Older lugged canti touring frames

[shankldu]

Who made some of the older lugged steel frames , besides Miyata Trek etc some thing a bit more exotic . Lookin to set up a gravel ish rig .

[charliedid]

Fuji
Nishiki
Panasonic
Claud Butler
Dawes

Off the top of me head

[mhespenheide]

Try here: https://www.bikeforums.net/search.php?searchid=11396981

[Frankwurst]

Bridgestone RB-T. Maybe not exotic but hard to come by.

[JAGI410]

Originally Posted by Frankwurst

Bridgestone RB-T. Maybe not exotic but hard to come by.

That might get a little more street cred than an exotic...

[gbcoupe]

If you can find one, a Lotus Eclair would be hard to beat.

[El Chaba]

Meral...

[bikinchris]

Specialized Sequoia. I happened to see one in a wild a few months ago. It still had the generator and fenders and racks from new.

[pinkshogun]

older canti frames had closer spaced front canti bosses and sometimes dont play well with modern canti brakes, v brakes even worse. i have/had 3 Nishiki side pull brakes bikes...Ultra Tour 18, Royale, and Gran Tour 15. All could fit a 700x38ish tire and Tektro long reach 559 or Paul Racer brake calipers

[slowpoke]

Originally Posted by bikinchris

Specialized Sequoia. I happened to see one in a wild a few months ago. It still had the generator and fenders and racks from new.

Sequoias sadly only fit up to 700 x 32. More of a sports tourer than a potentially repurposed gravel rig.

Speaking as a former retrogrouch, the old stuff was always a bit too flexy for my pedaling style. Very aesthetically pleasing, but I prefer modern "oversized" tubing (~31.8mm downtube, ~28.6mm toptube), esp if riding off pavement.

[merckxman]

This is a new frame of this type, been for sale for awhile.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/56-cm-Rando....m46890.l49286
No relationship to seller in any way.

[tv_vt]

I had a Centurion ProTour touring frame with cantis. Bought it in the mid-80's. Nice bike - except for the canti brakes. Never worked well and I never could understand the attraction others had for them. The other problem for me was that it was built around 27 inch wheels, not 700c. Rim and tire selection was not great, and got worse over time.

[Liberace]

Originally Posted by slowpoke

Sequoias sadly only fit up to 700 x 32. More of a sports tourer than a potentially repurposed gravel rig.

Speaking as a former retrogrouch, the old stuff was always a bit too flexy for my pedaling style. Very aesthetically pleasing, but I prefer modern "oversized" tubing (~31.8mm downtube, ~28.6mm toptube), esp if riding off pavement.

The 1991 Sequoia was speced with a 41mm tire and fits up to a 45mm tire easily.

[slowpoke]

Originally Posted by Liberace

The 1991 Sequoia was speced with a 41mm tire and fits up to a 45mm tire easily.

It looks like there are 4 generations of Specialized Sequoias:

80s - Tim Neenan designed with lugs
90s - tig welded with a unicrown fork
00s - aluminum
~2016 - AWOL-inspired steel

The early lugged ones did not have as much tire clearance as the later models.

[pcb]

Hard to come up with specifics until OP gets a little more specific about what "older" and "gravel ish" mean to them.

'70s canti touring bikes were often designed around 27" wheels, and canti boss spacing was very narrow. Like pinkshogun said, brake choice is usually limited to vintage brakes, usually wide-profile. Difficult to adapt to 700c due to canti boss height originally spec'd for 27", and generally not much tire clearance beyond 38-700c, w/o fenders.

'80s canti touring bikes were more frequently designed around 700c wheels, especially after '84-'85 or so, but still with narrow canti bosses, and not very generous tire clearance, at least compared to modern gravel-ish specs. Nobody made quality 700c tires much wider than 32mm back then, so not much reason to design a frame with 42mm+ clearance.

With '90s canti touring bikes now you're getting wider bosses and wider tire clearance, but a lot more tig-welded rigs than lugged.

There are always exceptions. My '74 Harry Quinn Tourist, '76 canti Paramount P-15, '82 Weigle Touring and '84 Fuji Touring Series IV are not exceptions. 35-38mm clearance max, brake choice pretty much limited to vintage wide-profile models. Getting correct brake shoe height for the 27"-designed frames, which is all but the Weigle, is a bit of a headache.

Touring frame pinch points are often the chainstays, so if you're willing to dimple them deeper, maybe you can get to 42mm-700c on some frames, esp the 27" conversions?

If you're looking at vintage 'cross frames, through the '80s most had narrower tire clearance than touring frames, and most had very high bbs, shallow bb drop, so the ride/handling feel can be very different.

Early lugged hybrid frames are usually better gravel-ish conversion candidates, though they tend to be on the heavier/clunkier side. By the time hybids hit the market, wider 700c tires were available, so tire clearance is usually better, and canti spacing is less of an issue.

There are also fans of 26" ATB conversions.

There's also the school that says Jobst Brandt rode his skinny-tire road bikes everywhere/anywhere, so who needs anything else?