Squeeze

"squealing with unmanly glee"

I'm running 26" x 1.75" Forte Gotham tires from Performance Bike. They work just fine off road here along the Front Range in Colorado where it's usually dry. I have ridden through mud caused by melting snow and felt the rear tire spin while pedaling during a commute home from work, but other than that, these things go everywhere without worry, and no flats since I bought them in 2013. Gotham tires are also very cheap! No, I'm not an employee or stockholder or internet shill for PB; I just like these tires, and so does a co-worker who bought a pair recently.

Two days ago:

3speedslow

Rebuilt 1990 Schwinn High Plains MTB turned tourer

first road shake out today with full handle bar bag.

more details later, had to put the bike up and follow the family to Wilminton for the day



Previous us conversion before the move to the coast

Kobe 

The fender line looks great! How do you like the Cannondale bag? It looks like it will carry a ton of stuff.

3speedslow

Thanks for the compliment.

Bag does great. Bike actually handles very well with a load up front. Took everything out of my messenger bag and put it into the many compartments in this Cannondale. Easy stuffing !

Wish it still had the plastic sleeve on the top but ideas are forming on how to make one myself. Love the cup strap inside the big compartment for my travel coffee cup.

Bag came to me in great shape, clean and with the two hooks to put into the fork ends. Elastic holding straps are still very springy so the bag is stable during the ride.

Will take more pics and write up tomorrow as my medication is kicking in hard. Have to call it a night.

badger_biker 

What fenders do you have on it? I like the look and would like something similar on my Panasonic. Nice job! I have a Trestle hdb bag too and they do hold a surprising amount.

3speedslow

Badger_b,

Sorry, these fenders came to me on an old cruiser I stripped for parts. No name to them. They are a nice style, something akin to the zephyr style that VO has.

I thought they were alloy for a while, very light and a magnet did not stick but I have noticed light rust spots appearing on the surface. Confusing...

Thanks for the kind words. Bag now on it is the red Cannondale one. I use to have a VO combo Bagette one on(in picture) but it got stolen.

What does a trestle look like ? Which Panosonic model did you build up ?

badger_biker 

Wow nice re-purposing job with those fenders - great line around the tires. Your red Cannondale is the Trestle model.

I built up a 1985 Panasonic Pro ATB. I posted some picture about a month ago further back in this same thread. I'm loving the bike and recently added a Blackburn mtb-1? front platform rack so I'm anxious to take it out for a loaded shake down overnighter.

3speedslow

^^^ And I just learned something ! I will go look for your build, I know I have seen it but things don't stick with me these days.

I actually have the fenders a little bit above the wheel line. Still good for stopping the spray but also allowin " give" space for branch debris on my travels.

rhm

Some of you may have noticed this frame and fork for sale recently:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...nch-frame.html

To save you the effort of clicking the link, here are the photos from the sale listing.





Well, I bought it. It is now here in my office, and I'm collecting parts and advice.

As mentioned in the listing, the fork threads are compromised. It is not clear whether I can use a threaded headset. Has anyone put a threadless headset on a threaded fork? Any issues there? The fork takes a 0.833" quill; do they make a star nut that diameter?

This frame is approx. the same size as the road frames I ride, so it might be a little big for me; but I will be setting it up as a road bike, to be ridden almost entirely on roads, though sometimes very bad roads indeed. It probably won't see many hills, either; I like hills, but there just aren't many in my area.

One thing that puzzles me... with all the talk of thumbies and the like, in this thread, are some of you guys using 22.2 mm handlebars? I know there are drop bars made for off-road use; are they 22.2 mm or 23.8? I have the Soma Lauterwasser bar on my commuter bike, and like it enough that I'm considering getting another one for this bike. It's a 22.2....

So for now this is just a tease. I hope to build my wheels later this week (Sun Levanter rims, Alfine dynamo hub front, Deore 7 speed). Just about every other aspect of the build is up in the air at this point, but the bike will have fenders and lights.

wrk101

The Tourney trigger shifters I use have a steel mounting band. It can be "encouraged" to fit larger diameter drop bars. I would guess that the cheap Sunlite thumb shifters have a similar steel band (I've never used them).

A second thrifty choice is stem shifters. Nothing wrong with them, really! And around here, that is your cheapest option. Co-ops tend to have piles of them, as does your average bike flipper.

On the non-thrifty choice side, bar ends are great. But unless you score a deal on them, they are on the spendy side.

I thought about putting a 1 inch threadless stem on that frame. If it fit me (too big) I probably would have tried it. My LBS recommended that approach as well.

Frame came with bull moose bars that were rusty/crusty.

cooperryder

I just installed a set of those Gotham tires on an early 90's Rockhopper a few days ago to replace a set of Geax tires that I found to be too noisy for me and my mostly urban street riding and probably more suited to gravel grinding or more off road trails.

I noticed they have both National Tire Co LTD and Panaracer.com stamped on them.

These Gotham's came to me on some other mtb I bought a while back and I really was not expecting much
but they certainly roll better than some 26"'ers I have tried.

