Aemmer

gomango

Cool pics, cool bike.

Worthy of its own thread.

thirdgenbird

We might need one thread for the frame and another for the crankset.

northbend 

What rail trail is that aemmer?

northbend 

Now that my bike has gotten dirty, I can officially post it here. Cino ready!

gerv 

Wow! This certainly redefines "gravel grinder".

Drop dead gorgeous!

Can I ask what the handlebars are?

Six jours

That's got to be one of the (if not the) best all-around bike on BF. You should see it with fenders and traditional tires.

Aemmer

Thats the road out to the Carbon River entrance to Mt Rainier.

Bottom pic is off a logging road outside of Buckley.

WNG

KOBE, the Mongoose turned out great. Stunning!

Conan

I dunno what it is but I have just been zoning out, staring at this bike for like 10 min. Its just so nice... and that trail looks like heaven.

Kobe 

Thanks Law, I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I know Mongeese(Sp?) have a bad reputation now, but this frame is really nice. Back in the day they were really decent bikes. As far as the Tektro's, they are great and were very easy to set up right out of the box. I t is not often I get to work with new parts, and old canti's can be a pain to set up, but these were anything but. And they stop really well too!

WNG. Thanks, I must say your old Crosscut gave me the idea to build up a Hybrid frame. Most mountain bike frames are too small for me and the 23" Mongoose with 700c wheels get me to a better fit. I know you miss the Schwinn and I miss seeing the great pictures of the trail rides you did with it.

Aemmer

Ha,
Mtn. bike part heavy, road bike parts light, I didn't have any good choices for double cranksets. I just traded off some fodder for a set of minty fresh American Classics that will be taking their place. Just need to find the right chainrings.

thirdgenbird

What are they, cook bros. racing type e?

Aemmer

Exactly. With a purple spider that make me cringe a touch every time I see it. I am way too boring for that much bling.

ColonelJLloyd 

If that Singer were a woman I would leave my wife and child. I want to spend the rest of my life with it.

thirdgenbird

I kinda like it (but on a different build)

Aemmer

They were initially picked up for this father son project where they would have been fine on a early 90's Mtb. We went a different direction instead. Not quite right on an early 80's road bike but I was desperate and wanted to ride. Honestly, I put the bike together with a proper 600 arabesque build, it looked nice, but I wanted to ride it hard so I put it back together with the current bastard build instead.



Most of the parts on the Ritchey were selected more for function and comfort with a heavy emphasis on what was in the parts bin already. Someday I will give it a proper build when the right donor bike comes along.

cyclotoine

Drool!

tarwheel 

My Bob Jackson World Tour will handle pretty large tires. Although I usually have it set up for road riding, I have ridden it on unpaved trails using 32 mm Ritchey Cross Max Pro tires and it does great. According to BJ, the frame will handle tires up to 32 mm, but it will actually handle 35s and possibly 38s. I've also used the same tires on my Waterford RST-22 while riding on the C&O Canal, and that frame will also handle larger tires. Having canti brakes on a frame really helps when using larger tires with tread because they have so much more clearance than most caliper brakes.

Kobe 

^ Double Drool on the Bob Jackson!

I agree about the canti brakes, they make it so much easier getting larger tires on and off.

gerv 

Have to confess that I regularly search through eBay for bikes like these. It's a weakness.

Saw a couple of Rene Herse models last night, including one from the 1980s. But I wouldn't consider them gravel grinders.

swen0171 

I think all my bikes end up as gravel grinders. Indianapolis has so few interesting places to ride that you really need a versatile and sturdy bike.

From new to vintage:

Surly LHT. 60cm with 26 inch wheels.



Rivendell Quickbeam (2004). Set up as fast gravel bike or path racer.



1993 Bridgestone XO-3. This is the year that the XO-2 and XO-3 shared the same geometry as the XO-1, and they both had the same nice triple butted Ishawata tubeset as the RB-2 of that year. A super fun bike and pretty close to a perfect gravel grinder for me.

gomango

Nice stable!

I really like your Quickbeam. I really don't understand why Rivendell doesn't reissue that frameset.

I would take one. I gave up looking for a used one in my size.

smontanaro 

Aemmer, where do you usually place your hands on those bars?

Aemmer

Fair question, long answer.

Last July I took a pretty good header on my Mtn. bike and have had pain in my neck down into my right hand ever since. After the accident I found my Dirt Drop Ritchey was the most comfortable of my bikes to ride. I have this bike set up with the same WTB bars and usually am in the drops 90% of the time:



The accident has also deterred my Mtn. bike riding quite a bit and thus the desire to put together a bike for riding the local logging roads instead. This is the reason I built up the Black Ritchey road the way I did. I had been driving the 12 or so miles to access logging roads on my Blue Ritchey and wanted something that would get me there without driving (and one can never have too many Ritchey's in the quiver).

I was trying to emulate the ride of my blue bike on the black bike and thus the WTB dirt drops. What I have found is even though there is only about .5" difference in the top tube length, I an riding on top of the bars quite a bit more than I ever do on my blue bike. Possibly it is the 1/2 inch difference or possibly it is just a different riding style when the trail/road is not as challenging. I think my next step will be to change the black bike to a Nitto dirt drop stem to shorten the cockpit and raise the bars a touch thus making the drops a little more inviting. I do know the hand position offered by the WTB's while in the drops/hooks is the most comfortable for me right now.


Hope that makes sense.