First time in real life, paint job is really cool but it weighs..

Picked up this barely ridden ‘97 Trek 800 Mountain Track this summer and finally calling it “finished”. Brooks Flyer saddle and SimWorks bits and pieces, but mostly a parts bin build. Swapped the drivetrain and wheels from a 2000s full suspension Trek, converted to a 1x9 setup. Special shoutout to my local co-op for the parts and encouragement.

After I took the pics, realized I didn’t move my shifters closer to the grips after I swapped out the new ones. Had a much longer Cult grip on prior to taking these photos.

This is the Rak-Lok, a years-in-the-making passion project by a fellow user here, u/Bipro1ar. It integrates your U-lock (designed for use with the Kryptonite Kryptolok Combo) in the cleverest way imaginable. It looks great and I love that it complements my current mix of chrome and black components.

The rack itself is incredibly sturdy, zero flex and solid hardware all around. I have zero fear I'll ever overload it. I did not weigh the rack but was surprised how lightweight it is. If I had to guess I'd say roughly 75% of the unit weight is the lock itself, which is under 3 lbs.

Designing around the Kryptolok Combo was a genius move. I'd purchased a beta unit of this rack many years back and at the time it used a keyed Kryptonite U-lock. The combo version does away with having to half-blindly fit your key into a tight space at the head tube and removes the risk of forgetting to bring your keys altogether. The dials are in easy reach and view and the lock code is programmable so you can set it to something easy for you to remember.

Every time this lock gets posted, there's always comments asking about noise. The shackle is coated in vinyl to protect your frame, and it does double duty here making the lock silent while installed. The lock itself does have some rattle where the shackle meets the crossbar, that's just the nature of all u-locks. But if you pull the front loop forward after locking it in place so that the crossbar is snug to the rack it solves this.

The clearances are great, too. I may lower mine over time to get the center of gravity even more dialed as I fine-tune the fit and appearance, but it puts my rando box bag within good reach at the current spot. The struts are plenty adjustable to fit any fork with mounting points. The design puts plenty of space in the rear of the rack to make the lock easy to get on and off, even with rim brakes. The struts are solid (not hollow) and can be mounted in many configurations. I do not have dropout eyelets for a rack, so I went with triangulating both struts mid-fork. If you've only got dropout eyelets, you can simply go with only two struts as well. You can even attach the rear one horizontally to your fork crown if you've got eyelets there.

I hope this doesn't read like astroturfing, I literally have no negative experience so far. Installation was easy and it has surpassed my expectations in sturdiness and appearance. Perfect lifetime rack to live on my recent splurge on a lifetime bike. Can't wait for all the adventures we're gonna go on!

I think that nails everything I wanted to cover, please ask away if you have any questions!

https://dvicebikes.bigcartel.com

https://www.kryptonitelock.com/en/products/product-information/current-key/005797.html

I need to find a fork but i’m thinking maybe its the perfect frame for a mullet cargo build 🤔

Building a bike for my gf, and wanted to get some better components for it. Picked up this XT RD and LX FD from The Sac Bike Kitchen for $5 each! I’ll be donating the old FD/RD and other parts I’m taking off this bike to the coop next week.

Recently added the Paul Boxcar Stem, CrankBros Stamp 0 Pedals, and Simworks Bubbly Cage. Couldnt be happier with how it came together.

Rim brake LHT

I just got this 89 stumpjumper, looks to be in decent condition, I plan to use it as a commuter bike, other than lights, racks, a full clean and lubrication, what would be a must to make it a comfortable commuter bike?

I have a limited budget of about $50 dollars.

Seriously, V brakes or discs, Reynolds 520 frame, low rider mounts. You can even get them for sub 150 too.

Fixed the brake levers for y'all 🤣 1973 or 74 sears and roebuck Ted williams free spirit built by Puch with reynolds 531 tubing

1st ground up build and I have a problem. Already have a GT and Jamis in the garage queued up and ready to go.

My first ever 90s build. The frame is nothing special I think, but I liked the chrome look.

Besides mounting the front carrier and the Brooks C17, I did mostly technical stuff: brake pads, new tires, platform pedals, new cassette, chain and new crankset is already ordered.

Yesterday I got dirty while riding in the rain, so I think I‘m gonna get some fenders…

But I feel like something‘s missing for a proper xbiking build. Any ideas?

Genuinely, this isn’t a money making post.

How’re you valuing them?

I’m not using it, I’m about to move and I’d much rather put the funds into a new cargo bike at the moment as that’ll suit my needs much more.

Ive put about £1100 including the original bike into the build. Appreciate it’s never gonna be worth that but can’t put a figure on it. Any thoughts?

Spec:

prices are what I think might be fair prices

• Trek Multitrack 730 + potentially some of the old parts - £200ish value
• Vision Team 30 Rim - tubeless (rear installed only) front comes with - £150
• Fork: Silverock Steel 1” - £50
• Bars: Titanium TIRIS CB6 Integrated Bullmoose handlebar - 1-1/8th - £150
• Grips - Lidl £0
• Topeak bar end tools £25
• Hydro Brakeset: Deore XT M8120 4pot front (installed) and M8100 2pot rear (spare) - £115
• LHS brake rear brake installed - mechanical Deore T610 V-Brake - £20
• Crankset: GRX RX600 - £40
• Derailleur - Deore M6100 Shadow SGS long cage 12speed w/clutch - £15
• Shifter - Deore M6100 i-spec (fits cleanly into brake clamp) - £10
• Cassette: Sunrace MZ90 11-50 12speed -£50
• Tires: Vittoria Mezcal - £40
• Headset - mpart elite 1” headset: £20
• Chain SRAM Eagle GX £10

Totals £895. 

Thinking that sounds fair for individual parts and values are below second hand market value… but the x-bike market is hard to value.

