Smokinapankake

So I picked up this silly thing a while ago:


2013 or 2014 Trek Allant

I only wanted it for the Bontrager Back Rack Deluxe it had mounted; I was going to just donate it to the local bike collective (I only paid $20 for it). It has possibly the ugliest stem in all bike history:




But I got to looking at it and decided it was worth doing something with. Originally it was a 1 x 7 drivetrain using a Shimano RevoShift unit and a 7 speed freewheel. Parts are definitely low end; but the frame has some redeeming qualities: 17-7/8” chainstays (can you say touring?), midfork braze-ons (touring?), 135 spacing rear end, a shortish top tube (22-1/4” on a 20” frame), tallish head tube, and cable stops and guides for a front derailleur. So I thought “this thing is only a drop bar, shifters, triple crankset, and a front derailleur away from a touring inspired build”!

Not so fast - I have some Sora 3x9 brifters mounted on a drop bar and lots of other useful parts here at home, but I didn’t have any 9 speed capable 700c wheels with 135 spacing. So off to my collective for some wheels:

Just what the Dr. ordered! Brand new hybrid wheels off a Specialized, with tires and tubes mounted and a pair of new skewers, all for the princely sum of $60!

So I assembled the rest of what I had into a bike looking bike:





But I didn’t like the suspension seatpost, and the stem was too long, and the front shifting was funky. So back to the collective with a laundry list, and we end up with this:




I also found a new stem that was shorter, but after fiddling with the brakes I decided I didn’t want drop bars after all. I used mini v brakes because they’re supposed to be compatible with drop bar road brake levers, but I could never get them to feel how I like them. So back to the original Bontrager Satellite bars, which are a very close imitation of my favorite bars of all time, the Kalloy UNO AL-030.

And now we have this:



A few further upgrades and we end up with a pretty nice bike:



Deore XT Vbrakes

Deore LX shifters

Older Deore LX crankset, 22-34-44

Im having a bit of trouble with the front shifting but I think that’s because I’m using a crankset designed for 7 speed shifting and chain, not 9 speed that’s on it now. Chainline is good; new chain; I just get a little rubbing at either extreme, and front shifting isn’t as nice as on my other bikes. Maybe my collective will have a crankset I can transfer chainrings onto…

Otherwise it’s a surprisingly nice ride. I didn’t like the name Allant so my daughter suggested it becomes Allan T. Brown - how could I disagree?

Smokinapankake

Made some changes to the drivetrain:






I was having a heck of a time dialing in the front shifting. I think it comes down, among other things,to a screwy front derailleur. So I replaced it with an early XTR unit, changed the crankset to this older Suntour XCE off a 1989 Panasonic mountain bike, and it shifted mostly well. After adding a spacer behind the BB, the derailleur was able to move inward far enough to shift the inner chainring cleanly:




I also got rid of the XT brakes because they always felt kind of mushy. So back to the cheap original Tektro that was on it to begin with and they are ferocious with much better modulation & feel. Of course I had to upgrade the rear D to a sweet rapid rise unit because I love rapid rise!




Clearance (barely) for 700 x 38c Armadillos:




This goofy thing is shaping up nicely!

Smokinapankake

Made a few more subtle changes - reinstalled the factory fenders and kickstand (although I don’t know how long it will stay) and put on my favorite seat - a Bell Dart 500 that is no longer being made:




Thanks for following along!

SalsaShark

I have a 2014 Allant that I setup with drop bars years ago, a 3x8 drivetrain and barcon shifters. Geometry is almost identical to my 520. It really rides nicely. I set it up for my son a couple years back and he rides it now. We've got well over 10,000 miles on that bike - really a nice machine.

Smokinapankake

Ah, so someone is watching! I haven’t given up on drop bars yet, I just need to find a suitable rear brake cable housing stop so I can run some cantilever brakes. Probably going to go with a Surly br9999 cable hanger. I have some sweet XT M737 brakes just looking for a new home…

SalsaShark

For another brake option (if you are not using STI levers) I kept the linear pull brakes and upgraded the calipers the to LX V-Brakes and installed Tektro RL520 long pull road levers. Jagwire makes a noodle with a cable tension adjustment for fine tuning the calipers - works great and inexpensive with no need for a canti brake hanger.

Smokinapankake

Yep, Ive been looking at the options available. I'd like to keep my STI's, hence the cantilevers. Plus, been wanting a canti bike for a while now. Don't really know why....

All this requires me to adapt to drop bars, unlike the many times I've tried (halfheartedly, albeit) previously. Been riding Northroads style bars so long I almost can't stand flat bars or risers even...

Nice looking Allant, BTW. Thanks for looking!

hokiefyd 

Another option is a set of Mini V brakes, if they'll clear your fenders. Every time I try cantilevers I end up going back to the Mini Vs because they're just so good (this is on a bike with flat bar/short pull levers). You can probably use a 90mm Mini V model with any short pull lever, especially STIs (Shimano make a few V brake models in this length for this purpose). The shorter ones (80mm or 84mm) are best suited for SRAM and Campy if I understand the internets correctly.

Smokinapankake

Yep, I tried a pair of 85mm mini V's but didn't like them. They were unbranded but measured right at 85mm. I've got some nice XT M737 cantilevers in my parts box, along with a set of Sora triple STI's (9 speed), just looking for a frame to hang out on.

