figbat
Slippery scientist
- Location
- South Oxfordshire, UK
Below is a combined summary of a series of posts I made on another forum over the course of this project. I’ll post it in order as if it were happening now, but obviously you'll get the finale straight away.
My project.
Over time we have accumulated a number of bikes in our household. One of them was an old Trek 830 (circa 1997) which was picked up many years ago for around £20 for my wife to ride. Over time I moved up from a 26er alloy hardtail to a 29er c/fibre hardtail, so my wife got my 26er, making the Trek redundant. It has sat in the shed for years and moved house twice but never been ridden. So it is now my little project.
It's not worth much as a retro/vintage MTB, isn't especially rare or desirable but is a nicely-made cromoly steel frame in slightly scruffy but sound condition. Over the last few months I have been scrounging, finding and where necessary buying parts to turn it into a mongrel bike. I am aiming for a CX/gravel type of thing with drop bars.
Here is how it started:
And after this weekend, here's how it now stands:
First I stripped the frame of all components (except the bottom bracket, which is a very solid square taper running smooth and free, so I left it alone).
Then I punched out the threaded headset and pressed a 1 1/8" threadless headset into it - this was to open up options for a replacement fork; I had the headset already.
A friend I ride with donated a fork he happened to have lying about, which had disc brake tabs on; it'll need the steerer cutting down as you can see.
I had a spare stem and picked up some cheap 'bars from a cycling forum.
The alloy seatpost is from the original bike, topped with a Charge Spoon saddle also picked up from the cycling forum.
The wheels are 622x19c disc wheels, picked up from eBay - the biggest unknown I faced was whether I could fit 700c wheels with chunkyish tyres into the frame - they fit with room to spare. The Schwalbe CX Pro 30mm tyres came from a local selling group on Facebook.
That is how the rolling chassis now sits. Next I have to:
Fit the brakes - I have some TRP Spyre mechanical disc calipers from eBay but still no levers; I am after a 10-speed Shimano STI set and still looking. I'll also need an IS-to-post mount adaptor on the front and an A2Z disc brake adaptor for the rear (this is one thing I am uncertain on whether it'll work). I'll also need some compressionless cable housing.
I need a crankset - the one that came off it is three-ring but the rings are riveted onto the spider and the BCD doesn't match any common standards so I'm hunting for a cheap, square taper crankset for a single ring set-up.
I need a 10-speed cassette and chain. I have a derailleur to try out.
I need to set the stack height and cut the steerer tube.
I need to wrap the bars (I'm looking at red).
And then it is just finishing touches.
I know it won't win anything. I also know it'll end up being worth less than the parts I bought for it and may not even ride very well, but that isn't the point. It will be my bike, that I designed, with solutions to challenges unique to this bike. It is something to keep my mind and hands busy and so far has served that purpose well.
I'm in no rush - it has been over a year to get to this point (that is over a year of waiting, bidding, finding, researching and gathering and about 2 hours building this weekend). It may take another year to find the parts I want for the money I want to spend (ie very little). However, so far I am pretty pleased with how it is turning out.
My project.
Over time we have accumulated a number of bikes in our household. One of them was an old Trek 830 (circa 1997) which was picked up many years ago for around £20 for my wife to ride. Over time I moved up from a 26er alloy hardtail to a 29er c/fibre hardtail, so my wife got my 26er, making the Trek redundant. It has sat in the shed for years and moved house twice but never been ridden. So it is now my little project.
It's not worth much as a retro/vintage MTB, isn't especially rare or desirable but is a nicely-made cromoly steel frame in slightly scruffy but sound condition. Over the last few months I have been scrounging, finding and where necessary buying parts to turn it into a mongrel bike. I am aiming for a CX/gravel type of thing with drop bars.
Here is how it started:
And after this weekend, here's how it now stands:
First I stripped the frame of all components (except the bottom bracket, which is a very solid square taper running smooth and free, so I left it alone).
Then I punched out the threaded headset and pressed a 1 1/8" threadless headset into it - this was to open up options for a replacement fork; I had the headset already.
A friend I ride with donated a fork he happened to have lying about, which had disc brake tabs on; it'll need the steerer cutting down as you can see.
I had a spare stem and picked up some cheap 'bars from a cycling forum.
The alloy seatpost is from the original bike, topped with a Charge Spoon saddle also picked up from the cycling forum.
The wheels are 622x19c disc wheels, picked up from eBay - the biggest unknown I faced was whether I could fit 700c wheels with chunkyish tyres into the frame - they fit with room to spare. The Schwalbe CX Pro 30mm tyres came from a local selling group on Facebook.
That is how the rolling chassis now sits. Next I have to:
Fit the brakes - I have some TRP Spyre mechanical disc calipers from eBay but still no levers; I am after a 10-speed Shimano STI set and still looking. I'll also need an IS-to-post mount adaptor on the front and an A2Z disc brake adaptor for the rear (this is one thing I am uncertain on whether it'll work). I'll also need some compressionless cable housing.
I need a crankset - the one that came off it is three-ring but the rings are riveted onto the spider and the BCD doesn't match any common standards so I'm hunting for a cheap, square taper crankset for a single ring set-up.
I need a 10-speed cassette and chain. I have a derailleur to try out.
I need to set the stack height and cut the steerer tube.
I need to wrap the bars (I'm looking at red).
And then it is just finishing touches.
I know it won't win anything. I also know it'll end up being worth less than the parts I bought for it and may not even ride very well, but that isn't the point. It will be my bike, that I designed, with solutions to challenges unique to this bike. It is something to keep my mind and hands busy and so far has served that purpose well.
I'm in no rush - it has been over a year to get to this point (that is over a year of waiting, bidding, finding, researching and gathering and about 2 hours building this weekend). It may take another year to find the parts I want for the money I want to spend (ie very little). However, so far I am pretty pleased with how it is turning out.
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) and some red bar tape. I have to build it outside so need light and weather (and free time) to get on with it.
