Thought you guys would be amused by this. I had a schwinn crisscross hybrid that was too big for me and decided to yank the parts off and see if I could make it work on this motobecane grand touring frame that is in my size. First I checked if the tires would clear, and shockingly the 700x35 tires do fit. The brakes reach the 700c rims. the rest was just a matter of throwing it together and making sure it actually works (which it does after some customized cable routing). I had to ride it to make sure it wasn't a waste of time, but the bike is a LOT of fun so now I just have to finish it with some bar tape, a new seatpost, brake pads, and connecting the rear brake. I might enter a cyclocross race with it





Lastly, does anyone make plaid bar tape? I think it would really tie the whole thing together.

Just find a Scotsman, hit him over the head, steal his kilt and make tape out of it.

I was thinking about cutting up an old shirt or something but I don't think it would hold up very well.

Hate to be so trite, but with that tan and brown Moto the perfect Tartan might be the Burberry "plaid", and you won't need to find a Scot to club. Pretty much any secretary or businessman in a raincoat and you're all set.
Easy clubbin'

Think fabric from a coat or shirt hold up as bar tape?

Wow, that's super cool.

Totally cool. I love it.

I like, looks like a moto on steroids! Just regular black bar tape will fit the paint scheme, IMO.

You could go to the fabric store and pick something out. If you have a sewing machine or someone that does the simple possibilities are endless.

Come to think of it.....your Monsterbecane reminds me of the old demo derby days where guys showed up with these classic cars like the 55-57 Chevies.

Wickedly buff!
Get rolls of the colors you want and do a harlequin wrap, it'll be checkerboard.

Mmmmm, Brown leather tape? That bike looks like it has an attitude...and eats fixie hipsters.

absolutely cool... I'm not sure it would work, but you could possibly wrap the bars in cotton tape first, then plaid ribbon, then shellac.

Glad you guys approve. I'll make sure to post a picture of the finished product.

My kinda bike, heh heh....

SP
Bend, OR

Every now and then somebody does one of these vintage cross builds and it is awesome every single time.

love it

I like it! Did you not have a chainstay cable stop or is that a cyclocross thing?

The cable routing on this frame is bizzare, I've never seen anything like it. It does have a cable stop near the dropout but it's a large diameter and shallow, the cable housing just doesn't fit right in there so I zip tied a long housing to the chainstay to route the shifter cable. It looks terrible but it's the best solution I could come up with for now.

I have all kinds of Suntour cable routes, maybe we could figure out something that would work?

Hmmmm.... split one of these in half?

https://cgi.ebay.com/QUILT-BIAS-BINDI...#ht_5547wt_960

I would Love to tackle some local MTB trails with that thing! If you actually do cyclocross, definitely hit up a race with that!

Just disregard the braze on and use a clamp maybe.

https://cgi.ebay.com/Shimano-Chainsta...#ht_500wt_1097

I actually used a suntour router deal for the over the bottom bracket area and it is all sorted out. The only issue I have now is that my suntour derailleur that has a cable stop can't shift all the way out to the big ring, which isn't a huge deal since the cassette goes down to 11t

That might work really well with shellac? Never shellaced before though.

This looks like it would do the job, might have to order one for the sake of the bike not looking like a hack job

I have the same setup on the downtube where the stem shifters cables come together toward the top and exactly where I want to put the dt shifters.

There were little plastic cable standoffs that were larger than the cable housing and fit right into those clamps you are dealing with. That's why it appears they are big.....they werent intended (stupidly enough) for the cable to go into.

Question, if you will.....on the downtube where your shifters are, where did the original downtube cable clamps go? I'm in a quandry about what to do with them when I install these dt shifters. Thanx.