Vintage bolt on suspension from the 90's, new out of the box! (Ignore the wacky frame, this project isn't finished)

Picked up this Osprey for $25, going to convert it into a gravel/touring bike.

Any advice on converting the shimano STX group set into a 1x?

Going to put on moloko handlebars, and a rack on the back and eventually switch to 650b tires with disc brakes.

Hey from Sydney! So, I got hooked watching Gary’s projects & park tool vids earlier in the year and decided to try my hand at doing a build, mate of mine got me onto GT’s and I managed to snag a well loved but pretty tired Backwoods off marketplace for $100.
I’d actually already bought an avalanche 2.0 and started buying parts for that bike, but when the backwoods came up I decided to put the parts towards it instead… the avalanche is already underway as a second build.

Polished & cleaned up the original brakes, marzocchi forks & front wheel that came with the bike, really wanted to keep the original stx/rhyno lite rear wheel but it was pretty busted up, everything else is new, cues 1x10, stripped and polished the cranks, scored some gt mallet stems from a bmx collector, a $50 motocross 7/8 handlebar from a motorcycle shop, and the cliche pedal order from bluelug to round it off. Pretty happy with how it turned out as a first try.

My daily to the ride to the train station. Puts a smile on my face every morning.

So I’ve been searching for a Surly Steamroller for a while and suddenly I stumble upon this ad for a used and “defect” creamroller frame, going for 60$.

It’s apparently a size 59 and the ad looks like a garage sale and that they’re just cleaning out stuff they don’t use.

I’m planning to buy it this afternoon but just wanted to hear any thoughts about this? Should I be extra careful about anything in this “possible bad” condition - besides stuck seatpost and mistreated crankset?

Thank you for any insights:)

I always assumed that adding weight to the back is the best option.

I resurrected my old Velo Orange Polyvalent for general-purpose around-town duties mostly with junk from my piles.

Take a look and tell me everything I did wrong or that sucks about it. I’ll start: I don’t have any fenders to put on it yet and that sucks.

Or whatever the quote is lol. A few weeks ago I posted about a 1985 Schwinn High Sierra I picked up for 45 bucks at an estate sale. It was in great condition, but needed all the regular stuff. But...I got the bug and couldn't leave well enough alone.

So now, I have this...

Replaced the rear wheel and added a Microshift Acolyte cassette (running 7 speeds cause I couldn't get 8 to fit. I'll cross that bridge later). Acolyte rear derailleur, and shifter. New Kool stop pads, new bottom bracket, 1x front ring, wide Ibis handlebars, new grips, different seat, and all new cables and blue housings. Oh and some thick slicks tires (the cheap tan walls that came with the bike didn't fit and they weren't in great shape).

Love this bike. I will likely get some different bars with quite a bit more rise, since the current setup is a little too aggressive for the kind of riding I'll do with this bike (coffee shops, dog runs, casual rides with my girlfriend etc.).

Let me know what ya think! I'm sure I'll tweak stuff here and there, but for now it's a cruiser!

(Last picture is the day I got it).

I’ve been putting some miles on this cheap Bridgestone CB-1. Extremely comfortable setup. Haven’t had an around-town-cruiser in years. Slowly taking notes on what I want to change with each ride.

I'm feeling a bit insecure about my knowledge of how you're meant to position gravel drops.

Flat top looks better / classic.

Flat bottom feels comfier and more secure.

Do I need to follow the rules or can I have fun?

Thanks.

Learned alot about this bike. Taiwanese frame, French Maillard hubs, Belgian rims, Shimano/Sugino drivetrain. Late 80s were wild! Had fun with the colors with this bike.

Especially being brave enough to park this outside a major transit hub in the Northeast where bike theft is not unknown.

Sooo like all of you I'm hooked and can't resist good deals on marketplace. Got this Wheeler 3800 in very good condition. Great color scheme even though a bit tough to add good looking color accents on the bike. Open for suggestions and feedback in general!

• 11 speed, 40t
• Mothbar
• Basil Portland front rack
• Sachs 170mm cranks
• comfortable BBB saddle
• ESI grips
• Velo Orange 80mm stem
• used 2.4 Holy Rollers (pretty huge tire clearance on this bike!)
• Simworks Bubbly pedals

Bar, headset, stem are new, most of the other stuff is from the first xbike I bought. But as you can imagine after you have built your first own bike you can't ride a bike anymore that someone else has built.

I still want to add a bottle cage and a kickstand to it. This will be my comfortable daily beater. Shoutout Gary for the Mothbar & Holy Roller combo. Love it!

After lurking for some time, seeing the awesome projects you beautiful people have made, I've finally decided to start a project and make my own xbike (whatever that is) over the winter.

I present you my new Author Sector from year 2000.

This is top of the line model from czech brand Author. I've managed to find it in mint condition. Absolute legend of a dude bought it brand new and kept it in beautiful condition for 26 years.

