Commuting - I am contemplating a franken-bike project, what should I keep in mind.

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TheatreME
10-31-08, 05:30 PM
So towards the end of the summer I destroyed my beloved LHT. Even though I had to leave that state 2 days later (still bruised and stitched up and sore as hell) I managed to get a lovely friend to ship me 90% of the components from the LHT complete. As I had already talked to a guy about buying a frame for a cheap fixie build before the wreck I went ahead with the purchase and have been commuting on the cheap on my fixie since. However I have moved again and my terrain is not as flat. Almost as an afterthought from the same guy I bought an old Iron Horse Mountain bike (80's early 90's easy; at least I think so)

So after all that setup the question is: would it be worthwhile to transfer all the nice-ish LHT components to the iron horse while I am saving for another trucker frame. How are old Iron Horse frames?? What compatibility issues am I looking at? LHT had 700c wheels as opposed to 26s on the Iron horse frame. Derailleurs might also be another issue. How do you decide on a chain line with a multi speed bike (ie BB width?) Technical stuff aside, would it even be worth the trouble?

Your thoughts?

Iowegian
10-31-08, 11:23 PM
Probably not worth the trouble in my book. I don't know all the specs on the LHT vs the Iron Horse but some of the things that can go wrong include: BB (68mm vs 73mm), spindle length/chainline, tubing size for FD clamp, FD bottom/top pull/swing, FD throw vs. chainline. Then there is the seatpost sizing, wheel sizing, rear cassette compatibility, canti vs V-brake, etc.

If you do go this route I'd consider using a single chainring up front. That would let you run a number of gears with minimal effort.