cooperryder

That's a great gravel, touring, bike packing, camping rig you have.
It looks ready for about anything you care to take on.

If I recall correctly that color 950 was from 1989 and 1990.

I had two of them, same color, same size , now one.

Paint was rough on both so I had them powder coated.

Somewhere on the net is an account of a fellow touring all over the US on one.

My remaining one currently has upright bars.

I see you have Renée Herse 2.3x26 Humptulip tires. I ran the Rat Trap Pass on mine for a while.
Nice.

What bags?

Safe riding.

Clang

The easiest way to tell the difference is that the type treatment for the model number on the seat tube changed from 1989 to 1990. The numbers get bolder, larger, and more rectangular.

craig_dahlke

Soma Portolas

Appreciate the kind words! I'm incredibly happy with this build. It really is comfortable and capable. This one is definitely an '89 based on the serial number and the helpful photos shared above. I'm tempted to get this frame powder coated at some point in the future, but can't bring myself to take off the "intense blue" paint job just yet. The humpts are pretty much my ideal tire in terms of ride/tread/looks, but I'm not yet convinced that they're durable enough for touring, even with the endurance casing. Time will tell- I just couldn't resist. As far as bags go, I'm running a Dark Realm basket bag up front in the 137 and a swift zeitgeist behind me. What bars/stem are you rocking on your upright 950?

eom 

This bike deserves a thread of it's own.

bicyclepost

Loving this thread! Here's my drop-bar conversion purchased from a local shop in Ottawa.

I wanted to swap out the bars and ran into issues with the stem. Long story short, I had to cut the stem off the bars and am now on the lookout for a new one. I have a temporary stem but don't want to keep it. Any Canadians out there know where I can get either a tall quill stem with a removable faceplate or a tall stem adapter to use modern stems? I got a tall stem but the clamp could not fit around the hooks of my bars. I know Velo Orange and Soma have some good stuff but I imagine it would be very expensive after shipping and the USD/CAD exchange rate.

thumpism 

Use a quill adapter and a threadless stem from a hybrid or MTB. My old RB-T here.

bicyclepost

That's the route I'm hoping to go. How long is the quill adapter and where did you get it? Also, the stem, I don't often see them with such a large angle.

thumpism 

Quill adapter is about 6" long and should be available at most shops. Stems should also be widely available. Found mine used at the local co-op.

k2blt

Love this thread! I'll post my Covid Project shortly...

k2blt

Used the down time from Covid to refinish and repurpose my father's old GT Timberline. Wanted something to cruise the old kart paths and gravel roads around the Quabbin Reservoir. It's been dubbed Project Zero because it initially cost zero dollars. Basically a parts bin build. I've since bought the Ritchey bar/stem combo and the tires. Nearly 1k miles on it so far.

Moisture

How do some of you with longer top tubes fare using drop bars? Sometimes a shorter stem would be helpful with these types of conversions..

AeroGut

I have a long torso and short legs, so the long top tube isn't much of a problem, but I still use short reach compact drops (with a normal 100mm stem) to bring things in a bit closer. The only difference between short reach bars and a shorter stem is where the tops end up. If you want them closer, use the shorter stem. If you don't want to be quite so upright on the tops, the short reach drops are great.

k2blt

An adjustable stem made a huge difference for me. I went with the Ritchey.

bicyclepost

I have an idea of how stem length affects handling but what about rise? I'm searching Amazon for a quill to threadless stem adapter and threadless stem and have some options.

Option 1: 160 mm adapter with 90 mm (45 degree) stem
Option 2: 185 mm adapter with 70 mm (35 degree) stem

Using the stem comparison tool I see that the reach would be very similar but would handling differ much? The reason I'm considering option 1 is because in that case both components would be black but in option 2 the adapter would be silver and the stem black which I think would look weird (yes I care about aesthetics). Any guidance on how handling might change (using drop bars)?

ofajen

Assuming you are achieving the same bar height, not much difference. Should be about 7 mm farther (64mm vs 57 mm) from the steering axis with the 90mm stem. Won’t matter much, in my estimation.

Otto

Ianohian

1993 Rockhopper. I've had two of these, the last was too small but I still rode it for 15+ years.
This one is 24", new nitto stem, on one midge bars, old XTR hubs, Dura Ace RD, old, very nice Sugino cranks, Shimano 600 8sp barend shifters, old Dia Compe v-brake levers.
I had to build a drop bar MTN bike way back in 1995 or 6 because of a hand injury that makes it go numb within ten minutes of riding flat bars. Never looked back.

wrk101

Its the first thing I look for in a conversion candidate. Early to mid 1980s tended to have shorter top tubes than late 1980s to early 1990s. The world of rigid frame MTBs is so plentiful, just keep looking for the "right" one.

I also have short legs and long torso, so its less of an issue. For ones where the TT is too long, I tend to go upright North Roads instead. This was a budget conversion. If budget had not been a constraint, I would have gone bar end shifters instead.

My main drop bar conversion mimics my road bike geometry.

ofajen

I’ve run mainly drop bars since I got this bike about five years ago. Seemed a bit narrow for the steering geometry, so I tried the North Road style bars for most of the last year. That worked pretty well but now I’m using old Scott AT-4’s. The main difference is that the AT-4s give a good bar top climbing grip position. The “aero” part of these bars was cut off by the previous owner before I got them on a bike in the early 90s.

It ends up riding about like wide drop bars, with the equivalent of bar top, ramp and hood positions, but no drops, obviously. On our trails, it seems to be just about right.

Otto

seat_boy

I remember BITD I used to have some AT-4 Pros that I also cut the center out of for some reason, but then flipped over. That made a nice upward curve on the bar end area.

I finally grew uncomfortable with how much visible flex that bar had, and got rid of it.

ofajen

Was it the wider size? These are the narrow 21.5” width. I bought another one recently with the aero part intact but in the 23” width. Those seem way more flexy and I haven’t ended up using those much.

Otto

seat_boy

Pretty sure it was the widest size--though since they were measured to the outside of the curve, the "wide" 23" bars were still pretty narrow!

velojym

Bianchi Ocelot I took in trade for a couple tune-ups. I stripped it to the frame and built it up mostly with parts I had laying around. Yeah, I know it ain't a drive side shot, but this is all I have on this little machine right now.
The new parts I had to buy were the triple crankset and some long pull levers to pull the v-brakes, which work extremely well. With my Atlas clyde wheelset, this feels like a bombproof clydesdale training bike, great for winter riding too.

antmaster5000

Drop bar adventure tandem

Cyclist0105

2001 GT ZR 3.0

1st post so no images allowed...

Conversion:

Shimano Altus M2000 9-speed Triple Crankset 40-30-22T microShift R9


microShift SB-R493-L Drop Bar Shimano compatible left hand front derailleur shifter


SunRace CSM980 9AX 11-40T (11-13-15-18-21-24-28-34-40)


microShift RD-M619L Advent long cage derailleur 47T


microShift SB-M090 - ADVENT DROP BAR SHIFTERS 1X9 right hand drop bar shifter for rear derailleur (once chainring is selected)

thumpism 

Welcome! Make your first ten posts and then you can do photos.