Building The Gravel Bike - Real Time Complete Build | Garbage To Gravel-ish Episode 3
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 25. 08. 2019
- Jon builds the gravel bike in real time, taking care over all of the important components and adding just the right amount of grease and anecdotes.
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Have you built an old mountain bike into a gravel bike?
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Music - licensed by Epidemic Sound:
Bow - Brookii
Breathing Life - Halcyon Lounge
Heavy Breeze - Thompson Town Flowers
I'm Over You (Skyldeberg Remix) (Instrumental Version) - Mondays
Just About Us - Oman
Knocked Off My Feet - Barbatula
Lupino - Magnofield
Malin's Song - Sum Wave
Octagonic - Luwaks
Perfect Colours - Tomas Skyldeberg
Sunbeam Memories 3 - Gunnar Johnsen
Photos: © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Bettiniphoto / www.bettiniphoto.net/
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Have you built an old mountain bike into a gravel bike?
do a DIY electric bike build ? them sort of videos get loads of views ( unrestricted for private land racing )
I kinda made a single speed from a Walmart bike wrecked the rear grip shift so yeah I hacked it
Built an old Apollo MTB into an awesome 26inch gravel machine.
No offense but a mtb is a gravel bike.
Reminds me of when I built my hybrid into a cx-bike (before gravel bikes were a thing), sadly I wasn't aware the 8 speed Deore derailleur was not compatible with the 8 speed Sora shifter..
Vintage is gaining grate popularity, everyone should have a retro. Mine is a 90s Bianchi-japan prod. Friction 10 sp. 54cm. I absolutely love it
These are the great type of videos which make GCN what we always liked about it. Jon's struggle show us, the real life of making a bike, which is great for what we can expect.
This is mental healing therapy. I love to fix vintage bikes and this is just fun to watch. Jon talks with that really cool soothing British accent throughout the entire video. The only thing left was how to paint the frame, which sounds quite challenging.
Hello at GCN,
I really like this idea of converting an old mountain bike into a gravel-ish bike. I live in Maine, not far from New Hampshire and Vermont, where there are several hundred miles of old railroad lines that are now used as bike trails. Most of these rail trails have gravel surfaces of various firmness, so a bike with 26 inch mtn bike tires should work well. And, of course, the drop bars will help me avoid tired and sore hands by offering more hand positions for longer rides.
Iâll be using my Specialized Rock Hopper from around 1990. I changed this bike to use a suspension fork and V brakes many years ago, but I still have the old fork and cantilever brakes stored away someplace. I also have a choice of drop bars, threadless stem and adapter, and old cable hangers in my parts collection, so the only new parts I need may be a pair of Shimano Tourney brifters to work with the original 3 by 7 drive train.
Also, judging by Google maps, your part of England has many miles of gravel trails along the old canal towpaths, such as along the Kennett and Avon Canal. Do you ever ride your gravel-ish bike on any of those trails?
Can't believe you did it again. Built a bike but didn't show us even riding around the car park. Nice job John ... but ya gotta show us a test ride at least :-/
found the test ride:
czcams.com/video/zO0-EmlkP1M/video.html
Just completed my gravel build last Friday. First ride Saturday. Fantastic to build your own ride.
What material is used to build your frameset? Steel, aluminum, carbonfiber?
I have small wooden wedge to hold the awkward chain ring bolt in place so it can be screwed into without the hassle. Good job Jon đ
Iâve had an old Raleigh cro mo max 2 in bits in the garden for years. Itâs my new old bike project to make it look clean but keep some of the original parts.
And then stumbled on this vid.
Old inner tubes for bar tape is the obvious choice.
This sounds awesome but not sure if I want my hands to smell after every ride.
If you have an internal cable routing without a guide, you can put the inner cable through first, with a zip tie circled around inside the exit port, once the cable goes through the zip tie, you can pull it out. then you can use the inner cable to easily guide the outer cable through. then take the inner cable back out to cut the outer to length.
I had an idea for GCN Tech. How about you guys try to build from parts off of AliExpress? You can get everything from frames, forks, wheelsets, posts, bars to full groupsets and bling in Chinese carbon fiber for a fraction of what it costs from name brands. I would love to see a sort of... Made in China, Assembled in the UK dream build bike.
Tom Brablec this is top notch
Tom Brablec this is top notch
I'm actually in the process of doing this, although I sourced everything but the saddle, had tape and groupset direct from the factory - lightcarbon.com is the website. No affiliation other than being a customer.
I'm still deciding on groupset. I haven't yet decided whether to splurge on Ulegra Di2 or the mechanical version.
