Got rid of my gravel bike as it wasn't getting used that much but now I'm missing a bike for the occasional longer explorations, mostly on B roads and firetrack with a few short sections of easy ST.
I've got a few bits n bobs in the parts bin that would mean a drop bar 29er could be cobbled up on the cheap relatively easily but I'm having difficulty deciding on a frame. The main thing I'm trying to wrap my head around is rake, trail & head tube angle!
I've got a carbon 29er fork with a huge A-C of 500mm and 51mm offset/rake, I'll need to pair this with a frame that isn't too slack and long in order to get a bike that isn't slow and boring on the roads/firetrack... right?
I'm between sizes at 5'11 so sizing down to a M should give me the right sized frame and it would need to be designed for a fork with 120mm travel but not long as is the trend in modern geometry. If it had boost rear spacing then that would be a bonus but if not I can get a new rear wheel.
Any suggestions or anyone done something similar with success/failure?
cant help with the frame (i have a mk1 swift in a similar set up to you), but what is your fork? i am looking for similar for the swift and cant find anything that long. I have a cromo fork of a similar length.
I'd look for a swift or a Gryphon and sell dave your fork!
Edit: Or a Chinese catalogue carbon xc frame. someone posted a nice looking one on here a little while ago. Drop bars, dropper, novatech/Arc27 ets. Looked sweet.
I was thinking about a swift but that would mean a new wheelset for sure and I'm keeping the fork for bike packing on my solaris max, so trying to make it work on another frame while it's at rest. It's a Bombtrack BPC but they also do a BPS (steel)
Pipedream ALICE might fit the bill from a ‘gravel’ perspective. Either that in an older Sirius if you wanted a more ‘MTB’ feel.
I should add that it's tapered so wouldn't work with the swift I'm afraid 🙁
wouldn’t work with the swift
oh well.
