MTB Gravel Bike Conversions

I'm keen to see / read about others who have converted mtbs to gravel bikes.

I'm not convinced any conversion is needed. Tires if anything.

I have a Torrent frame I've been considering building in to a flat bar slick tire curb blasting hoon worthy commuter so I'm interested to see what becomes of this thread :)

I went all cyclocross on a DeKerf to mixed results.

Smaller than my normal size frame so top tube length was right for me, but put the bars suuuuuuuper low. Cost to go to drop wasn’t insignificant. In retrospect that bike would have been a better cross bike with a mountain bike bar setup. Same for gravel. For me, a larger 90’s ridgid mountain bike would make a great gravel bike, just pick the tire that’s right for the ride.

I kinda wish I still had this. Riding Entrails to Room With A View in Squamish was entertaining. 

If you should happen to go to the BC Bike show tomorrow, Landyachtz are selling some Spitfire completes for $500.
They have some other beautiful bikes there as well, including their Play bike and they're entering the full custom bike  frame arena - Ti and Steel. Pretty much the only thing that was worth the $15 entry fee, apart from seeing WAO bikes in the flesh.

My Titus Fireline Ti flatbar hardtail with 44T 3x10 and 2.5 tubeless nobby nicks flies on gravel.   For actual rough gravel logging roads, I prefer it over the Revolt Advanced Pro with 38s.  Nothing to “convert” IMO. The high speed gearing was the only ‘upgrade’ to make it less mtn and more gravel.

Its also been down Cambodia (slowly), so there’s that…

I’m also still not truly comfortable riding the drops of the Revolt, even on the road, after three years.  For fast commuting road and path though, the Revolt wins hands down.

Posted by: [email protected]

I'm not convinced any conversion is needed. Tires if anything.

High speed gearing even more important than tires IMO.   

But a curly bars conversion is just wrong for many reasons - geometry, brakes, shifters, cost…

Posted by: trumpstinyhands

I kinda wish I still had this. Riding Entrails to Room With A View in Squamish was entertaining. 

That is giving off very mixed messages. Rad.

Posted by: tashi

I went all cyclocross on a DeKerf to mixed results.

Smaller than my normal size frame so top tube length was right for me, but put the bars suuuuuuuper low. Cost to go to drop wasn’t insignificant. In retrospect that bike would have been a better cross bike with a mountain bike bar setup. Same for gravel. For me, a larger 90’s ridgid mountain bike would make a great gravel bike, just pick the tire that’s right for the ride.

The difference in head tube length between road and mtb makes drop conversion off putting. I'm thinking of trying a longer stem + very swept bar instead.

Posted by: heckler

Posted by: [email protected]

I'm not convinced any conversion is needed. Tires if anything.

High speed gearing even more important than tires IMO.

But a curly bars conversion is just wrong for many reasons - geometry, brakes, shifters, cost…

I've just curly barred my Krampus. It's a large frame with 440R and 675HA with -2 HS - so short for a HT and possibly a bit long for a gravel bike. I'm runnning Microshift R10 shifters (£50ish on CRC), R10 mech and some Clarks cable discs (£20ish). The discs are ok - no where near as good as hydraulic but the stop me. I looked at hydraulic shifters but they start at about £150 - which was too much to pay for what is essentially an experiment.

Bars wise I tried some Brand X road bars for £10 but the reach and drop was too long so got some Prima gravel bars with 20mm rise which are a lot better. Stem wise I'm running a 30mm stem which is super short but OK with the relatively slack HA and feels fine riding.

I'm not running a dropper as it's on my youngests bike.

The other plan is to be able to quickly convert back to flat bars - ie take off bars,stem, shifters, mech and brakes in one and put on some flat bars, stem, hydraulic brakes, shifters and mech. Suitable for more proper trails.

Tyres wise I'm on 30i rims with 45 WTB Riddlers set up tubeless. The rims are way too wide but it's what I got.

Riding wise its fast on the road and seems ok on tamer gravel trails. I need to do some more proper trails once thing dry up / warm up. I like the drops for the road as they're really fast.

I'll post some piccys tomorrow from my laptop.

Posted by: fartymarty

I'm keen to see / read about others who have converted mtbs to gravel bikes.

I tried doing this a number of times over the years but it never really took. A few friends have similar monster bike conversions that hang in their garages unridden. But once I got a proper dedicated gravel bike with suitable geo (which is basically a 90s mountain 72/74 bike but with a tall head tube and 29" wheels and 40mm tires) I ride it all the time, at least as much as my enduro bike. 

For people who did these conversions and actually ride them regularly: what is the secret sauce to getting there? I never figured it out.

I think the secret sauce is not to overthink it and just ride, but then I'm firmly in the "every mountain bike is a gravel bike" camp.

In my XC marathon racing days I logged thousands and thousands of training kms on road, gravel paths, dirt tracks, etc. on 80 mm and 100 mm FS XC MTBs with 2.1 or 2.25 Racing Ralph XC tires, exact same configuration as I raced those bikes.

When I spent a month in New Zealand I brought my Reign 27.5, 160 mm, 2.5 DHF Maxxgrip & 2.4 HR2 Maxxterra, I'd do big "groad" rides connecting different trail networks by road and gravel paths, and the next day I'd do bike park laps on the exact same bike.

Here in Comox I've been enjoying exploring some gravel and dirt paths on my old Giant Roam "cross-hybrid" commuter / errand bike but this summer I'm planning to explore some of the many logging roads in the mountains here and I'm simply going to use my Reign 29 trail bike. I'm super comfortable on it and it pedals very well, and if I come across a more spicy trail I can ride that too. If I like those rides and want to do them more often I might buy some XC tires but for the occasional one-off I'm not even going to bother changing the tires. IMHO people exaggerate the impact of a slow rolling tire. If you practice some Zen skills you can just ignore it and enjoy the ride. If the goal was to not get tired I'd get an e-bike ;-)

Having said that I appreciate that everyone is different and that some simply enjoy having multiple bikes, each optimized for a specific purpose.

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Posted by: tashi

I went all cyclocross on a DeKerf to mixed results.

Smaller than my normal size frame so top tube length was right for me, but put the bars suuuuuuuper low. Cost to go to drop wasn’t insignificant. In retrospect that bike would have been a better cross bike with a mountain bike bar setup. Same for gravel. For me, a larger 90’s ridgid mountain bike would make a great gravel bike, just pick the tire that’s right for the ride.

The difference in head tube length between road and mtb makes drop conversion off putting. I'm thinking of trying a longer stem + very swept bar instead.

Ya it pretty much requires a short, super tall stem and/or really long steerer tube so things end up pretty goofy looking.