Good evening everyone/just a few questions, I have an old Orbea road bike, I no longer use it except for home riding. I would like to change it to Gravel, do you think it is possible and above all wise?
by Nawakh
Good evening everyone/just a few questions, I have an old Orbea road bike, I no longer use it except for home riding. I would like to change it to Gravel, do you think it is possible and above all wise?
by Nawakh
9 Comments
You’re likely going to face tire clearance issues.
You’ll be ok on very smooth paths aka “champagne gravel”. For everything else your main issues will be tyre clearance and brakes.
Nope. Wouldn’t even try. You have zero clearance for tires. Even with the max tire size you could fit it’s going to be a slippery mess on any loose terrain.
Look at the tire clearance, if you can fit 35mm in it, which is unlikely, get some bigger tires and ride some gravel. if not, try riding some gravel anyway and see if you like it! Except for tires, what other changes are you considering?
The obvious limitation with be frame clearance. That era of road frames had max tire clearance of 25 – 28 mm. BUT there is also tire clearance with caliper rim brakes: most max out at 28 mm, a very few allow 32 mm tires.
How wide of a tire can you fit? I wouldnt ride anything less than 32mm on light gravel. Ideally 35 or wider.
What does your gut say?
Sure, why not. Won’t be great. You will end up wasting $$$ that you could have put towards a real gravel bike.
I tried to do a conversion like that and ran 32mm gravelkings on it which was as big as I could fit in the frame. Unless you go out of your way to buy some skinny rim-brake tubeless wheels (don’t) you’ll have to run tubes which is really not ideal for gravel conditions. I was able to do some easier gravel on it but even that felt a bit sketch at times.
Eventually decided it wasn’t worth it after getting 4 flats on one ride and getting stranded. After riding a real gravel bike the difference couldn’t be bigger on comfort and confidence with better geometry, disc brakes, and the needed tire clearance to run big tubeless tires.
Leave that bike at home for your trainer.