Sixty Fiver

So much impressive work here... love that Rincon and would say it only needs fenders to really complete the package unless of course one lives where it seldom rains.

Sixty Fiver

Missed this... I have been travelling a lot and playing catch up.

The Moulden is light because the frame does not weigh any more than my custom steel road bikes... parts I use tend to be middle to high end without a speck of carbon fibre... with lighter tyres I could knock off a lot of weight (best way to knock off weight) but I like the performance of those Hurricanes and toughness too much to change them to anything but a folding set of Hurricanes.

My more utilitarian Kuwahara weighs 32 pounds with racks and fenders which is acceptable for what it is.

gt eunuch

Honestly, on this morning's commute (8.5mi) I did feel a tad stretched out in the beginning of it. About halfway through though, I felt a bit more comfortable on the hoods. I will keep an eye on it, but I think I will get used to it.

andyfloyd

Good work on that giant. I still need to get around top converting one of my rigid mtbs to drop bar .

gerv 

I have one bike with a longish top tube and a long stem. I don't notice it much until I go 40-50 miles. Then my shoulders start complaining.

likebike23

Here are some pics of my newly finished Renegade conversion. In the spirit of conversions, it was made exclusively from parts that were on hand. I am planning a bikepacking trip for August and won't be able to hike the bike to the campsite, so I'll probably have to hide/camouflage it in the woods. So, I needed a bike that I could "afford" to potentially lose, and this fits the bill nicely. The original fork was spaced more narrow in the dropouts and had a 22mm stem bore, so I replaced it with a chromo fork from my brother in law's Diamondback that I saved when I installed his front shock. I think it goes well with the black stem and seatpost, almost as if it came that way. When doing a shakedown ride, I noticed that it handled really twitchy, it would not hold a line. I remembered a thread that I read earlier where members said that twitchy handling could be due to a bent fork. I aligned the "crown" so it was perpendicular to the top tube and sure enough, one of the blades was more forward than the other on the ground. I put a pipe over the inward blade and bent it outward to match the other blade. After that the handling improved dramatically. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it.

hairnet

A friend of mine picked this up from CL

Drop bars were stock. GT's own 700D





Came a long way to Los Angeles

frantik

I'll just leave these here

andyfloyd

I love that pink. Looks amazing. I think I'm gonna convert my Panasonic mc 6500 to drops soonish

neo_pop_71

Way cool hairnet! Made in Japan... painted in Santa Ana, CA... shipped to Niagara Falls, NY... and finally back to SoCal. Great story, a few thousand miles without a pedal being turned! GT invented the 700D tire, IRC made them, and the last batch produced was back around 2000. No problem for your buddy, he can always switch over to 650B, they are only 3mm different in bead size. The Continuum frame was straight gauge Tange Infinity CrMo tubing and the Tachyon was the higher line with a double butted tube set. If I'm not mistaken, both frames had 72/73.5 geometry. If anyone is looking for a good candidate to build a 650B bike, the Continuum and Tachyon make excellent conversions. If your buddy wants the 1991 GT catalog, the year they introduced the Crossover bikes, here is a link to RetrobikeUK: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/vie...hp?f=9&t=47913


Hairnet, your buddy's bike is very similar to the "Moody Blue" custom paint offered on the special order 1991 Tequesta. I ordered the other custom color, the "Purple Haze" Tequesta back in 1991. Now, my daughter and I basically built a Continuum/Tachyon with 700C wheels (instead of 26") and all the other road components for my her first road bike. She and I built it up on her 8th birthday a couple weeks back, she picked out all the parts she wanted, it was a blast watching her get into cleaning and assembling her bike!



Seeing your buddy's bike brought back a lot of fond memories from riding in SoCal in the early 90's... thanks for sharing!

Peace,

-D-

frantik

i'm diggin this.. but the stem has to go pedals seem a bit too modern and low end as well

likebike23

Thanks Frantik. The components were completely cobbled together from my parts bin, I only had to come out of pocket $7.00 for the cables. The pedals are actually MKS plastic platforms and run smooth, so I'm going with them for now. BTW, couldn't you have waited a week to post that Jamis, you're putting us all to shame!

frantik

lol thanks i've been taking forever on that build.. couldn't wait any longer it needs some minor adjustments still to be 100% ready to ride, and I think I'm going to have to get a shorter stem. I'd been basing the cockpit off of my Univega but I realized that the top tube on the Jamis is longer by about .5". So the fit is off, which means I need to find a different stem :\ but at least i'm in the ball park.

