So I have this tendency to hoard parts and build weird bikes. A couple of months ago, I put 700c wheels/tires on a early 2000s Fuji mountain bike with stem shifters and a threadless stem adapter and drop bars and caliper brakes. Not my favorite but unique.

Fast forward to this week. Recently I got a set of 700c wheels off of Craigslist for 30 dollars. We guess the rims are Mavic but can't be sure. The hubs were Formula. I rebuilt the rear wheel with a frankinfreehub that I put together. I had an old Shimano 105 early freehub that takes the locking cog with threads rather than the locking ring. I found a junk mountain bike 8/9/10 speed freehub at the coop that I work (shimano) and swapped the freehub body with the old school early freehub on the 105 freehub. I then spaced the overlock dimensions to 132.5mm because I wanted a unique 700c rear wheel that would work easily in either road bike frames (130mm) or mtb/hybrid frames (135mm). Rebuilt the wheel using the original spokes and it came out beautifully.

Next the frame. We got donated a Schwinn MTB aluminum framed bike. Nothing great at all, just a standard 26" hardtail Scwhinn. We saved the wheels, crankset, derailleurs (meh) and the front shock assembly. The shop manager ended up putting the frame in the recycle pile to be recycled. I grabbed the frame and brought it home. It is a short frame which helps me.

I had a mismatched pair of 8 speed shifters. A chrome deore LX 8 speed rear and a black Deore? 3 speed front shifter. Found a nice aluminum handlebar. A longish threadless stem. I found a odd seatpost but it fit perfectly, the seat mounting point is about an inch farther back than normal (that is awesome to me).

I then built a canti/v-brake brake post adapter for the rear brake posts. I used the horseshoe off of a junk front suspension fork we had and made the adapter out of it. I will post pictures of it if any are interested. I then was able to mount my frankinwheel 700c rear wheel and use the brake post adapter and the Tektro v-brakes I had fit perfectly. The front fork was a 700c front threadless rigid fork that I already had that had 700c brake posts on it.

Put that all together. I then had a nice Deore 48-38-26 crankset i put on. Put on an okay rear derailleur. The front derailleur isn't that great but it works fine. The frame is top pull so I couldn't use a normal derailleur for now and had to use a more clunky model but it functions.

Threw it all together over the last week in my spare time. I now have a short framed MTB bike frame with 700c wheels/tires, v-brakes, 8 speed deore shifters, deore crankset, and a seatpost that is farther back than normal and handlebars that are pretty far forward.

Rode it tonight for about 4 miles and I love it. I didn't think I would enjoy it so much but I did. I am 5'11" tall however I have a nasty body defect. I have a really short inseam of 29". Ugh! I have to generally find bikes that are SHORT for me to ride. 29 to 30 inches of standover is near the max I can handle easily. This bike is like 27" standover with the steep slopeing top tube and how short it is. I rode it and my hands hardly cramped up at all unlike how they do on my other bikes. I finally felt stretched out and relaxed.

The only thing that I would like to do to this bike is find a better top pull front derailleur. Other than that, I think I might put a rack on the back and just ride it.