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Building a gravel/do it all bike

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  • June 9, 2019 at 1:05 pm #29728
    Gar_Richards

    Hi all,

    I’m looking to build a gravel/do it all bike bike for linking up road and bridal ways.

    Material and geometry: I’m thinking old school steel, mostly because I’ve always wanted a steel frame. It will need to be something like Reynolds 531 butted or similar to keep the weight down. I want it to be relatively slack to handle the rough stuff but I don’t understand the dinner point of a geometry diagram
    I know what feels right to me but will probably buy online. I will be using some tiagra 4700 that I have in my bits box so may have to cold set the seat stays but I’m prepared to do that. Wheels and tyres I’m thinking wide like hunt 4 season or similar and some fat rubber.

    Braking: bosses would be preferable so that cantilever or long reach options can be used.

    Price: I don’t have the deepest pockets (twins have reduced my bike funds) however I do have a bit of dad points from upgrading the wife’s bike to 6800.

    Parts: groupset is mostly 4700 but might swap the cranks for 1x or put a smaller inner ring.

    Please give me some advice on frames and bargains you might of seen. Also the pros and cons of cantilevers and long drop brakes.

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  • June 9, 2019 at 11:22 pm #943247
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    Anonymous

    Long drop dual pivots have no

    Long drop dual pivots have no draw back, they’ll work just fine enough for both road and gravel, just make sure you set up well and get decent pads, if you ride a lot in the wet, consider getting a ceramic rim for the front at least, it’s what i have on my do it all though used with mini v brakes.

    Cantilevers, well Tom Pidcock won the world junior CX champs just a couple of seasons ago on a cantilever braked bike so you don’t need anything more than that I’m sure!

    As for frames, well Roux do a nice and very inexpensive caliper braked Reynolds 525 bike (Roux Menthe) that you can still pick up for not very much, £500 in fact. That gets you the modern equiv of R531 but with carbon forks that have mudguard and rack eyelets as std. It’ll take 28mm tyres WITH guards and you can go 32mm without and possibly more. The Sora kit and wheels you can sell off and you’d still be left with a decent base frameset for circa £250.

    Other options include buying an old school steel Reynolds hybrid and tricking it out or indeed a touring 631/725 oor colimbus frameset/bike, there’s plenty on ebay to choose from

    June 9, 2019 at 10:36 pm #943245
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    SilverBugle

    Have a look at the frames at

    Have a look at the frames at Spa Cycles.

    June 9, 2019 at 10:18 pm #943243
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    kil0ran

    Possibly also worth tracking

    Possibly also worth tracking down old Santa Cruz stock, or indeed Ritchey.

    June 9, 2019 at 9:56 pm #943241
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    mrml

    Surly Cross Check has cantis.
    Surly Cross Check has cantis. I have had one for a few years and it is a real do-it-all bike. It’s not lightweight though. Depends how important that is to you.

    June 9, 2019 at 6:25 pm #943239
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    kil0ran

    You might struggle to find a

    You might struggle to find a brand new frame with canti bosses – the only one I can think of is the CXRace from Kinesis – https://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/Catalogue/Models/Crosslight/CXRACE

    That’s a CX racing frame though, probably not slack enough for gravel duties.

    Salsa did a load of canti-bossed Ti frames a few years back, they turn on up eBay for buttons considering the quality. Surly possibly too are worth a look. 

    Paul Milnes might be worth a call too – they do custom CX frames.

    As to Cantis vs Long Drops – if its anything but bone dry go with cantis if you’re spending a lot of time off road. Even long drop road calipers will get gummed up instantly in light gravel. Cantis need a lot of fettling to get set up well and it might be a bit of a dying art now discs are the default option, but there are still very good canti calipers out there. Just one thing, not sure if 4700 levers have any compatibility issues with cantis – worth checking.  

    Have a good think though about how much you really need cantis, and how much gravel action you’re going to see. The canti requirement is seriously limiting your options. You can get a set of cable-operated hydro disc calipers for around £100, which is about as much as you’ll spend on a good set of cantis. 

    June 9, 2019 at 6:13 pm #943237
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    IanEdward

    You’ll struggle a bit to get

    You’ll struggle a bit to get the brake bosses, I’ve been constantly on the lookout for a gravel frame (basically something between a road bike and a CX bike, with space for 40c or bigger tyres) which will take rim brakes (my preference is mini-Vs) but they are few and far between!

    Kinesis do a CX frame called the CX1 which looks best, my only reservation is the relatively racey geometry, I’d planned on fitting a Specialized Hover Bar or similar to bring the front end up.

    Spa cycles do some steel tourers and Audax bikes, and All City do the Mr Pink, but the Mr Pink is long drop callipers which I think limits you to 30c tyres or thereabouts.

    Check out the Gunnar Crosshairs though, my perfect frame if I could afford $1500+ from the US…

     

    Edit: I meant to add, I quickly gave up on cantilevers on my Charge Plug commuter, just couldn’t get them squeal and judder free. Fitted some nice TRP CX 8.4 mini-V brakes (quite cheap on eBay, Ti hardwear and pimpy anodising as well) which are much better, especially with Swisstop BXP pads. I think mini-Vs have issues with rim clearance, they need to be set up quite close. I got around this by using Campag style levers with the quick release button on the lever. I run the lever in the ‘released’ position all the time which means more lever throw but also more clearance at the rim.

     

     

    June 9, 2019 at 5:21 pm #943235
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    Nick T

    Open mould carbon gravel

    Open mould carbon gravel frames are about $550 USD from China after shipping and a few extras. I built up an ICAN GRA02 frame and it was easy dealing with them, the frame is better made than a lot of the big name brands I’ve paid 10x the amount for

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