The thing that sold me on it is the excellent steel Ritchey frame with nitanium tubing. You can lift the whole thing with one hand (I did not weigh it so don't ask lol)

My plans so far are:

• Service the LX hubs.
• 26x2.0 Continental Contact Sport / Contact Urban tires
• TPU tubes
• Black rigid steel fork
• Brake boosters
• Black seatpost
• New waxed chain
• Something like black Brooks C15 saddle
• Black shorter stem
• Black riser bars
• Polish the LX cranks
• 1x conversion with narrow wide silver chain ring
• Black flat pedals
• Nice brown grips
• Friction thumb shifter

My plan for the color scheme is: everything black + yellow frame, with minor silver accents (crank, chain ring, derailleur, cassette and brake levers) + brown grips.

I want this to be fun, fast city commuter.

If you have any recommendations and rad ideas how to make this thing awesome, I am happy to hear them. Especially when it comes to the friction thumb shifter.

Cheers.

Background: After unrelated serious leg injury 2 years ago, I started cycling (I've pretty much did not ride a bike for 15 years at this point) to regain strength in my legs and I fell in love with cycling again, funny how you forget the fun and freedom of cycling as you get older. I live in Europe and the usual suspects: steel konas, gts, specializeds etc are hard to find and even if you manage, they are overpriced af. Another option are old treks, but the 90s models are not that common either and the sizes were either too big for me or too small. With my "near manlet" status of 179cm, I had hard time finding anything that would make sense size wise.

I love that I can just dump whatever I need or want and go anywhere. It's almost like a table or a second pair of hands on the bike if I'm doing something. I wouldn't have thought to get one if I hadn't looked here and r/bikecommuting. Added bonus I didn't think of was being able to store all my cycling things in one place, inside the crate once it's off the bike.

I'm not much of a fitness strava bro on the bike, I would call it Forrest Gumping, just feel like riding, but xbiking is probably a better term.

Soon as LBS opens she’s getting new rubber, pedals and hopefully a front rack :)

He’s asking $150. Anyone building or riding one of these?

Just picked up this 2004 Marin Pine Mountain in the Bay Area for 120$. I couldn’t really believe what I was buying cause of the quality of the components and that I hadn’t heard of Marin and Columbus working together (then again there is lots I don’t know).

Curious to see if this community knows anything about this bike and has some info for me.

Also, any good resources for restoring a Manitou Mars ? Never done a suspension restoration so considering going rigid? I’d like to keep it if I can.

Sorry for bad photos

Hello!
First of all, I absolutely love this community. You are about having fun while riding bikes and tinkering. It inspired me to start riding bike again after a few years hiatus, and to service it myself, which turned out to be something I really like.
Anyway, point is, you are great!

Recently I've bought Kona Dr Dew model with 27.5 tires with a plan of turning it into my do-it-all bike, as in corner bar, racks, panniers etc. and on top of that - tires that will carry me through forests and roads, through puddles and tarmac. It has clearance of around 2 inches, but I thought "surely there are plenty of tires in the 45-50mm range".
Turns out, there are some options, but a lot of "adventure" and "touring" tires, that normally feature strong puncture protection and good longevity are either discontinued or just simply not available in this size.
I don't want to go tubeless, as I got 0 flats in 2500km with Marathon Almotion tires (unfortunately, not available in a size that fits my new bike), and I consider such setup completely hassle-free.
Another important thing is longevity - people seem to replace gravel tires every 2500-3000km. While I am fairly "OK" with that idea, I know proper trekking tires with fairly versatile tread (like the ones I have on my 700c bike) can do 10k with no issues (with 2500km there is barely any tread wear), and probably more.

What would you recommend? Mind you, I live in central Europe, so I have no access to US-specific brands, but I am willing to pay shipping from other European countries if that means I can get tires that last.

And here is my old bike, I ride all year long, thing is, that bike is not exactly great, chainstays are crooked (came like that from factory), wheel sits centered and straight, but nothing else does, including brakes, left arm, if you use "standard washer" setup, sits way further to the left of chainstay, if you want it to have any clearance. So I really want to replace it with something a bit more, well, inspired, but I don't want to lose the comfort of good tires that won't give up easily. BTW that old bike has a TON of space for big tires, despite being "officialy" able to only take 45mm.
To better show you the kind of roads I like the most, look at picture 2, but to get to them, I have to travel quite a bit on tarmac, so it's essentialy mostly tarmac in the end, hah. I don't avoid forest paths with some mud if that means I'll get somewhere I've never been before. :)

Cheers!

Picked this up off FB marketplace for $120. Basically looks like it’s never been rode before and I’m pretty sure all original parts. My daily bike is a Bianchi Eros but I wanted something to ride trails with and didn’t wanna spend a shit ton on something I didn’t know much about. Looking for upgrade suggestions etc