Show me your gravelbikes....inspire me.

[weisan]

Originally Posted by sparky33

You can increase/decrease the amount of resistance (aka spring tension) by rotating the square-ish looking spring adjuster nuts.
IIRC, I think the Paul Neo Retro manual says to set the straddle 3 inches above the tire if you can. I set it a tad lower and it's good.

That's an awesome bike btw. Nice acquisition.

thank you Sparky pal, I will try that tonight!

[weisan]

i am not a big fan of pals "quoting" a whole block of text & pics but I like the post from dave pal so much, I think it's worth quoting.
one of the picture links seem to be broken, maybe dave pal can fix it.

Originally Posted by Dave Wages

I've been riding gravel roads since I was a kid in Upstate NY, but up until a few years ago, I just used my standard road bike with 25 or 28c tires. Gravel can really vary from place to place, so I've been doing more events and tweaking my personal bikes based on experience and need. I rode D2R2 in 2010 on my road bike with 28c Vittoria Rubino's and they were fine with the exception of the last descent which was mildly sketchy. With this in mind, I started working on my DRB's...

This is my first DRB (Dirt Road Bike). I made it to have the same contact points as my road bike but slightly longer chainstays and fork to allow for medium reach Tektro brakes and rubber up to 35 or even 38c depending on the brand.



My next DRB incorporated the TRP CX9 mini V's, so I could run the same wider tires that the above bike would fit, but also offer the option of fenders for winter riding. Pretty similar geometry, low bottom bracket compared to a cross bike which keeps the bike more stable than a cross bike. Still, I probably rode this bike with 28c road tires more than any other size, and I did D2R2 on it in 2011 with some 32c Grand Bois' which were nice, but frankly felt like overkill for most of D2R2 packed dirt roads. I liked this setup, but the mini V's were my only real gripe, they have great power, but if I was doing a road ride in a group they weren't great at scrubbing speed off gently and no one wants to be the herky jerky guy in a group.



My next version of the DRB was a bit more rando styled with geometry for fenders and a front bag. I'd been building and getting requests for more and more rando style bikes, so I figured I better build one myself and see what it's all about. I opted for Paul's Racer brakes on this one for a couple reasons, the offer much better modulation than the mini V's they're easy to disconnect for traveling (since this bike is coupled), and the way this bike is designed they'll accept a 40c knobby tire without fenders, (maybe wider, this is as wide a tire as I've tried) and up to a 35c with fenders, perfect for winter riding around here. I rode this one at the Almanzo 100 last year with some 40c Kenda Happy Medium's and while plenty of folks used narrower tires than this, I was pretty happy with them on the loose pea sized gravel of the Minnesota roads. Especially on downhills when I'd hit a fresh patch of loose gravel, these tires would just fly through it while the folks with 28c's were fishtailing and trying to keep upright!

Here it is clean and new with 35c's and fenders.



And here she is at about the 70 mile mark of Almanzo...



Finally, this year I put together my Strada Fango, loosely translated as Road Mud. This bike was inspired by a mixed terrain event in far Northern Wisconsin not coincidentally called the Strada Fango Spring Classic. I brought my cross bike last year only to find that it was not quite enough bike for the ATV trails and singletrack that this ride covers in addition to some great road and gravel road sections. What I've found over the course of all these bikes is that if you've got clearance for fatter tires, it certainly doesn't preclude you from running skinny tires, but you gain lots of versatility with the option for fat rubber. Since I incorporated disc brakes on this bike, I can run the skinny 29'er tires as you see it here, 700c road tires, or I could even build a set of 650b wheels with some road tires which would lower the bike down, make it a bit more stable which might be nice for some light touring. The challenge when building a bike for wider tires like this is to keep the bike from becoming a super long Mack truck type thing. I had to finagle the chainstays clearances, but I kept them to a reasonable 430mm, which is perfectly fine for all the types of riding that it could possibly see.

[happycampyer]

Dave, your work is always so exquisite and well thought out.

[layneo59]

Weisan--those are all amazing bikes! Every one is better than the next one. These are all much nicer then even my nicest road bike.

[layneo59]

Weisan--those are all amazing bikes! Every one is better than the next one. These are all much nicer then even my nicest road bike.

[David Tollefson]

Mine, from yesterday's ride.



My own build, very laid-back geo. A design experiment, mostly. I have another in the pipeline that should be ready for paint in a week or so.

[weisan]

i can never get tired of this thread. If I may offer a suggestion, when you post a picture of your bike, please also state the tires you are using and maybe a brief ride report. Thank you!

[joosttx]

Go ride!

[chwupper]

Hey gravel grinders -- no one has flat bars on their rigs?

[p nut]

Originally Posted by chwupper

Hey gravel grinders -- no one has flat bars on their rigs?

I do, but I usually refer to it as my mountain bike.

[cainez]

I am in the process of building up a 90's Balance XR-750 MTB frame. It is slowly coming together, but I'm going to run drops on it and plan on using it for a gravel/touring bike. I will post pictures when it is more than a frame/fork/cockpit sitting in my living room.

[beeatnik]

Catella Climbing Club team bikes for the 2nd Race of the California Gravel Gauntlet, Menso's SLO Ride to Hell



http://superproracing.com/road/2015-...avel-gauntlet/

[kppolich]

Wow, just looked through these post. Some amazing stuff. (n+1) will be in effect soon

[weisan]

This thread is too good to be left inactive for that long.....here's another one to see if we can jump start it again.

[aosty]

Originally Posted by beeatnik

Catella Climbing Club team bikes for the 2nd Race of the California Gravel Gauntlet, Menso's SLO Ride to Hell

Hey dude... was that you on the Cielo... I complimented it while I was asking for drugs for my buddy with the busted collarbone... towards the bottom of the second descent.