DorkDisk

Brake post spacing might be the issue , those XTs were from a burly oversized age of MTB, they play well on wider spaced posts and look better with fat tubes. On cross bikes, the post spacing is narrower and stick out a lot and look huge.

Smokinapankake

Agreed. For a short while I had them mounted on my 1990 Raleigh Technuim MTB with wider spaced posts and they still felt strange. And they were really wide, even with the thin pad spacers. Never really liked them. I don’t particularly like all the linkages that keep the pads perpendicular to the rim. On all my v brakes with linkages (including XTR), I’ve found the front is extremely difficult to eliminate brake squealing. Yes, I know how to toe brake pads. Yes, I know you can adjust the bearings in XTR pivots. I think the linkages allow a bit of flex even though, theoretically, when braking pressure is applied, there should be no flex, and this allows the pads to chatter and squeal.
So I’m kind of looking forward to going backwards and installing cantilevers. Got a local source for the Surly brake cable hanger and will be picking it up this Saturday.

I’ll make a touring bike out of this thing yet!
Funny thing is I’ve been comparing geometries between this Allant and the New Albion Privateer and a few other touring bikes and have found them to be remarkably close….

Smokinapankake

Last minute decision to commute to work tomorrow on this bike; consider it a shakedown ride. Be interesting to see how it compares to my regular commuter, a 2008 Trek 7300 hybrid that’s been updated with better components and a dynamo hub and headlight:




I’ll update with results tomorrow afternoon…

Smokinapankake

So as promised, the commute went well. The Allant is a fine bicycle, but I was definitely missing my dynamo lighting setup. It feels slightly faster than the 7300, but I think that's primarily due to the crankset, sporting 24/36/48 gearing and 11-32 cassette vs. the 7300's 20/32/44 gears and 11-36 cassette. The top tube is shorter on the Allant at 22.25" vs. the 7300's approximately 23", putting me in a more upright position. The head tube is about the same height at the 7300's, and combined with the short top tube makes me think the Allant will be a prime candidate for a drop bar conversion. Which I'm planning to do this weekend, once I get my grubby hands on a rear brake cable hanger. More to come, I'm sure!

Smokinapankake

And so it begins:




XT cantilevers:



So nice!


I gotta get rid of that “Made in China” sticker!

hokiefyd 

Kool-Stop salmon pads (or similar) will give you the best chances of good performance from those cantilevers.

Smokinapankake

It is done aside from some minor tweaking that may pop up in the future and wrapping the bars with some cork tape. Going to ride it a bit to see how I like the shifter positioning. It took lots of fiddling to get the front shifting clean with the STI’s, but now it’s done it’s not going back!



Ended up replacing the Suntour crank with this nice Takagi AR-T that has been hanging around for a while, along with a 105 front derailleur from the bike collective.




Factory green grease on the return spring!

This proved to be the silver bullet combination that dialed in the shifting. The Suntour crank had weird spacing between the 3 rings that was giving me trouble.

The Surly cable hanger was just the ticket to enable cantilevers on the rear:




While a cable stop/headset spacer handled the front:




Still need to address the rusty headset pieces. Short stem plus short top tube plus taller head tube puts the drop bars in a pretty good position for me. The flats are slightly behind where they are on my aforementioned regular commuter Trek 7300, while the hoods are slightly forward. The whole bar is slightly above seat height. I think this should be pretty good.

Thankfully I have a well stocked bike collective. Makes swapping parts pretty affordable.

In spite of it all I rather like the aesthetics of this bike. It looks like a proper touring bike now and should make a fine commuter as well.
But one question: what are these bolts on the underside of the seat stays for? A European style wheel lock?

Smokinapankake

A few more pics just for fun:



STX-RC rear derailleur replaces the XT; it was too transformer looking

Chain kept falling off the granny to the inside; this little nubbin solved that



Got a black rear rack and black low rider pannier racks to mount; I’ll get pics of that when it’s done. Thanks for coming along!

Trav1s

I love this type of projects! Thanks for sharing the details and progress.

Smokinapankake

Thanks for having a look!

New racks:

SalsaShark

I found the original headset cups indexed pretty badly even with regular maintenance on the Allant's original headset. I knocked it out and replaced it probably within the first 5000 miles on mine. Not too many options in 1-1/8 threaded headsets, though. I think the one I installed was an Aheadset.

M Rose

I’m loving all the work you are giving this old bike.

Smokinapankake

My headset is still smooth. I think the bike came to campus with an out of state student; there is a faded sticker from the Bike Gallery in Portland. At some point someone tried to reroute the front brake cable, and the rear tire was shredded when I got it. It probably sat outside for a season is about all. Its turned into quite a nice little bike after all.... Thanks for coming along!

rwmct

Tremendous job!

I admire people who are able to look at this kind of thing and see the possibilities. Recognizing that the frame was worth working with, for example. Very cool.

Helderberg

I admire your dedication to a project and I am embarrassed to think that I would sell and buy a new bike after just a year and a half. Truly you have shown that with a good frame there are many different directions you can take a bike project. I am also jealous of your parts bin but mostly your knowledge. It was nice in your first iteration but the finished product is outstanding. Thanks for the photos of your progression. Be safe.
Frank.

Smokinapankake

Thank you for your kind words, all. It's been an interesting exercise and I think this bike will hang around for a while. Meanwhile I have a Fat City Cycles Wicked Fat Chance to get up and going!