect fork for this bike would be a Lauf Trail Racer, but I must resist...
  • sniper68sniper68 Posts: 2,910
    Looks very similar to the "monster"cross my mate built a couple of years ago.He just used a CX frame though with IIRC 40mm tyres.
    Lynskey R480

  • step83step83 Posts: 4,170
    Was toying with this idea recently on an old MTB frame I have boxed up to basically do similar to yours short travel fork (or rigid) an "gravel" tyres but on 26" tyres.

    Lines have very much blurred you get gravel bikes with suspension forks so why not. I like.
    Titanium Px Spitfire
    Easty commuter
    Tripster AT
  • cyclecliniccycleclinic Posts: 6,865
    Haven't you built a monster cross bike.

    I would put a rigid figure on and use tyre inserts to improve the ride quality off road. That what I have on my XC bike.

    Mtb's with drops Rock.
    http://www.thecycleclinic.co.uk -wheel building and other stuff.
  • whyamiherewhyamihere Posts: 7,629
    Yep, I suppose you could call it a monster cross bike. I don't think I'll bother with a rigid fork at this point. It would be nice to drop the weight a bit, but that's the only advantage - The Rebas pretty much lock out if I want them to, but can be bouncy when that's needed. Plus, light, suspension corrected tapered forks with a 15mm axle are seemingly rare and expensive if you want something other than anonymous Chinese carbon off eBay.

    Tyre inserts are definitely something I need to play with, probably on one of the XC bikes (most likely the hardtail) before this one though.
  • MatthewfalleMatthewfalle Posts: 17,380
    thats actually very cool. hat.

    garden is in a shyyt state though.....

    #horticulture
    Postby team47b » Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:53 am

    De Sisti wrote:
    This is one of the silliest threads I've come across. :lol:

    Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour :D
    smithy21 wrote:

    He's right you know.
  • PhilipPirripPhilipPirrip Posts: 616
    At the end of the day it's a bike.

    It's not what it looks like that's important but where it takes you.
  • MidnightMidnight Posts: 80
    Well some may consider mine "odd", built to my spec, it is a mongrel that suits me 100%

    Sanderson life frame, Black Jack XC400 wheels, Wingbar and riser, etc


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  • MidnightMidnight Posts: 80
    Midnight wrote:
    Well some may consider mine "odd", built to my spec, it is a mongrel that suits me 100%

    Sanderson life frame, Black Jack XC400 wheels, Wingbar and riser, Brooks saddle, green alloy seat post etc


    2OOuKGqwxpN4-0fXQ1ge_JJeEZbZiPcoxdeAnesSCXD0fbcRxLZDA78Nns8xFf-8uFutNSeM-iE126MRLsl3DNnH7S9wRognT7l0iC2i4Eju6EDvXQLgtYL9L2OfRn2NBrZYQlp1muXMrotZ45bnYD-kJ1iRCNh6SVK3xudNO0geHVuc83kC0qWtp0Yug7rZ72PVwZPskLizqwDOxEsMy9rzZ9mWphVIN2mfNiox3_FYRDSOyZYKkUGHEmS9t0or-OQzVRQ9lHVadrqUV71I7KDjVb3Le5-OSdoHBM3SzkaGmi9n2WxuRTxc06sxrBMPf6eHpC5StaLQZBYVG9lWn4LlF1NkCW-1cNOG5CIx-rm53j12Yz9cJ8IzFHIntmdLJPg-fWaZNOuN4XwA4Lc3RoLgpAA-os6ziJ7Elo-cJsfTopSOkX1Y3W0j7cxmy9bNsXapAL823k_dpRv7t7Qg5kL-MsB5XQLyv682v4laHzBCLICyyunJ4C1LXaV00Z961XRGeU8yNu3PNv_G2VwsIg-TGWOG7Yy4EuFlDob0WofiRMSuyVWMeUipWCEaWnlbgXnX6C2tXqAAEmpUzbZIaTk-m7iz5lycBqUkItJtgWgPMgsjs1q8W-_oYtG1TgjF6_7cC40VM_LpCboWOIJCyjanrkYoMro=w420-h315-no
  • arlowoodarlowood Posts: 2,554
    Midnight wrote:
    Well some may consider mine "odd", built to my spec, it is a mongrel that suits me 100%

    Sanderson life frame, Black Jack XC400 wheels, Wingbar and riser, etc


    2OOuKGqwxpN4-0fXQ1ge_JJeEZbZiPcoxdeAnesSCXD0fbcRxLZDA78Nns8xFf-8uFutNSeM-iE126MRLsl3DNnH7S9wRognT7l0iC2i4Eju6EDvXQLgtYL9L2OfRn2NBrZYQlp1muXMrotZ45bnYD-kJ1iRCNh6SVK3xudNO0geHVuc83kC0qWtp0Yug7rZ72PVwZPskLizqwDOxEsMy9rzZ9mWphVIN2mfNiox3_FYRDSOyZYKkUGHEmS9t0or-OQzVRQ9lHVadrqUV71I7KDjVb3Le5-OSdoHBM3SzkaGmi9n2WxuRTxc06sxrBMPf6eHpC5StaLQZBYVG9lWn4LlF1NkCW-1cNOG5CIx-rm53j12Yz9cJ8IzFHIntmdLJPg-fWaZNOuN4XwA4Lc3RoLgpAA-os6ziJ7Elo-cJsfTopSOkX1Y3W0j7cxmy9bNsXapAL823k_dpRv7t7Qg5kL-MsB5XQLyv682v4laHzBCLICyyunJ4C1LXaV00Z961XRGeU8yNu3PNv_G2VwsIg-TGWOG7Yy4EuFlDob0WofiRMSuyVWMeUipWCEaWnlbgXnX6C2tXqAAEmpUzbZIaTk-m7iz5lycBqUkItJtgWgPMgsjs1q8W-_oYtG1TgjF6_7cC40VM_LpCboWOIJCyjanrkYoMro=w420-h315-no


    Pic not working for me
  • whyamiherewhyamihere Posts: 7,629
    edited November 2019
    I bought a Lauf, then got it filthy.

    IMG-20191124-111125

    The Lauf is noticeably better at absorbing small bumps than telescopic MTB forks. This is the Trail Racer, with 60mm of travel. It is very flexy, and definitely wouldn't be any good as an XC race fork, but as a gravel fork it's great. I did have to swap the Hope RX4 brake off the front though, as it wouldn't fit the fork. I had a spare Force caliper, so that's gone on instead.
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