Come November I am moving to an area that has many miles of gravel roads, so I am going to build a bike that can handle the terrain using an old lugged steel frame.
I am also going to use this bike for commuting as well. Right now I do my commutes on my mountain bike mainly because of some short dirt sections in my route. A bigger tired road bike should help speed up the commute.
I am going to purchase an old 66cm frame and braze on some cantilever brake bosses and racks. Maybe even some fenders and generally bring it close to modern standards.
I have found a great candidate frame on Craigslist and am hoping to pick it up this weekend.
Photos and build sheet to follow.
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| Craigslist tall bike find |
This will be a lot of fun to read!
ReplyDeleteI gave up on my Schwinn Traveler in 1991 when my knee hit the stem mounted shifters while I was out of the saddle, sending me sliding sideways on the asphalt... gave me a serious abrasion and some embarrassment. Little did I know that I wouldn't find a bike that large again for a couple decades, when I scored a 69cm Panasonic DX-2000. Fits like a glove, but it could use longer cranks and is heavy. IMHO fenders will be a must if you are commuting. I'm guessing you'll use a 700c wheelset, but clearances for cross tires should still be interesting. Also, experience shows that the stock schwinn fork will not survive too many bunny hops off of curbs with a 200 lbs rider. I'm impressed by your ambition regarding the frame modifications!
Just curious, how is the Gunnar holding up? How do you like it after having it more than a year? Have you made any modifications?
Those stem mounted shifters are definitely going to be replaced. I imagine you probably took a nice gash out of your leg too!
ReplyDeleteVery cool on the 69cm frame. It would be a cool pic to post on this site. The cranks on the Schwinn I just picked up are only 170mm. Really tiny considering the rest of the bike.
The bike has 1 1/4" tires on 27" rims now so almost 32mm wide. I am hoping for 34mm tires on 700C wheels but will they fit with fenders? We will see.
I am not sure that fork will hold up but hopefully it's not too catastrophic when it goes. I am going to ride fairly tame on this one though.
The Gunnar is great. I do have carbon bars on the todo list but have not modified it since the build up. In retrospect I do not think I needed such a tall head tube - but it is good to have the height if I need.