I much prefer my wider and lighter 26 x 2.15 Maxxis DTH (550g) on a different 26'er as well as some
discontinued Michelin Pilot Sports on another.
However, I have 4 or 5 26" bikes rolling at any one time
and cannot justify nicer tires on each one it's good there are some 26" tire bargains like these Performance Gotham's
out there that are not terrible tires.

They have them listed on the Performance site at 660g. What wishful thinking on their part!
One of mine weighed 840g and the other 900g.
Perhaps they have reduced the weight on current models.

Even at that they roll better than the 680g Geax Evolution tires I took off of this bike
and from online reviews you don't have to worry too much about flats.
When you are trying to do one of these rigid mtb builds on a budget it's great to have these Gotham tires
as an option.

When I can justify another set of nicer 26" tires I hope to get a set of the forthcoming fatter Compass Cycle 26" tires.
In the meantime I have a set of folding Vee Speedster 26 x 2.10 on the way.

We will see how they work out.

This is a fun thread to see what other folks are coming up with on their vintage mtb's.
Keep'em coming.

Anyone else have some good '26' tire finds to share?

arex

I'm slowly piecing my commuter MTB back together after the powdercoat.

Opted to put some Panaracer Soar tires on the bike, since testing with different tires on the same rims showed that the enormous difficulty getting the Marathons on and off was due to the tires, not the rims. I was able to install the Soars without tools, whereas the Marathons were a real ordeal...not sure why, since the Marathons I had on my Raleigh installed just fine. I did confirm that the tires were in fact the right size, just in case.

The components are a mix of Deore XT and LX. The seat is a Murphy saddle, a clone of a Brooks Swallow...cheaper than a Brooks, but there might be a reason for it. I'll see how it holds up. Ritchey Pro drop bars, Truvativ seatpost.

Pics later.

cooperryder

After seeing the nice Schwinn High Plains of '3speedslow' above on this page I thought I would share a recent build a friend and
I did of a High Plains for a friend of his.
This came to me as a frame only and had been setting in my garage for about 2 years.
We decided to do it up as a cool urban cruiser for his friend that needed a bike.

Since this pic we tweaked a few things but this is essentially what we came up with.

I know this is a thread for mtb drop bar conversions but hopefully this is still in the spirit of the thread.

Perhaps a new thread should be started for these vintage mtbs that have been converted to upright bars.
Some make for simply terrific budget urban cruisers using Albatross or similar upright bars.
At least that's been my experience.

noglider 

I have put a 1" threadless headset on my Raleigh Twenty. It came with a starfangled nut that fits fine. There isn't enough steerer tube protruding, so I'm going to lengthen it effectively by shortening the head tube.

3speedslow

Whoaw !

3speedslow

I think you all did an awesome job getting that High Plains road worthy ! Do you know the year ? These frames make great urban,tourer,roadie platforms.

What rims are those ?

Thanks for the compliment on my version of a touring MTB drop bar. I am grabbing it every day for longer rides then beating it home before the mid day rains. Still have to do a full pic spread and write up.

Hope your friend enjoys it.

arex

arex

How much of the head tube are you removing?

3speedslow

Eager to see it complete ! Are those saddle rails copper coloured ?

arex

Yeah, they are...so are the rivets. I'm not dead set on using this saddle...I got it cheap, and I just want to see how it feels and how it lasts.

noglider 

I don't know yet. This is behind my back burner projects. The Twenty has a lot more extra head tube than Rudi's frame, too.

azgreg

Whatcha got there?

arex

'91 MTN TEK Vertical, a generic Taiwan-made house brand for Pederson Sports. Tange plain-gauge chromo, stout as hell without being heavy. A mix of Deore XT and LX components, Mavic rims. Just had it powdercoated, since the paint was never awesome...409 cleaner would start to dissolve the finish. Ritchey Pro bars, Ritchey Pro headset. Panaracer Soar tires.

I'm still in the process of putting things back together, clearly.

cooperryder

Thank you.
It's a 1992 model (23" and lugged even).
I had actually considered building it up for myself as a 26" tourer.
That's a relatively inexpensive Xero Element XSM-3 Rim and hub wheelset he picked up for less than a hundred I think.
Too few a spoke count for me but they will do I guess as they give the bike a bit of a different look of modern and old that kind of grows on me.

Good you are getting in some good miles on your High Plains.

I often pick one of my 26"ers for riding over my 700c bikes as these fatter road tires on these bikes make for a cush and fun ride on the rough streets around here.

exmechanic89

Hey I have a question I want opinions on from you guys. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I have a lugged, 700c wheel size '91 Trek 750 Multitrack frame I'm building into a drop bar roadbike. It's a 21" frame, and I normally ride on 18"-19" mtb frames. 18" is probably a hair small for me (I'm 6' tall) but I like the manueverability in that size. So obviously since the 750 is gonna be a 21" bike it's gonna be quite a bit different. Since I rode 23" frame road bikes back in the day, I thought the 21" hybrid frame should fit me pretty well. What are your thoughts? Thanks.