Touring - help me build my atlantis, please!?!

sorry, i know how much geartalk there is in this forum, but i have (what i think is) a unique situation.

I'm swapping out a gunnar frame and fork (700c) for a Rivendell Atlantis (26").
Here's what I have:
Shimano 600 hub & wheelset with 8spd cassette on the rear.
600 brake levers
ultegra barend shifters
ultegra double crankset
600 front and rear derailleur
600 dual-pivot brakes

I know I need to at least rebuild the wheels to 26" hubs to fit the atlantis, and i definitely need mountain cranks instead of the double road cranks. That said...
What would you keep and transfer to the atlantis?
What would you replace, and what would the replacement be?

I'm leaning toward keeping and using the levers, hubs. Replacing derailleurs with mountain ones (which would you recommend) and replacing the crank with a triple mountain crank. What brakes should I get?

help? thanks!

How many holes are the hubs?
I'd recommend some sun rhyno lites for wheels. Even with 36 spokes, they should be the last rims you ever need.
Go with and LX or XT gruppo depending on what you can afford. I find the lx cassette to be more durable than the XT. I dunno if XT's realy worth the extra cost on a tourer. Shifts a bit faster, though with bar-end shifters you may not notice that and a few grams lighter.
Get some diacompe V-levers and soem avid single digits.

someone recommended velocity aerohead rims... didn't know they come in 26" but i love 'em on my roadie...

i have an atlantis, and a bridgestone x-0. and they both see daily use in all weather with all sorts of loads. aeroheads have no place on a nice frame like that. get something more conventional, ie mavic 717s in silver, or even cr 18s, by sun, eyelets look nice and add strength. xl 14 spokes are great, made by wheelsmith. they are light and strong, and only come in silver. use DT nipples though. tektro makes good silver canti brakes for cheap. the shimanos arnt worth the scratch. if money is no object, the paul touring cantilevers are the best out there, for your application. i would say, drivetrain wise, that a sugino xd 48, 36, 26 crankset would be perfect, with a 13-28 cassette on the back, perferably 7 speed, cause of durability. a silver, again with the silver, 105 rear mech is solid and fairly cheap, thats what i use on all my bikes, and they always give no hassles. panaracer pasela tour guard tires in 1.25 or 1.5 are great, lite and pretty. what else is there? honjo fenders are great... american classic bottom brackets are lite and have a grease guard function... 105 triple front mech... that should do it.

Is the rear OLD of the Atlantis still 132mm? If so you can go with the rear Ultegra hub. But I think Rivendell moved to 135mm some time ago, so i think you gotta get a new axle and spacers.

Oh...and get some cantis. They're nicer on the Atlantis and you can keep your current levers

here's my suggestion-

i think there will be soooo much different between the two setups, you would be better off keeping the gunnar built up and getting new stuff for the atlantis...and rims do NOT last forever, if you ride a lot, a rim might last 3 years, but more likely 2. I like Velocity Dyads for touring and also the Sun Rhynolites, and i am not over 170 pounds in shoes....

different wheel size, different hub spacing, the brakes, a double, all is no good.

The only thing that would carry over without much trouble would be the barcon shifters and brake levers. otherwise, all the rest of the stuff off the gunnar would be most likely useless.

headset, hbars, brakes, wheels, cranks, none of that is going to transfer nicely.

don't do 7 speed just becasue.... 7,8, or 9 makes little difference except in the chain, and the barcon shifters should shift all those (IN FRICTION MODE). otherwise, if you want to use indexing, you'll have to stick with 8 speed and you use the barcons.

why not make up two bikes? not much of your gunnar will transfer well...

thanks for the advice. yeah, everyone seems to be telling me to dump it all and build up a deore lx bike.

thanks for the advice. yeah, everyone seems to be telling me to dump it all and build up a deore lx bike.

Chimblysweep,

I built my Surly Long Haul Trucker with a mix of LX and 105 stuff. The barcons are definitely keepers and I got a real deal on some Avid V-Brakes on Nashbar (paired with Dia Compe 287-V levers). Haunt Performance and Nashbar (maybe Pricepoint) for closeouts, liquidations, etc. I got a few items on eBay as well, a nice touring-specific wheelset with LX hubs. Keep us posted!

Sounds great! I'm seeing that the 26"/MTB thing is actually a boon when it comes to finding cheap parts

Sounds great! I'm seeing that the 26"/MTB thing is actually a boon when it comes to finding cheap parts
Yeah, the LX groupo is an amazing deal. Strong rims are also more common.

I've listed some of my preferences in an article I posted on my blog in May: http://tullios.blogspot.com/2006/05/suggested-touring-bicycle-component.html

I would recommend Tektro Oryx cantilevers and R200A drop bar levers. That combo has worked really well for me on my LHT, and I like the way they look. They use v-brake style pads and are super easy to adjust. The stock pads that come with the Oryx aren't the best, but they work. I used the pads until they wore out and replaced them with better ones.

I also think that Sugino XD2 cranks are great. I bought the XD300 with steel chainrings because I was more concerned with durability than weight.

+1 on the Deore LX....I recently bought a used bridgestone xo2 and the stock LX works great still. I had Lx on my Cannondale SM800 and it was bombproof. Lots of good 26" wheels on Ebay.