jaseyjase

Not vintage as the frame is only 10 years old, but its a 26er hardtail that ive started to mock up. Still deciding on running gear at the moment.

Classtime 

I recalled how nicely my Alpina Team rode with drop bars and RTPs when I was passed yesterday during my commute by a guy on a ‘91 pearl white drop bar Stumpjumper. A “modern” classic.

defraz

really classy... what frame is it?

I would use a 2X with road rear cog but it's just me, i'm not e big fan of 1X on road hybrid.

jaseyjase

nothing special but popped up locally and a decent enough price/condition.

Cellbikes CELL 2012 Pioneer Mountain Bike 2012 - Specifications |

defraz

A steel frame is always a steel frame, and worth rescuing. At least here in Europe, is not so common to find chromoly "basic" xc 26 frame in the disc brakes era. Much more common before, almost everything after 2000 rigid 26 is alu, apart some steel enduro frame.

Really good line without breaking the bank in the raw color, perfect for the project.

daverup 

I converted my wife's 94 Schwinn Crosscut to a gravel rig with drop bars.

Chuckk

Where the drop bar mountain bike became a road product - the Giant TCR
I picked up this '99 Giant TCR ONCE team replica a couple weeks ago, and doing research found that it was the first drop bar mountain bike!
The story is that Mike Burrows (designed the Lotus) was working for Giant and had the idea of a compact frame delivering a competitive edge as well as making production sizing easier.
So he walked into manufacturing and took a Fischer mountain bike frame off the line and used that for the original proof.
I think it was '98 that they showed up at the TDF.


I gotta admit that I didn't like the look back then, but they did change the style of modern road bikes!

jaseyjase

Bit of progress on the chromo build, with a few parts being switch out.

With a shorter A-C fork, new headset, diff post, stem and bar set up, semi-installed group. Just need chain and brake adapters which are in the post.

Then should be good to go.

thumpism 

That seems unlikely. Wasn't Cunningham making drop bar MTBs in the '80s, and wasn't the Specialized Rock Combo out before the '90s?

AeroGut

Bridgestone sold their top of the line MB-1 with drop bars in 1987: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/bridges...ne-1987-14.htm



I think there were early stumpjumpers with drop bars as well, but I'm not positive.

wrk101

Nope. Sold a Specialized Rock Combo earlier this year, believe it was a 1988. And it wasn't first.

t2p

the early 90's Trek OCLV frames in the small sizes (50, 52 cm) featured a slightly sloping top tube

Pompiere

My son didn't want his Bridgestone MB-2 after college, so I threw some parts on it to ride gravel trails. I have accumulated a bunch of parts over the years, so nothing was purchased for this conversion. The bars are Origin 8 Gary bars, stem from Nashbar, 7 speed Mega-range freewheel, 7 speed SIS bar end shift levers, Terry Liberator saddle. Tires are Kenda, but they are looking rough from age related cracking, so they will be one of the first things to get replaced. The frame looks pretty bad after four Indiana winters outside, but I'll deal with that after I see how it rides. Mostly, I wanted to see how the frame was going to fit. With a quick dash on the road in front of my house, it looks good.


1986 Bridgestone MB-2

defraz

I've completed my conversion, cinelli 8001 from 1987, changed only handlebar and stem. Brifters are campagnolo xenon 9v, work perfectly with original 6 speed xt group and front derailleur.

Since i've less than 10 post i cannot put images, but i leave the link on pedal room:

https://www.pedalroom.com/bike/cinell...onverted-48204

Really happy with the result, with continental speed king and latex tubes is fast. Brakes are... Interesting front xt cantilever and rear ubrake.

bOsscO

Tomac running/racing drops on his MTB in 1990; https://roadbikeaction.com/throwback...-the-kamikaze/

defraz

Here is my converted 1986 Cinelli Ottomilauno (8001).


I only changed stem handlebar and brifters. And saddle of course since there wasn't the original when i bought it from the previous owner, i had this bike when i was fourteen in the 80's and they stole me, found a good one some 2 years ago and coudn't resist. Indexed 9 speed Campagnolo works very well with the 6 speed original xt group, better than i thought actually. Speed king with latex tube are soo faaast. Brakes are... Interesting


Very happy with the result.

mhespenheide 

^ I need to find a pair of those tires.

attylah

Finally done with the conversion. The only things left from original purchase are the cranks and front wheel. With that long rake and slack head tube angle, all you have to do is think about turning and you’re turning! The wide Cowchipper bars help offset any twitchiness and make for easy control. The frame has a nice plush ride, almost feels like it has suspension a lot of the time!

