interesting, thanks! I still have visions of mud and gunk building up between belt and sprocket, but I'm sure they know that not everyone lives in California!

This latest iteration of the CarbonDrive sprocket is designed to shed mud. Gates has a name for it but I haven't committed it to memory since my bike likely won't ever see mud.

CDC Mudport, https://www.gatescarbondrive.com/products/cdcsprockets/

Is Gates still based in Denver? They used to have a big plant there, and that might help explain things a little.

FWIW, both of those tires look backwards to me as well. Usually for asymmetric tires you should be able to find somewhere on the sidewall a rotation arrow. Also, if there is more lettering/branding on one side, that side belongs on the 'display' side, i.e. the rhs with all the drivetrain. I have seen tires before that actually were designed to be mounted one way on the front, and reverse on the rear. The front tire is mounted, you've got the flat parts of the triangles digging in for forward traction, which is a rear-tire characteristic.

In any case, if you are not going to ride this bike on rocks, I would recommend you replace with slicks or semi-slicks. Eliminating knobby tire rolling resistance is the number one way to speed up a bike on hard surfaces, i.e. asphalt; or even smooth hardpack dirt trails.

brake levers, pedals, grips, saddle...If possible, get thee to a co-op! All these things should be available very cheaply used, and most anything that looks non-crappy will work fine for you. Exception, you'll probably want to buy new grips, but those will be under $10. And seats are very hit-and-miss, and particular to individuals. If you still have the seat you liked before, swap seats at least in the short term while you shop. You might have to go through a large number of seats before you find one that works for you.

Racks/fenders: Your bike has the interesting, but for this purpose unfortunate, design element of wishbone seatstays (with no rack mounts that I can see), and cantilever brakes. There are rack- and fender-mount screw-holes at the top of the dropouts, that's a start, but any rack you might want to clamp up top is going to have a hard time getting around the cantilever brake cable. Maybe you can find a rear rack that mounts onto dropout holes below, and cantilever brake bosses above (i.e. screw on top of your brake calipers). Other than that, I think you're stuck with seatpost racks, which IME are annoyingly difficult to keep stable, and don't keep bags out of your spokes. Fenders, similar issues. I can't tell if there is a mounting hole at the junction of the wishbone.

Based on their contact phone numbers it appears they are still based in Colorado.

That Raleigh is a fairly decent bike with a good parts spec, you front wheel has been put in backwards while the alignment of the rear tread is right if you are hitting the trails.

If it was me I'd replace the flat bars with risers, replace the crappy lever, and find some comfortable ergo grips. With fenders and a rack this bike will look great and should be a very capable urban assault vehicle tm

That series of Shimano lever is pretty solid... LX level STI's are very nice and you will need to match the number of speeds so it indexes properly and get the model that works with cantis as they have a different pull than v brake levers.

Thanks for your entire reply. With regards to the quote above - you can't see them in the picture, but on each side of the single tube that forks into two for the rear wheel is a hole. I'm no expert, but it looks pretty easy to me. Still, thanks for pointing stuff like this out. I have been away from bikes for a long time and don't know nearly as much as I wish I did.

I think fenders will work too. There is a hole in the vicinity of the...uh...uh, part of the frame that the pedals connect to each other through...sorry, don't know the correct names...that I think is for mounting a rear fender. I have two eyelets on each side in back and one on each side in front.

Thank you. My commute is about 25% gravel trails and I like to ride trails on weekends too. Should I remount the front tire or just flip the whole wheel around until it's time to change the tire or fix a flat?

Just flip it.

A tyre with a cross like profile would probably be better suited... I really like Schwalbe Hurricanes for this.

Somewhat of operation drop bar disc MTB, I've still got a few parts I'm waiting to ship, and I still need to finish paint but this is the basic form.

A Nashbar Mk. III (Ishiwata Steel!) frame I found and and then cobbled together as an about town bike.

^ you're tall! Nice bike though

I have only been riding for a few months and started commuting by bike a couple of months ago. I know very little about bikes. If you see something I can improve for commuting please say so. )

Maybe a better fender set like this one


Otherwise, it looks good.

If you commute after sunset, I'd get another taillight, those aren't very bright.

Thanks much. I will look into those fenders. My front fender has already fallen off on me and I don't have any confidence it wont do it again without remembering to tighten them frequently.

Thank you for the advice. I liked that tail like only because of the ones I saw at the bike store I saw this one was easy to hook to the back of my rack. Do you have any recommendations?

This forum is a gold mine. Thanks everyone. )

I'm sure someone will chime in with a good recommendation for a tail light, but if your saddle bag has any kind of strap or hook going across the back of it, most of the relatively cheaper rectangle ones have a clip that will hook onto the strap.

I'd still keep the current one, but would try to find another one that has more lumens and will be brighter.

I actually just sold this Bad Boy to a friend of mine. It's a late 90's CAAD2 bike turned into an Urban Assault Bike.

https://amzn.com/B004U5PV5A

or

https://amzn.com/B005DVA57Y

I don't know, has that hypermotard look going! Just kidding, fenders need to be replaced. If you're just using it as a road bike/commuter you might even consider getting rid of the front suspension. It doesn't do much riding on the street and adds a lot of weight.

My experience with these indicates that they can be seen for miles (very attention getting for sure).

Not mine, but a bike I built for a friend with parts found round the shop. She wanted a 'road bike' but we didn't have any 700c frames small enough...so I turned a 26 inch bike into a drop bar commuter and it worked way better than expected. One of the more fun projects I've done b/c the now owner was so incredibly stoked to start riding.

That looks awesome! l've Always wanted one of those Trek Antelopes, ever since my coolest friend had one around 1990.