valleysuper

My 1996 Karakoram turned gravel, and other bike
Will see how she rides tomorrow. Has a little more drop than i like right now. But close.

TenGrainBread 

Have you ridden off-road with it? The drop seems like a recipe for bad handling and going over the bars...The bike is simply too big for you. There's a reason why gravel bikes are specced with slacker and upright geometry...

dgodave

Sweet.

Steel hardtail with rigid fork is such a great starting point for a gravel bike.

Drop does look kind of extreme tho unless thats really your cup of tea. Good thing is you can mess with that until its right.

nickw

I have that much drop on all my bikes - looks cool, love those old GT frames...

valleysuper

Was only able to get off-road for a mile or so. Still lots of snow here.
I flipped the stem and that got the drop a little better for me. Im used to a good bit of drop on all my bikes. I may go with longer stem 17 degree stem and that would fix it perfect....but because I wanted the cables to be just right on the front end, I dont have that much slack in them. So Id have to redo the housings for derailleurs and front brake.
So im gonna hold off on that move and ride it awhile before I make any changes. I have not even wrapped the bars yet.

1 question. Tire pressure? Ive got 40-45psi in the 1.75 tires and it seems low? Im bigger at 6’1 185lb. But when I look back at the rear wheel while riding i can see its flattened out some. If out of the saddle I can see the same on the front. Rides fine, quite nice actually, but looks odd to me

Thanks.

Abe_Froman

Looks nice. It’s perfectly normal for there to be visible squish when you sit on bigger tires (and narrower tires....). 40-45 psi is certainly within a reasonable range for that size. I rode my 40mm tires anywhere from 60 down to 25, and I’m about the same size as you.

rumrunn6

looks fun

re. size I had 2. a red one that was too small for me but felt fine. a larger grey one that was the correct size which also felt fine