The completed bike should end being about half the cost of a comparable bike from one of the big Western companies.
To make a truly authentic fake, you'd also have to use one of the Chinese/Taiwanese alternate groupsets, e.g. microShift. It would be an interesting comparison to a 'brand-name' construction.
Sponsors should never allow this... I do agree thought it would be awesome
This "garbage bike" is 10 times better than my main bike... Grad school student here; gratefully accepting donations from GCN if you all felt generous! ;)
Starman!!! Rear brake on the right hand lever. Yes!!!
Jon, use a proper third hand tool that clamps the blocks on the rim, THEN the fourth hand tool, which you called third, to tension the cable!
When you mount your new inner derailleur cable you can put your chain on the 3th smallest ring on your cassette, your derailleur has a small tension now. Tighten your cable on this setup. Now just shift a couple of times. Your cable will stretch out and should be at the right tension now.
Not a mountain bike, but a hybrid. Cannondale Quick Cx 3. Replaced front suspension with CF. Changed to a hollowtech BB and better crankset. And a fresh set of panaracer tires. Also, CF flat bar.
The man, and now the legend! wish Jon was still present on this channel.
that front brake in that configuration is a death trap, if the top cable (or bolt) fails, the callipers will spring open and the connecting cable will go in your grips and lock the wheel up, your teeth will hit the concrete with your body weight behind them, you can get a safety mechanism for them on ebay
@Singlespeedpunk 32 yrs building custom bikes/motorbikes/gopeds etc, 35 years bmx freestyle and mtb downhiller, seen it 3 times, the reason you haven't seen it is probably down to the front reflector (which is not on this bike), most older people leave them on, they act as a safety stopper, 85% of young customers take them straight off, but as you said, maintenance is key, but then again I have seen more than one factory nipple come off the lever side of the cable, better to be safe than sorry, I stick by my words, these brakes are dangerous as standard, if it was my bike, I would add the cable splitter mechanism, but for the same price you can get a cheap set of v brakes off ebay
On my bike i used a cantilever in the back but used a v-brake with a problem solver in the front. It became very efficient and looked better as well.
The most bizarre thing has just happened to me. Iâm putting together some IKEA furniture (normal activity for a bank holiday of course) when I get the sudden urge to listen to Kim Wildeâs You Keep Me Hanging On - not sure why - Iâve never chosen to listen to Kim Wilde at any point in the last 38 years. Itâs a good tune though so I ask Siri to play the best of Kim Wilde. Kids in America comes up first, naturally, and the second is a song Iâve not heard before: Chequered Love. About half way through the song I realise that itâs the tune to that Oakley advert that keeps playing at the start of all the GCN videos. How spooky is that?! And there was me thinking it was something modern but itâs nearly as old as me!
Interesting
That tool is a fourth hand. The (Park) third hand is a spring steel tool to clamp the brake pads against the rim. I always preferred the VAR third hand tool, which looks like a funky C-clamp. Fourth hands also work well for tightening cable ties.
Top little series this one, appreciate the full video here of the build as well, neophyte to the mechanic side of bikes myself. Also, Jon, love your presenting style, top notch or super noice as you boys could say.
Thanks JonnyTech, great work and a very timely mini-project!
Nice winter bike, perfect for the city
Great video. Loving Jonâs stuff but really refreshing to see you focusing on reviving an old bike as thereâs nothing more satisfying.
Thanks for the video, Jon. You know, lots of people tend to do the steps described in videos like this but they never know the reason why they're doing it in the first place. Your stories and explanations help give insight on why we (the viewers) should do things, or why not, if we get in the same situation. Cheers!
This was a pleasure to watch! Thanks Jon and GCN!
This was surprisingly nice to watch, great work!
I used that same Race Face chain ring to convert my 2006 Trek Madone road bike to a 1X drive-train! Works great. 44 tooth and using an XT 11x36 cassette with the Wolftooth extender to use the original Dura Ace rear derailleur.
Take a drink every time he says âbit of kitâ
Can't believe I have just watched 45 minutes of this! Fantastic, most educational. Great presentation. Thanks Jon
Great job Jon, love the banter during the build. What about an "Italian" bike build as the next project?
Thanks
My first cross bike was a mountain bike, fitted drops and Shimano Sora shifters. Weighed an absolute ton and the courses then had more run sections but it got me started, happy days.
Don't worry folks. the cable hanger will be replaced with a perfect one. This was something I managed to quickly get hold of.
Glad to hear it. I was about to comment that shimming a cable hanger into place with rubber isn't cricket, no matter how tightly you wrap the rubber.
Nice bit of bodgery on that headset though
Bolt one to the crown of the fork please, those were available on plenty of 90's MTBs.
