Monster-Cross/Gravel/Adventure bike project
- Dan W
- Mar 1, 2019
- 2 min read
As mentioned on my Instagram, I have embarked upon a project to build myself an adventure bike. I watch and subscribe to the GCN channel and its spin-offs (which I’m sure many of you will be familiar with) and I also subscribe to DKlein’s channel.
Dklein can best be described as a creator, be it videos, clothing, art work, tattoos and he documents big bike rides with friends using gravel/adventure bikes. The great thing with the way it’s documented is it’s focussed on the ride and the people doing it rather than the brand of bike and the componentry (although there are tiny segments where he’ll get someone to describe their bike).
Anyway, I digress. Both these channels feature adventure bikes and they look flipping cool. You have the lithe, sleek, racy look you get with a drop-bar bike, with the fat, go anywhere, zero f**ks given tyres that make them look so much fun to ride.
As mentioned before, I work for one of the emergency services which means I am essentially working for free. Adventure/Gravel bikes seem to occupy a niche in the market which keeps the prices high and I can’t afford to spend £500-£1000 on another bike (even second-hand). And the missus would cause me all manner of injuries if I did!
I already have two road bikes that I’ve built into decent examples with careful wheeling and dealing on buy and sell sites. It is this success that leads me to this point. Can I build myself an adventure bike at a fraction of the cost of a shop bought version and it not look like it’s been stolen from the bottom of a canal?
Who knows? I’m confident I can, and some purchases have already been made. How hard can it be? I have developed a concept but I should point out that the colour scheme has already changed, but I am keeping that under wraps for the time being. Here's my initial sketch...
Obviously I can’t give exact products that I’m going to use as I don’t know what is available on the second-hand market yet. However, the bike will be built on the skeleton of an aluminium Hybrid frame and fork. From there it will be treated and re-sprayed. It will roll on 650B (27.5) wheels and stopped using mechanical disc brakes.
The drivetrain will be 1x (one chain-ring at the front) and, depending on what I can find, will use a 9, 10 or 11 speed cassette. I'm going to use a flared drop handlebar and ‘STI’ type road shifters, matched to whatever rear derailleur I can find to match the cassette and levers.
Tyre wise, I would like to use a pair of WTB, gum-wall, gravel tyres or the Panaracer Gravel Kings but we’ll have to see as they don't come up second hand and are expensive new.
Bit of a shorter blog this time out, but that is as far as I am with this project. Saying that I’ve done some little bits here and there but nothing I can document right now, but watch this space…..
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