Would this be a good candidate for a gravel conversion? It’s says it’s a tourer and it looks like there is a good amount of room between the fork and stays aswell as canti brakes?
by Zealousideal_Law_588
Would this be a good candidate for a gravel conversion? It’s says it’s a tourer and it looks like there is a good amount of room between the fork and stays aswell as canti brakes?
by Zealousideal_Law_588
24 Comments
Yes
This is a great candidate
Well depends on the geometry, where’s the whole bike picture 😁🤔
Old canti brake frames may use [weird spacing](https://velo-orange.blogspot.com/2017/09/canti-post-sizing-psa.html?m=1), so updating brakes may be challenging. The current brakes have Aztec Delta pads which are pretty good.
There’s not really any conversion to be done, put some thicker tires on that thing and you’re good to go.
Is it not already a gravel bike?
It’s already there! Just swap the tires to something knobby.
Pretty much any bike is a candidate since the range of what constitutes a “gravel bike” is wide ranging and hotly debated. Put a little bit chunkier tires, bars of your choice and ride it. Change as required to fit your specific needs and riding style. Those old style cantis are great and offer great tire/mud clearance. Just look it over well to make sure the frame/forks are straight and not cracked.
Id say with the canti options and clearance, 531 tubing: hell yeah.
Thoae panaracer paselas? Id say swap them out to something more knobbly
This bike is awesome.
As others have said, it’s a great candidate. Since the frame is made from Reynolds 531 you at least have an inkling of the initial build quality, and can make decisions based on that going forward.
It looks like it has paselas so that makes me think that it was originally set up as and is still a 27″ bike. You can pretty easily convert to 700c often with the same brakes to open up a whole new world of chain stay stuffing widths that are simply not available in 27″ diameters. I did this with my ’84 Miyata SixTen and I still run the original Dia-Compe 985 calipers with multiple 700c wheel sets. Look to Sheldon brown for tips on setting up efficient cantilever brakes, it’s all in the straddle angle’s interface with the caliper arm, (aim for 90 degrees and you’ll be in good shape. Every caliper has a different angle).
Looks like a gravel bike to me, max out the tire clearance
Depends on the gearing. Cantilever brakes are a good start. I prefer them to Vs and they have more stopping power than calipers.
Tire wise, looks like they already fit decent size tires. So that’s a great start. Depending on what type of gravel you are riding I’d say 35mm is the minimum I’d consider gravel bike tires.
Ideally 38-40 should cover all up to class 3.
Bob Griffin of Cheltenham? Neat. I’ve never actually seen a 531 “Renovated” decal, but apparently Reynolds would supply these for resprays they could verify were legit 531 tubes.
May we know the asking price?
This Mafac cantilever breaks are special.
You could but canti’s will always be a pain in the but (imo) also wonder if you can get enough of a gear range to climb seated on gravel climbs 🤔
PS those brake pads are great.
It already is a gravel bike…
Good ride every day keep forever kinda bike
It’s a Bruce Gordon. Throw some Rock & Road tires on there it’s gravel ready. Score.
I had a Trek 720 touring bike I converted to gravel. It originally had 27 in wheels, it took some experimenting to find canti’s to work.
In the early days of gravel racing, everybody was on CX bikes. This bike would be fine.
Imo unless you’re racing the only thing you need to make it a gravel bike is good tire clearance, 35mm minimum but ideally 38mm+
All bikes can be gravel bikes really. You have a ton of clearance so you can probably switch to wider tires or even 26 inch wheels.
What is there to convert? Replace the cables and go ride.