Good luck John, love all your build videos. Great fun
I'm still looking for tartan bartape
Thanks Jon and team, this was great.
I buily my old trek into a gravel bike. It works great too. Ive taken in on a metric century. I put hydro disc brakes on it too. I got a pair of shimano RS505 levers off ebay, used a 105 R7000 rd, and MTB calipers and hoses I had on hand. works like a champ
When Jon was explaining the whole stem, cable situation all I could hear in my head was Martyn Ashton singing âHAAAAACKS & Bodgesâ
Brilliant!
seeing jon struggle wit the cantilever brakes a little made me feel better for the half hour effort it took for me to fit mine for the first time!
I wish I was as efficient as Jon when working on my bike.
I'd love to see an oldschool cyclocross bike rebuild or Beachracer (for example koga beachracer) build!
A conversion I would like to see is "cheap retro bike" to "retro superbike" conversion. Get an old (but good) frame second hand and spoil it with some really nice vintage parts. Or maybe just new vintage looking parts.
I believe they already made a similar video where they took a cheap bike from eBay and turned it into a superbike.
Very pleased to hear JC has a nice smooth end.
Truly enjoyed the video! Thanks!
a real delight to watch you work
Really enjoyed, great show.
I missed Breakfast at Wimbledon on the tele. Not a big enough tennis fan. But I didn't miss Breakfast with Jon. A big bike fan, every single day. Thanks, Jon, and now you'll have to go riding with Si and Katherine. And then hand that bike over to Ollie so he can make it more aero.
Old steel deraillure hangers easily bent back with minimal worry of cracking it.
Yeah, steel frames still come with fixed hangers.
Steel work hardens. The older the frame and number of times it's been bent before all add to the risk of cracking.
Yes - but you trash the derrailleur in any incident. Better to have a replaceable hanger as the weakest link. If you pick up some trail debris, there's an increased likelihood that your derrailleur will be saved and the hanger can be easily/cheaply replaced. In principle at least - some hangers cost way too much.
Nice work Jon! Youâve transformed some decent bikes. Love these episodes. Great stuff
You could use a hydraulic Drop seatpost and control it with the other Shifter.....
Greetings from Germany
I would love to see a 27 inch-wheel, canti-brakes road frame (Touring or older CX) being converted to 700C wheels. There are thousands and thousands of these older 27 in.-wheel, canti-brakes road frames from the eighties and early nineties that are built with high-quality Ishiwata, Tange, Reynolds etc. tubing that would greatly benefit from the much better selection of 700C wheels. That would be a great conversion to show on video.
Brilliant results I still got a Cannondale 26 inch bike frame I baught it the year 1999 I still love using it
Excellent video. Inspirers those who think out the box and experiment on bikes. Frame doing nothing, do something to it. Itâll be fun. My winter bike. Raleigh Shopper. Extra long quill stem, drop bars, kept the S A 3 speed hub gear shifter, Brooks saddle, mudguards is a must, upgraded brakes, Schwalbe Marathon Plus 20â and a modified, rack. Does me for winter riding. No probs. Just give it a brush down, on the weekend.
I did this a few months ago, and had the same issue with the front brake interfering with the stem... So I just drilled a hole in the aluminum stem and had the brake cable pull from it
My favorite video from Jon to date!
great video! nice to have in depth , longer videos !
Let's see a 1970's Schwinn Varsity/Continental converted to a gravel bike!
_Love_ these build/rebuild videos.
I have made that same dumb mistake putting on a chain. Glad to see even a professional can do it.
I worked in a bike shop in the early 90âs and we had a plastic setting tool for the cantilevers. I was fixing up my old cross bike this weekend, with some (very) retro Mafac cantilevers, and they are almost un-set-able! My cable snips are a bit second hand, so all cables and outlets were getting squished! No fun at all!!!
Ya, I built a 91 miyata triple cross into a drop bar gravel bike / tourer. The drive train is mostly vintage 739 xt and I used bar ends for shifting.
Very nice built đ beautiful bike
You could have used the stem itself as the brake cable abutment, 8mm hole in the top, 2.5mm hole in the bottom. Was done back in the day!
Fantastic đ
Thoroughly enjoyable. Cheers
Jon - why are there not straddle-wire catchers? If a brake cable lets go and the cantis pull the straddle wire into the tread, you'll have a full wheel lockup.
As for pedals, I'd go with some big silvery bear trap style flat pedals. Cleats are too modern, and toe straps might not be the best for a quick dab in the corner. If you want to be old-school then maybe some half toe-clips from zefal or similar, but no to toe straps. However half toe clips could catch a root. Your call.
