seely

For my 5,000th post, I thought I'd update my favorite thread.

Here is my High Plains 2.0. Changes include matching vintage "Jim Blackburn" brake bridge mount racks F&R (a bike co-op find!), panniers in the front to try running it primarily front loaded, On-One Midge bars instead of the unwieldy WTB Dirt Drops, and an Exage 175 crank to replace the 170's it came with. Rebuilt all the bearings (headset, BB, pedals, etc).

whatwolf

Work in progress, though it may or may not end up with drops depending on the reach.

wrk101

Try rando bars instead. OK, they aren't midges, but they do flare out and you should be able to find them at low cost (think co-op, forum member, whatever). Some early low level Schwinns had rando style bars. just took a set off a Schwinn Continental.

To me, part of the fun of a conversion is doing it at a low budget. Dropping $100 on a set of bars pretty much negates any savings.

wrk101

Any time you mix components like that on old bikes, you get mixed results. Give it a try. I've had a lot of oddball stuff that should not have worked work, and I have had other stuff that should have worked, not work. And some crazy mixes have worked for me, and not for others.

blart

For reference, the nitto rando bars I got off of ebay were 37$ with shipping. I think they are also on amazon for around 50

seely

I've actually got a set of the WTB 25.4's I might part with. That said, I replaced them with Midges, and at least for me, the Midges are about 100x more comfortable and useful than the WTB's, which frankly are kind of bizarre in their proportions. I got my Midges for around $30 shipped off eBay, in new condition. I've seen others say the same about the cost, but I thought when I priced them out new from the website, they were around $35, but were sold out of 25.4 black.

Velocivixen

Somebody on her encouraged me to get a black seatpost since everything on the bike was black. So here it is. Simple Kalloy seat post. I'd like to get a black stem that I can get up a tiny bit higher, but it's still good now. 1990 Trek 930 bought from original owner. For some reason the "rapid fire" type below the bar mountain shifters did a better job than the 7 speed Accushift Plus Bar-Cons in regard to indexing. I could always go friction, but I like indexing more and more.
1990 Trek 930 by velocivixen, on '90 Trek 930 Drop Bar by velocivixen, on '90 Trek 930 Drop Bar Conversion by velocivixen, on Flickr

mountaindave 

Planet-X no longer carries Midges in te US (thanks for the heads up on that @Velocivixen. Has anybody tried the Origin8 Gary?

henry_hops

I have actually looked at those before, but i was turned away from the lack of (im not sure what its called) outward angle after the drop. the 100$ final price tag on midges from their website had me smashing my computer to bits!

henry_hops

Are they the original WTB's? Ive heard some weird things about the geometry on the newer ones..

Velocivixen

Basically, Planet-X in Portland, OR said they sent all their stock back to the UK and all items purchased online will be shipped from the UK. They have some Vittoria Voyager Hyper tires 700c x 35 for 64% off at just over $20 per tire! I wanted to go to Portland to get a pair, but alas, no tires there. I could have bought the same tire elsewhere in Portland, for $57 or $59 per tire. I bought the two online and paid shipping form the UK and essentially got two tires for the price of one. The guy at the Portland store said that management is still trying to figure out how they're going to do things regarding online & in store stuff. It sucks, because I can drive 10 miles to the store and pick stuff up, but apparently not any more. So I'm not sure what they're selling at the Portland store.

yangmusa

I have a set of the Performance Bike Forte 9 speed brifters (rebranded Microshift) and they work great. Comfortable, feel solid, and shift nicely. Great value too.

inkandsilver

This will be of interest to some of you on this thread:

Jan Heine has announced that Compass will be offering a new 26" x 54 mm tire, the "Rat Trap Pass". (source: his post on the ibob group)

I know what my High Sierra wants for xmas!!

seely

I don't know honestly... I'd guess they are the newer ones. They aren't really barn end shifter compatible, and the geometry on them is beyond stupid, but if they'd work for what you're doing, I'd be happy to part with them!

seely

Oh the High Plains may want those too! Gumwall only? Was looking at the Panaracer Tservs 1.75...

inkandsilver

Not sure about that. On many of their other tires they have both black and tan. I personally would love to have tanwalls.

henry_hops

Im fairly sure that the newer ones are black and have a white painted on logo, while the older ones are silver and have am etched on logo. How much are you asking for them?

mountaindave 

Welcome, @Marvelousmarkie, and nice build!!

Which bars did you go with? Nitto Randonneurs?

henry_hops

Whats up with this need for 50 posts in order to pm?

mountaindave 

^^^ To reduce spam? I believe premium membership will also take care of it. At $1/month it's totally worth it for a forum of this magnitude. Plus, you can utilize the classifieds.

seely

Yeah probably to keep the bots down... if you want, email me at jonathan [dot] seely [at] gmail [dot] com

seely

I'll concur

frantik

i like the way those bars look a lot.. i want to try some

arangov3

This only took like a month to read in that time I couldn't find a bike to do this to

Fahrenheit531 

Technically a hybrid, but close enough and hey, gotta post the finished project somewhere, right?
My wife's #1 ride, a '95 Trek 7900 Multitrack (also known as "The Great Grape," or "Honey Badger")



Where did you find that "cheap and ugly" stem?? I gave up looking and went with a Nitto threaded-to-threadless doohickey plus the shortest reach, highest rise stem I could find.