When i took it for a test ride i ended up shifting into the highest gear half a block from my house, so i think i'm going to need a larger chain ring.. i've got a 52t chainring with a 110 bcd, though it's kinda heavy. I don't think i can get anything smaller than a 12t gear on the freehub body.. not 100% sure what the gearing is off the top my head


btw for $7 outlay on your build, that's pretty impressive the pedals aren't too bad, i was just nitpicking

wrk101

I'm a huge fan of "use what you've got" approach to a conversion. Ride it for a while, and upgrade what makes sense.

+1 that Jamis rocks!

frantik

yeah, helps when you've got a huge selection of parts on hand too I set up my 89 Diamondback Apex as a drop bar conversion with just parts on hand.. my 86 Apex was also built with that philosophy, though it's not a drop bar conversion. I recently upgraded some stuff on the 86 for the first time actually.

there is definitely a certain beauty in seeing what comes together based on what is on hand.. though it's also nice to have a vision and be able to bring it to fruition

gt eunuch

*drool* I would ride the hell out of that thing.

Do you have a full spec sheet anywhere on it? I am kind of curious about the shifters and the crankset. Also, do I spy some inline barrel adusters on the rear brake? On my conversion I do not have any adjusters anywhere

frantik

I will post the full specs in my build thread soon, but the shifters are Deore XT M732 thumb shifter bodies mated with Deore MT60 thumb shifter clamps. the Deore thumb shifter clamps are steel and can be bent to fit onto drop bars. I don't think there is any difference between the Xt and plain deore thumbshifter body besides the sticker on top. The crank arms are Deore MT60 with sugino rings.

and yes the rear brake has a jagwire inline cable adjuster. the front brake has an adjuster at the fork mounted cable stop. adjusters aren't 100% needed but are nice when the brake pads start to wear down/cables "stretch"

dphilips

That Jamis looks great. The AL-222 comes in 60,80,100mm extensions but the 100mm seems to be the most commonly stocked. Universalcycles has the 80mm as well.

Do you know which hub you have? My Alpina has an 11-28t compact cassette on a M650 (7-speed, non-compact freehub) and I needed a 1.2mm spacer (Shimano FW8300).

frantik

thanks! I have a AL-222 with the 100mm (i think.. i measured it c-c and it's 110) and it's identical to the stem i'm running on the jamis. i was looking at the nitto dirt drop but didn't want to drop the dollars on a $60 stem

M732.. the freehub body is the old kind that has splines for hyperglide and threads for uniglide. i could swap a compact freehub body from another wheelset if i really have to. i also have an issue with chain rub on the chainstay when i shift onto the smallest gear in the rear. i dont think the original wheelset the bike came with had this problem.. i was thinking it wasnt going to be a big deal (dont often ride in the highest gear in most of my bikes) but considering how quickly i ended up shifting into that gear, it may be

likebike23

I have that hub on my 1988ish Bianchi Super Grizzly. Swapping out the freehub might be a pain. I was going to repack the bearings and ran into some issues. That hub has a strange axle/cone/locknut that wasn't coming out in the usual way. I felt like I was going to break something getting the axle to come out, and aborted the attempt as it was working fine. My hub has a grease port on the seal which makes me wonder if Shimano intended it to be broken down.

likebike23

I learned that from reading your posts. Also, everybody needs a beater bike around that you can ride anywhere and not worry about it.

Mace350

Might have to try this with the old Rockhopper...

kehomer

You say the MT60 thumb shifter clamps are metal and can be coaxed onto larger road drop bars? Is there a problem with the pins on the 7 sp XT M732 body mating with the MT60 6 sp base? I just ordered an old $10.00 M732 set but am afraid it's plastic clamps will break if I try to force them. Thanks for the info. I'll locate an MT60 set and see if I can get it to work.

NKOTB

My fixed gear conversion.

frantik

^ nice.. did you build up the rear wheel from a track hub or did you do the "suicide hub" technique?

the m732 clamps are aluminum, while the MT60/MT62 are steel. The steel can be bent wide easily without fear of damaging the clamp. i dont think you could bend the aluminum ones. you might be able to bore them out though.. i considered doing that but then ended up with a spare set of clamps so i used those instead