Thanks. It looks like it's way out in the middle of nowhere, doesn't it? I live on the southern edge of the Denver metro area, down there in the sea of rooftops. Here's another picture, without having moved the bike, which shows I'm not really three day's ride from civilization as it looks like in the first picture.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...psiiukbdxa.jpg

I'm very lucky and grateful to live here, where there's a big city nearby but also miles of gravel trails to ride. A good part of my commute to work is on gravel, too, which is why this bike is my main steed and my road bike doesn't get out much. Why be limited to pavement? This MTB will handle any terrain and is fast (enough) on pavement, too. When it had straight bars, I could never get comfortable, but now I feel like I can ride all day and not keep wishing for a different hand position.

There's a gravel trail that runs right behind my house and from there I can go just about anywhere by bicycle. On days off, I often head south with no particular destination in mind and just have fun...and try to steer around the horse droppings on some trails as shown below. :lol:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...pswlyqrjtv.jpg

I hope I don't sound boastful here, but it's just that I love where I live. My wife and I quit our jobs and sold our house back east and moved out here ten years ago. It was one of the best decisions of my life.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...pslzaultaa.jpg

Rudi, I love to see the re-emergence of that Univega. It was sitting neglected at a local DKO when I picked it up. Biplanar forks are really heavy, but so cool! I've only had two MTBs with bi-planar forks, both were the wrong size so they moved on.

My wife and I were in Boulder last August and hung out a a little in Golden but didn't really get to explore much of the metro are. Some day. Just a few weeks ago I was in Boulder again; hiking and running in the Flat Irons, hiking at RMNP, and drinking lots of great local beers. Good times.

All great points, @wrk101. I would also add that 26" wheels are way more standard than 27.5/650b (in terms of road/gravel). Much easier to find tires.

I think dirt drop MTBs look bada$$ myself. However, I have the reverse problem in sizing. I can ride a 60cm c-c seat tube with a 58cm c-c top tube and still have 4" of saddle to bar drop. Makes finding a suitable MTB a challenge for my ridiculously long legs and short torso.

I really enjoyed my dirt drop on a 30 mile ride I posted earlier this summer. It was a combo of pavement, gravel and double track. The dirt drop performed flawlessly on all three. I don't think my planned 650b would be up to the double track challenge. MTBs have quite a range of possibilities open to them.

Keep talking up Colorado, @Squeeze. Montana sucks, nothin' going on here...

Oh yeah, that Dawes is rad!

Did you see my Ocoee posted here (and in its own recent thread)? Those albatross style bars will "shorten" the top tube a lot, if the hand position works for you.

I put North Roads on a conversion for the El Cheapo contest, as the top tube was definitely too long for me. I also used a super short stem. Could this be an option for you?

Also consider mid 1980s. Seems like by the end of the 1980s, and into the 1990s, top tubes got longer and longer. The 1990 Schwinn Sierra below has a top tube that is one inch longer than my 1988 Schwinn Cimarron. Both share the same seat tube length.

The beauty of building one out of spare parts is even if it doesn't work out, the parts will transfer to the next project.


1990 Schwinn Sierra:

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=478996

I tried a North Roads style handlebar for a while, but found the one hand position to be very limiting on long rides. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for a "right vs wrong" answer. I'm an n+1 kind of guy, if there's even the slightest excuse to build something different, I'm all over it. 650b is my newest excuse. I'm more interested in why people choose one over the other. If anything, I'm promoting more builds. "Hey, try this one out and see which one you like!" ;)

Let's play spot the difference!

Original
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=479449

Modified
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=479448

It's a little easier this way ;)

Different bar ends for stoker & different saddle for captain, or is it just camera angle?
Drop bars and STI's for captain. Can't' see anything else different in the pictures.

I don't think we've seen a tandem conversion yet, at least this is the first I've seen so far - nice work!

It's only half complete. You need to put stoker drops on it, too.

Thanks, it was a fun project. I had to also change the RD because it was one of those "backwards" Shimano Nexave ones and got rid of the mega range cassette . This was a parts bin conversion. I cut down the bar extensions for the stoker and did swap out the seats. Maiden DB voyage is today!

I love this thread, it is my favorite and I couldn't believe I had to go tp page 4 of the thread listing to find it... shame! I like what Bill has to say about these conversion and so I figured I'd give it a bump. Thanks Bill for starting this great thread! Cheers!

I appreciate the kind words. Miami Chris was my inspiration for my first conversion. Loved what he did with a chrome Mt Hood. In fact, I have a chrome Mt Whitney in the "to be converted next" queue. Meanwhile, the Cimarron LE continues to get the nod. I'm out in UT today, did a nice ride at Zion National Park.

Which bike?

Really nice job! I have a '93 Sedona ATX...very much want to covert to drops.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=481733 I'm about to convert my '91 Trek 750 into a drop bar bike. I've read my 750 has the same geometry as the 520 road bike of around the same era, so I'm thinking it'll be really nice. Once I change the bars/stem I'm of course planning on mounting road brake levers on it, as well as down tube shifters. This should all work reasonably well, shouldnt it? Anything I need to be concerned about? I should also mention I buy all my parts used on CL or the 'bay. :)

Unfortunately it might have a thicker downtube than most of the clamp on shifters. It will either leave the shifters angled towards the top middle,or not work at all. There's always bar end shifters or brifters though? Or if you're lucky enough to score a set, there are the Suntour shifters you can mount by the brake levers. Their official n@me escapes me at the moment.,,,,BD

This may be my favorite thread in BF. So a shout out to @wrk101 for starting it. Who knows how many vintage mtbs have been salvaged after BF members read this thread and decided to do a drop bar conversion?

I love my drop bar conversion (a 1987 stumpjumper comp) and I recently picked up another vintage mtb (a 1992 Trek 950). They're just fun bikes.

I think you're thinking of Suntour Command shifters maybe?

Hmm, didnt think of that. This frame isnt made of oversized tubing though, like the later cro moly Treks. I havent actually compared it, but I assumed that the tubes were pretty close to road bike specs of the time period. Guess I'd better figure out before I order any shifters. I definitely dont want bar ends though, I'll probably switch to stem shifters if it turns out the down tube is too big for any of the DT shifters I find.

Not a problem, you posted here and 100 or so old-school bike geeks thought of it for you. And one of them was kind enough to post it. :thumb:

H+1 totally agree bikemig. At first I though OK different approach by why? Then I converted my Panasonic and loved it so now I'm in search of Schwinn Cimarron. Just great all purpose bikes and dynamite touring machines.

Are you tall? Up for a drive to northern WI?

[h=2]Schwinn Cimarron Bike - $175 (Three Lakes, WI)[/h]Schwinn Cimarron Bike

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=482012

Parts Bin Special
 

Just a parts bin special.

Before:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=483119

After:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=483120

Pretty nice looking parts build @SingleSpeeDemon