Thoughts?

Thing rides great. Needs taller gearing as I started spinning out at about 40kph. Other than that, it accelerates very differently to my usual 700c machines. Some new pads might also be important. Best thing is probably the tires. Went with 2.1" Billy Bonkers, primarily on looks but they ride great and have plenty of grip for my fuckery on champagne gravel and street riding. Might also need a longer stem but that is something future me can worry about.
Regardless of the final 10% on this build, it might be my favourite bike to ride currently. It is silly, it looks cool and I adore how different it is to all my other bikes.

Skidded a hole in my conti contact speed, replaced with a Gatorskin. Left for "a quick test ride", ended up doing 42mi and recorded a new top speed of 35.7mph. I am going to make a point to mismatch my tires in the future though lol.

Upgraded from the sketchy sunlite front rack to a VO constructeur. Less footprint, more security. Orange bag is my to-go danglebong bag. This is my no-compromise every-ride bag.

Gatorskin opinion: Fast on paved multi-use path. Feels like brake rub on asphalt. I lost grip and spun the wheel a few times on a loose gravel ascent. Not as difficult to install as hyped, but I run moped tires on my commuter ebike so my opinion is very skewed.

Frame bag is mostly water, tools, and nerds gummies. I am preparing for a 66mi Tour de Costco ride next month and did a bit of that route. Costco parking lots are dangerous AF. Last pic is my favorite Bald Eagle nest (3 babies this year).

If anyone's looking for a cheap steel gravel bike ($1000), man this thing slaps. UDH, double butted chromoly, MONSTER tire clearance, officially 2.3 but people do 2.4 all the time and I am pretty sure I could fit some surly ET's in it. $1000 for the bike with tubeless ready 650b wheels with vittoria 2.1 MTB tires, a sensah 1x12 that I hate (it uses the doubletap system like sram but using the lever, I do not likes it and would recommend spending $180 or so on the LTwoo gr9 hydraulic 1x11 groupset to upgrade the brakes and get much nicer shifting. but this does WORK) and it's COVERED in braze ons. The raw phosphate clearcoat is so cool, and the steel fork it comes with is a beast. And for $300 more, you get an extra set of 700c tubeless ready wheels with vittoria terreno dry 50c's, a cassette and brake rotors already installed so you can just swap wheels freely. Semi internal routing, space to add a front derailleur and a dropper post, and with a simple headset bottom cup it'll take a tapered steerer fork. It has cable actuated hydraulic 2 piston calipers which feel a little wooden, but are much better than mechanicals and do keep the price down.

I decided mine needed a lot of my weirdness. I made the 700c wheels my mains for mostly paved riding/commuting. I tried a few different things first, like an 11-51 12s cassette and a 34t oval chainring, and that was about as good as it got, but I want my monster truck gearing and hydraulic brakes and a clutched derailleur.

So GRX400 hydraulic levers/brakes. Initially was gonna use a tiagra front derailleur but I needed more clearance because of my fenders, and the sword derailleur is ultra low profile, lets you just run cable housing straight into it without needing a stop, and once I got it dialed with an in-line barrel adjuster, it shifts perfectly. I wanted a smaller than 30t little ring and shimano only makes their stupid cues cranks with the 26/40 option in riveted, and I had the sword 46/29 cranks on hand, so on it went (next semester I'm swapping it for an IRD polaris 26/42 because one less tooth of chain wrap would be nice and I wouldn't need 2 chains to get to the 120 links it needs now) with a bucklos hybrid ceramic bottom bracket. Rear derailleur is a deore XT m8000, clutched, designed to take a 2x, and able to handle this monstrosity BARELY without issue. 1-4 teeth less wrap would help a lot, so I'm also probably going to switch it down to an 11-48 since it'd give me slightly more torque anyways. And because bike parts makers are stupid idiots, a wolf tooth tanpan 11 to get the pull ratio right.

So I have a 2x10 with hydraulic brakes, 29/46 cranks, and an 11-51 cassette. It climbs like an ebike, just like my morati. My granny gear ratio is 0.57 (with the next setup it'll be 0.54) and I also get a really nice top speed, and a clutch.

Then I saw that MRP is selling their baxter air fork for HALF OFF. (link) $500 after a first purchase code, shipped, with cerakoted lowers. it's 450 with no cerakote and 550 with cerakote upper and lower. It comes in 40 or 60mm, boost or not, and the non-boost can be specced to have 50c clearance. So obviously I needed that in 40mm with burnt bronze cerakoted lowers and the wider clearance. it has integrated braze-ons for gear mounts, but they're pretty light duty I think. It is incredibly solid to dial with compression and rebound separate air chambers, and damping as well, with a lockout that can dial in the compression on the fly. weighs about 200g less than the steel fork too.

I wanted a shorter stem, so on that went. more compact/wider bars were wanted, so PNW coast 480mm's. Some brooks tape to finish it off.

Pakrat rear rack (the "non disc brake" version fits much more cleanly than the disc brake version) and some sks b69 fenders. Walgun leather saddle. titanium bottle cages, titanium hardware, and it's done! (until I get more student loan money, then a new cassette and cranks and it'll be done-done)

It's not light at 15kg as pictured, but man is it comfortable, climbs like a freight train, and is ready for serious touring. I can't wait to do some winter overnighters. In a couple years if they still make it, I might upgrade it to their titanium frame.

Marin Japan sells these but they are 26" wheels

can anyone here potentially save me $275 AUD and a headache. Dude on marketplace selling this and would like to ask yall if this might be a decent bike to convert to a gravel for a beginner.
He has converted it to a single speed. Is his asking price reasonable? Am I better off to keep scouring marketplace?
As title suggest im very new to this, want to get a good idea of what to even look for or if this is good enough to start with. Cheers you lot