Originally Posted by Cheseldine

Hey everyone,

I recently acquired an old Jamis Diablo mountain bike for $15. It was covered in thick tan dust, and had everything known to man bolted to the frame - a backpack strap hooked to the seat tube and top tube (factory option), pump, rifle rack on handle bars, front and back lights, front and back racks, fenders, cable lock on the downtube, and saddle bag.

After stripping all of this off, I found that the frame is actually in really nice shape and is fillet brazed on the headtube joints and seat tube/top tube intersections and made of tange double butted tubing.

I originally thought it was black, but it's actually a really deep metallic purple. I touched up the chips, covered them with automotive clear coat, and polished them down to get it looking in pretty nice shape. I treated the inside of the frame with phosphoric acid to neutralize and prevent any rust, although it was quite clean.

Anyway, I'd like to put some thinner (1.5 to 1.75") tires on it and convert it to more of a dirt drop setup. Do you folks have any good ($25-30ish) tire recommendations that would be ideal for street and semi-rough gravel roads?

For bars I've been looking at the Salsa Cowchipper or Woodchipper, the On-One Midge, or trying to find a set of older WTB dirt drop bars. The bike has a threaded, rigid fork with (I believe, I'll have to double check) a 1" quill stem. What do you guys typically run for a new stem to convert to dirt drops with a bit higher rise that can take a 31.8 bar? Am I stuck using an adapter that I can clamp a modern stem onto, or does a dirt drop quill stem exist that can take 31.8 bars?

The group is all Exage Mountain which I think they only made for one year - I'll reuse the crank and hopefully derailleurs. The thumb shifters can work in either index or friction mode. It currently has a 6 speed cassette in the rear - how difficult would it be to convert this to a 7 or 8?

I'd like to use bar-end shifters (I'd be happy with friction or indexed) - which should I get that would work for this project? Any recommendations?

Thanks for any help! I'll get some pics up soon.