Commando

Stunning build!
I had a Raleigh 'Trek' that was very similar, same colour, even had the shoulder strap bosses. The only difference I can see is that the 'Trek' had caliper brakes instead of cantis.

Frkl

Amazing build! Really well done. I think one can see Cinelli's road heritage here in their early mtbs. The conversion looks like it was the designers original intent.

i also can't resist saying that the Italians may have beaten Jan Heine to the 26er monster-roadie by decades...

Those tires are serious business, it's wild that you squeezed them in on a frame of that era. How wide are they, actually? My experience with Conti tires is they run narrower than spec. Real world data is always nice, rather than ordering and hoping they fit...

defraz

Thank you for your words! yes, those first cinelli frame were "road like" somehow, and as you said i took inspiration by Jan Heine 26er. Looking at the 8001 and those monster roadie main difference is the bb height, of course...
I was very concerned about what type of brifters to use, after many evening hours spent comparing pull ratio and shimagnolo theory ended up with a complete vintage handlebar with 9v xenon, and works perfectly front and rear, so experiment successful. Found out a frog stem with a shim and changed seatpost with a black one only for look. WTB vigo is my favourite seat, since i come from mtb. When i bought this bike front rim was not original, found in the italian ebay a real nos fir ms29d, incredible finding.

Of course the choice of the rubber is inspired form rene herse, too. Is as much similar to rat trap pass at a human price i was able to think of. I really like the look of them, too, and they seem to have quite a low rolling resistance. Wheels are very heavy, by the way. (and wide).

Speaking about the dimension, continental is pretty unpredictable, i had rubber king 26X2.4 that were huge, and baron 26x2.4 that are smaller than trail king 2.2. Those speed king seems to be real 2.2, at least in mtb terms, i think they are more or less the dimensions of rat trap pass 2.3. Previously i tried to put maxxis ikon 2.35 and they didn't fit, so i was using ikon 2.35 front and 2.2 rear. Ikon 2.2 was good, and more or less on par with the speed king.

Frkl

I like the rims a lot. I have a pair of Gallis from about the same era on my conversion (an Italian frame built for a German brand).

The braking improves a lot once you wear off the anodizing on the brake surface. When I got mine, the anodizing was already partially worn, and I recently took some steel wool to the brake surfaces to get rid of the remainder. And braking improved a lot... They also look better.

that's the thing with anodized rims, they look super when new but don't brake as well as when the anodizing is worn down. Problem is they look bad once this starts happening. But at this point, nixing the rest of the anodizing improves both braking and looks.

if you ever need to replace one or both, don't want to pay NOS prices, and are ok with using non-original rims, the Ryde 421s are pretty similar looking (probably stronger and definitely cheaper).

spedrunr

the seat clamp (or lack thereof?) is reminiscent of the Tom Ritchey tightening bolt running through the seat stays right? 🤔

ShannonM

I've found the basis of my first-ever conversion, at the co-op where I volunteer, and there's some choices to make. The bike just got donated, and we're closed for the holidays, so there's some info that I don't have yet.

As it sits:
GT Karakoram, looks like a '94, based on red color, black LX crank and RD. Upgraded with Rock Shox Pilot fork, XT V-brakes, shift, and brake levers. (Silver gray XT, so an early/mid 2000s upgrade.) Currently wearing what look like 26x1.25ish slicks. No seatpost or saddle.

What I have in the parts bin:
9 speed XTR RD
A full set of Campagnolo Record OR "tandem" cantilevers.

So, the questions are:

Should I swap the fork for a rigid? There's a cromoly GT fork in the shop that will fit. I don't know anything about the Pilot fork that's on it now.

Assuming it works, leave the LX rear derailleur, or swap it for my XTR? (I'm leaning towards the swap, just cuz I have the XTR, and it's an XTR, and, so.... Yeah. That said, there ain't no flies on a 7-speed black LX. Great derailleur.)

Run the XT v-brakes or the Campy cantis? Do the available v-brake road levers feel good in the hand?

What currently-available bars have people liked, for a bike that will spend most of its life on (crappy) asphalt, but might see occasional trails and fire / logging roads. (This also feeds into the fork question.)

This is going to be a minimum money build, using bin/co-op parts wherever possible.

Thanks,

--Shannon

himespau 

V-brakes are easier to set up for a lot of people, but Campagnolo canti's are super uncommon. That'd make your ride even more unique. On the other hand, pull ratio is different between canti and v-brake if memory serves (canti's use road pull, I think), so it may be better to stick with what you've got if it's paired with your levers.