MTB Gravel Bike Conversions

Posted by: fartymarty

Vik - drop bars are worth trying - you get so many different hand positions with them.  I'm on gravel bars with 20mm rise and 75mm reach and they're quite nice.  They're also damn fast in the road.  If I was doing less road and more off road I would be on flat bars tho.

On the Krampus are you still on the -1 HS?  I'm just about to take the -2 out of mine that's been on there forever.  It will be interesting to see how it feels with a 69.5 HA.  I'm anticipating I may need to go to a 50mm stem (up from 30mm) to slow down the steering which then means moving the seat forward to keep the seated reach the same.  Time will tell.

For my GF she's tried drops and finds them uncomfortable to the point they are unusable. For me I have tried drops and Alt/Comfort Bars. I prefer the later for a number of reasons. I wouldn't say 100% no to a gravel/ATB bike with drops, but they don't hold a lot of appeal for me. 

I am running the -1 deg headset from WC. I don't notice it at all any more.

Good luck with the HTA changes. You can always put the -2 deg headset back in if you don't like the new setup.

Posted by: Vikb

My GF wanted a "gravel bike", but hates drop bars so we built up this rig from a Pipedream Sirius frame. She rode it through the dry season in 2022 and enjoyed it. This frame has now become her HT mountain bike and we'll be working on a new "gravel bike" for her for 2023. 

Nice Vik. What's the fork in this?

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Nice Vik. What's the fork in this?

It's the Bird 505mm A2C steel fork they were selling for a while. A nice low-ish cost rigid fork long enough to work with a lot of modern HTs. No longer on their site. Hopefully that's just temporary.

Posted by: Vikb

Good luck with the HTA changes. You can always put the -2 deg headset back in if you don't like the new setup.

I'll up date with some piccys once done - hopefully later this week.

I've been commuting on my GravelPackingX bike for the past 2 weeks with the knockoff corner bars. I like the multiple hand positions.

They're pretty close to a drop bar but not a drop bar... Sorta.

I have noticed that I am generally faster because they are much narrower than my flat bars on my HT - 640 vs 810. I've set up my HT as a commuter previously with skinny tires. With the narrower bars the aero is much more noticeable.

I'll see if I like the corner bars on tame trails when everything melts out.

I had my first proper "mountain bike" ride on the drop bar Krampus last night. Nothing too steep, tech or fast as it's just drying out. It was the most fun i've had on a bike in a long time. The downhills were super sketchy but fun. It took me back to mtb in the early 90s - seat up, rigid fork, under braked shenanigans. I highly recommend it if your local trails are getting a bit boring. I'm certainly keen to see what it can do once things really dry out.

One thing I did notice is the geo is too capable for the rest of the bike - hence removing the -2 HS and reducing the HA back to 69.5 probably makes sense.

Rode some gravel paths and road on my ever-iterating Trailstar today.

Not very exciting riding, but man it can haul some heft. 

Velo - did you buy the frame from Cybertech Cycles?  They used to be the NZ distributer for DMR and old riding buddies.

Not really a conversion I guess, but my GF decided on this ^^ for her flat bar gravel bike/ATB. Certainly a lot of MTB DNA in there. Osto Fenrir in faux-Ti.

Posted by: fartymarty

Velo - did you buy the frame from Cybertech Cycles?  They used to be the NZ distributer for DMR and old riding buddies.

Got it in '06 or' 07 through Cycle Surgery Invercargill while I was working there a bit. 

Never met the distro.

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Posted by: fartymarty

Velo - did you buy the frame from Cybertech Cycles?  They used to be the NZ distributer for DMR and old riding buddies.

Got it in '06 or' 07 through Cycle Surgery Invercargill while I was working there a bit. 

Never met the distro.

No worries, Cybertech were around till about 2000 or so.  The Trailstar is a classic.

Posted by: Vikb

Not really a conversion I guess, but my GF decided on this ^^ for her flat bar gravel bike/ATB. Certainly a lot of MTB DNA in there. Osto Fenrir in faux-Ti.

Damn that's nice.  Love the green parts.

Posted by: fartymarty

Damn that's nice.  Love the green parts.

Thanks. While she never said anything negative about the frakenbike ATB I built for her I think she's happy she'll be rolling on something more "refined" this year. We've asked for purple accent parts.

Posted by: fartymarty

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Posted by: fartymarty

Velo - did you buy the frame from Cybertech Cycles?  They used to be the NZ distributer for DMR and old riding buddies.

Got it in '06 or' 07 through Cycle Surgery Invercargill while I was working there a bit. 

Never met the distro.

No worries, Cybertech were around till about 2000 or so.  The Trailstar is a classic.

A name like Cybertech probably should have been finished by the Y2K bug. 

I'd wanted one for years by then, and it was my sole mtb for a year or two. It's freaky steep, even with the - 1° Works, and the 34mm head tube and 26.8mm post limit the options. Makes a nice ATB though.