Classic to modern conversion. Old 5 or 6 speed bike with down tube shifters to one with modern gears, shifters wheels and all the rest of it. I want the convinience of modern bike but on an old frameset.
Pretty sure this bike would have had shifters on straight bars originally but yeah upgrading old frames with modern components makes for great bikes
Love these videos John
I have a cable tip for your cable tips đ„đ
I lightly coat the cable ends with some electronics resin solder for permanently kept tips that you can still pull on in the future without fraying and then dress the end with your favourite colour cable tip (if youâre not a weight wienie)
Electronics solder is light and liquifies at a very low temp which also allows me to add a dab mid cable to stop sliding cable donuts đ©
I do the same but use a little dab of Gel superglue.
chris scott I tried the gel glue but I find I canât really pull on the cable with a tool in the future as I find the glue chips off
Could be the type I used though
I d love to see a frame builder do some custom bits (or even mod the frame) in the next build! Nice job Jon
great work Jon
Fantastic video John!
i quite like this old school bike
Great video! 46 minutes in heaven! Jon is a great mechanic and I hope we will see a video there he ride that bike to and tell how it feel.
Canât no handlebar tape
Love these build videos
Thanks!
I could watch you building bikes all day ;). The good stuff ;)
Love these kinds of uploads!
Great work!
I had one of these frames. Was my first mountain bike. In a beautiful magenta colour.
Use a toe strap to pull on the brake lever before you set the positions of the retaining bolts. Pull on the cables before you do up the nuts. You don't need a third hand this away and you've got as good starting point. Also, it looks as if your front cable stop has slipped on the quill adapter. It's already sitting crooked. This can be dangerous.
Awesome build
Yep, that's definitely a Super Nice!
I really like this, will have to go round looking in skips now for a suitable donor. Look forward to the next episode.
Nice job, I like a retro bike build! May I suggest a bracket on the fork down, like one a white reflector would have been mounted on. That way, if the front cable fails, you won't get thrown over the bars when the bridge cable is pulled onto the tyre by the cantis.
I'm a little surprised you didn't run the cables round the opposite side of the head tube..... I.e. The rear shift would go round the left hand side of the head tube. If you were running both shift cables, they would cross under the downtube. This way gives you a much smoother curve and no rubbing against the head tube. đ
I also run the plastic tubing and tailed ferrules to help keep out the muck n water..... đ
An Ahead aluminium Stem Shim Reducer Conversion Variable Ring Set 25.4 to 28.6mm can be bought on ebay for ÂŁ1.50.
This inner tube bodge is going to make the front brake feel spongy.
I finished (-ish) my 'monster cross' conversion. I used microshift type 3 x 7 shifters (I was amazed but they worked straight away with little adjustment.) A set of flared bars, a system X quill stem adapter and System X 110mm variable stem, a Selle Italia X1C cyclo-cross saddle. Now I just need to add the bar tape and I'm finished ... for now. Test ride was a hoot with 26 inch MTB tyres. might eventually switch those out for gumwall gravel tyres. The bike cost me ÂŁ20 and I reckon I've spent another ÂŁ60 on it.
I did the routing mistake you did at 42:25 on my road bike on a tour. Had to fix it in a hotel room on the floor.
Well done Sir! Thank you for going Epic
Thanks for posting this. I'd do this kind of thing all day if I had the choice, but I don't. So it's nice to sort of live vicariously through these videos. đđŽ
Nice work Jon!!! đđ€đ
I have watched the whole video its awesome, good work Jon....
@24:30 who to blame for the cables? Blame Lasty.... Wait... Where is Tom Last?
Looks great ! One thing I would mod in the future with such a big chainring, is a larger cassette for better hills gearing... or at least one with a bigger bailout gear. Of course we have some good hills where I live, so if your terrain isn't so hilly then your all set.
Good stuff John!
Yes I have an idea! Take an old steel 26" mountain bike frame and mount on it drop bars and 700cc wheels. Maybe single-speed. The idea is to have a robust commuter that can take on some gravel.
dang.. we (tech vieweres and Ollie) miss you man.. come back on, and play some more!
Great series, you've inspired me to refurbish my '91 British Eagle with a similar setup
I think this is motivating me to 'recover' a 1977 Motebecane Super Mirage I have in the basement - convert to single speed commuter! Thanks Jon
I've done that with an old bike ive found in the woods. I had converted it to a single front brake aswell. Its nice for commuting without having to worry too much
Great video
WOW THAT TOOL SET ON THE WALL LOOKS LIKE A VERY UPMARKET TORTURE CHAMBER. LOVE THE VIDEO'S.