WWYD: Rebuild or replace (gravel bike question)

[MagnificentUnicorn]

It’s steel so it’s okay to spread a little. I think I have some 126mm hubs


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[justcuz]

Update: lots of good deals right now on bikes. I’ll clean up my old Kona Jake and either retire it to trainer duty or let it go. New gravel bike on the way.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[XXX-er]

Probably smart ^^ , it was my C-dale road bike i tried to upgrade the tires on, about the biggest I could do was 25 and the old rims from the narow tire days were a real problem so I think what rubber you can mount is a real important consideration

[singlesline]

probably nowhere in biking is geometry or disc brakes less important than gravel biking

which brings up a good question how wide of a tire can the OP run on the snake cuz tires are important

being able to run a wider modern tire would make a difference

That's the one thing that's making it hard to hold on to my beloved custom steel CX bike that does gravel/road duty now.

The straight steerer is fine and while pickings were slim I was able to find a nice carbon fork for it. The rear rim brake (paul mini-moto) is fine. I'm running a front disc though...which means I am basically limited to only custom wheelsets, but that's OK. 27.6 seatpost is fine for my purposes. Built with modern 1x11 that I might want to update to 1x12 but is otherwise fine.

But the fricking chainstays are too tight to run anything bigger than a 37c WTB Riddler (I tried a lot of tires...these work as long as you keep it <45psi). OK on road duty as I can easily run 30/32 slicks, but I'd really like to be able to go a step bigger in the rear for our local rough-ass gravel roads. Honestly it is a design flaw...the seat stays have GOBS of clearance and the chainstays have enough heigh, but not enough width. It was early in the framebuilder's career, UCI limited CX tire size, and I just don't think he realized where the choke point would land as a tire sizes up.

I've thought about trying to hire a framebuilder to pinch the stays to generate a bit more clearance, but I'm not sure that's really worth it...a new bike will just be better at some point.