Converting an old Ti HT to a gravelwanger

[UnderTheRadars]

I’ve been pondering a Sonder Camino Ti or something similar, but find it hard to justify buying another bike when I have 2 MTBs sitting unused and one CX that’s resigned to turbo trainer duties, so I’ve been thinking about condensing those 3 bikes into one.
I’ve just dusted off my Ti hardtail, it’s a 26” frame designed around 80-100mm forks but it does have sliding rear dropouts. I first wanted to see if my 29” wheels with 1.75” tyres fit, and they do with plenty to spare. I then wanted to offer up my forks from my Fargo to see how it’d sit, now aside from looking fugly the set up didn’t feel too bad.




Now this is as far as I’ve got, sitting on the chassis in the garden, I’m in a bit of a catch-22, I want to know how it rides before spunking cash on it, but I won’t know how it rides until I spunk some cash on it, so over to you lot, am I wasting my time as it’ll be rubbish, or with the right fork and ‘cockpit’ I’ll be reet? I don’t know, I’m a bit clueless when it comes to set ups/geometry and the like, your advice please

[faustus]

Good frame that. Sliding dropouts certainly helped there. Depends what you want to use it for really and what the terrain around you is like. As it's an older frame the reach won't be too bad if you go for drops, but there'll be compromises in the geometry, not least the BB height being a bit high. With 29 x 1.75 it's not doing much more than the CX bike would is it? Personally, i'd go for 27.5/650b (new wheels I know) so you can go pretty chunky at the rear and put a flat bar or alt bar on it and run it as a do it all off road bike that's not too heavy. Your fork will be a good-ish length for the sus corrected geometry, and 27.5 x 2.1 won't raise it up too much more than the intended 26 inch wheels, and BB height will be better than with 29er wheels. You could run it 279er/659er with a 29 on the front I guess. Also, going flat rather than drops will be cheaper depending what parts you have already, and you can have cheaper hydro discs and a 1 x setup that covers your desired terrain...

[UnderTheRadars]

Thanks for that. I won’t be using it for anything gnarr, genuine gravel (I’m in the middle of canal towpath country) and country lanes with an eye on some longer distance tarmac biased touring in the future. I just want two bikes, anything off-road then I have my Fargo, and for mostly road/gravel I’d like to utilise this Voodoo.
Regarding tyres, I don’t intend on running anything so wide, it was just good to see that they’d fit. I’m reluctant to go to 650b, only due to fact that I can use existing 700c wheels.
I’m happy with a shorter reach (dodgy back), I can always throw on my Jones loop bars to see how they fit (that’d also help using existing MTB parts) but as want more road orientated then maybe woodchippers etc would be the way to go.
Existing CX bike, Kinesis Pro 6, is too ‘race’ orientated for me, just don’t enjoy riding it at all

[Cheeky Monkey]

I don’t know or can’t add much about all the rest but if you’re a bit stiff (“dodgy back”) I wouldn’t go for Woodchippers. They are a deep-ish bar ie the change in height between hand position on the flats and then lower on the horns / when in the drops is *large*. Some also find them either a pain to set-up or difficult to get in the sweet spot.

Personally, being a MTBer riding drop bars, I prefer as shallow a drop as possible. My favourites are Ritchey Venturemax XL. Pricey but seem quite shallow at 70mm drop IIRC.

As ever HYOH

[wriggles]

Looks good that. Do gravel bikes have to use drop bars? You could ride it as is, or put on some bendy bars like Jones or Ritchey Kyotes for different hand positions, and then ride it for a while to see how you get on with it?

[johnnystorm]

Of you can be bothered, go to https://bikeinsights.com/compare and choose a gravel bike you like the idea of and add the measurements/geo of your bike in and let it overlay the two and see how far off it is.

[jameso]

As already mentioned, BB height could be worth considering there. 26 x 2.25" is about 660mm OD, 700 x 40 is over 700mm OD. BB of an MTB is likely to be >12" and you could be adding another 20mm to that from the 700C wheels. Plus you'll be adding trail / flop in the steering by increasing wheel dia.
650B x 42mm Resolutes wold be about 670-675mm OD, but appreciate that adds a wheelset to the costs.
tbh I'd try it with some 26 x 2" file/fast XC tread tyres to start with, best chance of ending up with a bike that rides well.

[yourguitarhero]

I'm using my titanium Titus Fireline as a gravel/XC/bikepacking bike

It's an XC hardtail, around 7 years old? It's a size too big, has a 50mm stem, carbon rigid forks (a bit shorter than the 100mm suspension forks it is designed for) and a pair of lightweight Fulcrum wheels with Vittoria Terreno file tread 2.1" tyres on it.

It's great - fairly nips along on most surfaces other than mountain biking singletrack - comfy to ride day after day and lots of space for bikepacking bags. Much prefer flat bars for anything other than straight up road riding. I've got some ergon grips with little bar end grips I can put on for trips with lots of road riding though.

[Cheeky Monkey]

I've a Fireline. I cant believe it's the same bike after reading your description (it's my "hardcore hardtail")

As always, HYOH