Show us your 'Gravel' bikes before it was a thing.

[marsh]

Both of my current "gravel" bikes are from before gravel times:
Holdsworth Special w/vintage Deore long cage RD, 32t cassette. Currently sitting on 33 Jack Browns, but can go up to 38.


The everyday workhorse Bleriot:

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by Spaghetti Legs

Well yeah, performance advantages aside, there are few things uglier than a modern MTB, except maybe a modern TT bike.

You show an ebike, which isn't playing totally fair!
I actually prefer what the new MTB bikes look like vs. the old ones, so there is no accounting for taste.

[dddd]

dbl-post, sorry!

[dddd]

I used to "test" my used-bike purchases off-road, to verify their structural integrity, before heading far out of town on them.

Did some frankly insane (very steep, undulated) trails riding on 23's even, really having to read the terrain in a fight for traction. Great skills-building for CX season.
Pedaling intensity developed from the longer, difficult climbs, and descending helped develop my practiced bail-off options as control-of-speed was lost.
It wasn't much about riding fast though, since the meager tires had tubes.

I usually rode on touring bikes having 1-1/4" tires with perhaps only 29mm mounted width, at the lowest pressures that I could get away with (recalling 60psi for my 150# weight).

I included a photo showing what several months of mixed and off-road riding does to a 1" Pasela tire!

The "gravelizing" of these bikes sort of came about by accident, result of my frequent preference for hitting new and old trails. At certain times of year, the objective became to "clean" every section of difficult, slippery terrain without once putting a foot down, the better to arrive home without my shoe treads being clogged with mud.
A luggage rack on the back was found to really help with climbing traction, especially when carrying a 2-liter rectangular juice bottle full of hydration beverage. The Pedersen (with it's long chainstays) finds traction by virtue of it's more semi-recumbent, upright rider position, makes for a great upper-body workout!
The early-2000's Schwinn is actually a hybrid-turned-29er.
The Performance Parabola is a 1991 "road hybrid" model in near-original configuration.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by dddd

Great skills-building for CX season.

We used to take our bikes out on frozen lakes for skill building, and elbow fracturing... But talk about internal gyro building/development.




My question is this: is that cap Pedersen approved/specific??

[TiStar]

My Castellano SilkTi 700c welded by Steve Potts……. a mix of mountain bike and cyclocross geometry. John Castellano sent these photos and letter describing it back when it was built

“ You have the only one ever built. When I started doing custom SilkTis with Steve Potts, we built that as a Interbike Show bike to demonstrate the thousands of configurations we could build. Noone ever ordered one—ahead of it’s time, I guess.
It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing—same tubeset as a regular SilkTi, but with drop bar geometry and clearance for a 700. We used the seatstay assembly from the SilkTi 29 with the chainstays from the SilkTi 26er. 27.5’s hadn’t happened yet, and there was no such thing as a “gravel bike” yet. It takes a MTB drivetrain—135 spacing, 73mm BB, room for a triple. Disc or Vee brakes. Short travel 700 fork. I think that’s the only two photos I have.“

[dddd]

Originally Posted by TiStar

My Castellano SilkTi 700c welded by Steve Potts……. a mix of mountain bike and cyclocross geometry. John Castellano sent these photos and letter describing it back when it was built

“ You have the only one ever built. When I started doing custom SilkTis with Steve Potts, we built that as a Interbike Show bike to demonstrate the thousands of configurations we could build. Noone ever ordered one—ahead of it’s time, I guess.
It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing—same tubeset as a regular SilkTi, but with drop bar geometry and clearance for a 700. We used the seatstay assembly from the SilkTi 29 with the chainstays from the SilkTi 26er. 27.5’s hadn’t happened yet, and there was no such thing as a “gravel bike” yet. It takes a MTB drivetrain—135 spacing, 73mm BB, room for a triple. Disc or Vee brakes. Short travel 700 fork. I think that’s the only two photos I have.“

Recalling Castellano's interesting presence at Interbike, must have been 20+ years ago?

Reminds me of the RockShox Roubaix era and the greater experimental era of bicycle suspension in the 90's.

I should keep this bike pristine for it's collector value, but have wished that it could take wider than 25mm tires and possibly enjoy riding it off road.

[witcombusa]

My first three D2R2 bikes... so starting in 2005.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/222196...7629554096728/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/222196...7629918452377/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/222196...7634381786564/

[Philster]

I’m not sure I understand what this thread is all about but here’s an Indy Fab Planet X I had built for D2R2 before they knew they were a gravel race.

[tellyho]

CAADX! Spent real money on this in 2014, when fat tires on the road meant cross. Gravel was just on driveways then.

[TiStar]

Originally Posted by Philster

I’m not sure I understand what this thread is all about but here’s an Indy Fab Planet X I had built for D2R2 before they knew they were a gravel race.

That is a sweet ride!

[Philster]

Originally Posted by TiStar

That is a sweet ride!

Thank you!

[Philster]

Originally Posted by TiStar

My Castellano SilkTi 700c welded by Steve Potts……. a mix of mountain bike and cyclocross geometry. John Castellano sent these photos and letter describing it back when it was built

“ You have the only one ever built. When I started doing custom SilkTis with Steve Potts, we built that as a Interbike Show bike to demonstrate the thousands of configurations we could build. Noone ever ordered one—ahead of it’s time, I guess.
It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing—same tubeset as a regular SilkTi, but with drop bar geometry and clearance for a 700. We used the seatstay assembly from the SilkTi 29 with the chainstays from the SilkTi 26er. 27.5’s hadn’t happened yet, and there was no such thing as a “gravel bike” yet. It takes a MTB drivetrain—135 spacing, 73mm BB, room for a triple. Disc or Vee brakes. Short travel 700 fork. I think that’s the only two photos I have.“

Very cool. I feel like we're still struggling with the intersection on road and not-road.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by TiStar

My Castellano SilkTi 700c welded by Steve Potts……. a mix of mountain bike and cyclocross geometry.

Like a few keepers I have, if that ever became available to me for any kind of reasonable price... It would be making my too many bikes more too many...

[TiStar]

Originally Posted by Philster

Very cool. I feel like we're still struggling with the intersection on road and not-road.

Thank you sir