Howdy all- I’m kicking around the idea of taking this traditional hardtail cross country bike and making it a drop bar gravel rig. Under current specs i should be able to keep the frame, wheel set, and most of the 1x Sram drive train. Not sure about brakes? Needed to convert would be: 1)ridged fork - Enve G series gravel fork should accomidate wheel size. 2) drop bars- might as well stick with the Enve theme here too- 3)Sram road shifters- this is where it gets a bit complicated. Would road levers work with sram Xo derailure? Also would exisiting hydrualic brakes be re-useable?(new cabeling and fluid required) 4) would frame geometry work with rigid fork? Would likely need different tires...
Appreciate any thoughts and expeiences ya’ll might have!
You’re not going to able to use the Enve gravel fork. The axle to crown is way too short and will make your head tube angle really steep and probably lower the head tube (stack) way too much. You’ll want to use a rigid mountain bike fork. Also you’ll need to reduce the stem length 50-80mm to compensate for the extra length of the drop bars. If your X0 rear derailleur is 10 or 11 speed it will work with road shifters. As far as brakes, are you talking about connecting the calipers to the road levers? I suppose it’s possible but I’m not sure how well it would work. It’s probably best just to get a complete road hydraulic set.
Agreed with the suspension corrected fork (Salsa Firestarter maybe?) and stem suggestions. It looks like he has a pretty long stem on there right now, so a 40-60mm reduction may work out well. I'd also suggest adding some rise to the stem, to accommodate even a shallow drop. If you need to make a bigger adjustment, Analog Cycles has some options: https://analogcycles.com/product/discord-components-creemee-stem/ (this is just one model)
I built up a gravel/monstercross rig out of a hardtail mountain bike in 2019 (since sold). It's doable and fun, but be prepared to wade through a lot of dueling standards and to have to play around a lot getting the cockpit set up properly. I could never get mine to fit right both in the drops and the hoods, gave up and got a proper gravel frame, and don't regret it. At the same time, that bike could take giant tires, which was a hoot, and I miss that.
The fork I used was a Niner RDO--you might look into those. I think they only make them in boost now, which could be a bit of a problem depending on what kind of front wheel you want to run.
Its a gorgeous bike. Do you really hate flat bars? Personally, I'd put a suspension corrected fork on there, maybe some different tires, and have fun with that. It is a PITA to convert a flat bar to drop bar. Yeah, it can be done, but... well, what Jumbo said.
Is there anything specifically you don't like about flat bars, or is it appealing just because it would be a fun project. (spoiler - Jones bars give you some of the advantages of drop bars without changing all your components out).
I love my gravel bike, but unless I really need to get aero - I don't worry about it on my XC bike (and I have pretty darn low stack on that thing anyway).
Appreciate the feedback from everyone. Thanks for the heads up on the Enve fork compatibility too, as I had done a fairly cursory look into this. I do own a proper, but aging gravel bike. A couple folks from this forum gave me some great info when I was looking to update to 1x and wider tires, etc... Bottom line on this bike is that it's chalked full of great components, but I don't do much trail riding anymore. So I've got King headset, bottom bracket, Thompson Ti bars, post, Enve wheelset, Sram drive train....and it collects dust for the most part. So what to do? Gravel bike conversation? or another possibility was to swap the frame to something a little more 'all mountian' geometry which would be friendlier for the trails I do ride. Basically transplant the components. (Also, I've been without a 'project' bike for several months so the gears are turning.....)
Take a look at some of the alt bars out there. I have a koga denham on an older cross country frame and love it. I also kept my sus fork due to lots of rough roads where i live. Running 700 x 50 wtb ventures. Like them also.
Enve does make a suspension corrected mountain fork and short stems, so it's still doable in a really sick (and expensive) way.
I think Shimano road hydraulic levers are compatible with mountain hydraulic calipers. Sram probably is too, but it would be easier to just sell the mountain ones and buy a set of road.
EDIT- the adventure fork is still gonna be like 80mm too short for comfort.
+1 on trying a Jones Bar type setup. It looks like it may be as easy as swapping bars and experimenting with stem(s). I was pleased and surprised by result— Cheers
cautiouschris wrote:Wondering if ljsmith or other have experience with this Enve adventure fork? comes in 49 or 55.5 rake and two different axle to crown options...
I've done what you are proposing twice now and have gone through about 5 iterations of gravel/all-road bike in the past three years. My first go at this was a Niner EMD frame that I found on ebay. I started that bike because I found 40mm tires insufficient for my type of riding. To me, that is the biggest reason to convert an mtb. Plus as a triathlete and bit of an aero/techno nerd, I've tested a lot of tires and found that the big tires were not slower than the 40mm ones (before bicyclerollingresistence started testing gravel tires). I also realized pretty quick that I wanted front suspension and managed to find a solid, inexpensive fork on ebay from MRP (the Loop). I wanted to use a 46x30 105 crank with a 68mm bottom bracket so I ground off some of the shell to make that work. I needed a top-pull that could take the 16 tooth jump and need to mesh up a 105 shifter with a slx rear derailleur that could handle a 42 on back. I also wanted a more road-like position so I put a 27.5 fork on it with a 650 WTB tire and a adjustable step canted down 60 degrees. I was pretty pleased that the whole system worked like a charm giving me a huge range for road and the very steep-mtb conditions I find when I venture into the mountains. It was the most fun I had ever had on the bike and a bike that covered about 85 percent of the riding I do very well. It did not excel at technical mtb stuff on the one end nor climbing a paved road up a mountain on the other, but everything in between was great. After a couple of gravel races and fighting the eternal wind where I live, I decided to put aerobars on it and found with the front suspension I could ride aero off-road, though it was a bit bouncy on the back end. That got me thinking again and so I sold two bikes to bike a new (used) one, a Turner Czar which is a 100mm front and back dual suspension bike. I could not take the road crank so I put an XT 40/26 crank on and that does the job very well. My first race was very enlightening. It was a mountainous Utah fire road race which I had done previously on a rigid bike with 40mm tires, the aforementioned Niner and finally the Turner. Once off the pavement it is just so smooth to the point that I can ride washboards in the aerobars to catch back on or ride away and I blew past rigid gravel bikes with 40mm tires like they were standing still on the rough descents. You do have to lug the extra 8-10 pounds up the climbs, but even then, the dual-sus smooths out the climbs to the point that it does not bother me. When I tested it with the power meter I made up more time in the descents than I lost being heavier in the climbs. Finally, I would check out the D1x shifting system from Archer Components. You could get rid of cables, have electronic shifting that is customizable and use your current derailleur. Sorry, this was already long, but I learned a lot of lessons doing this over the past few years. I laugh when people say you don't need tires over 40mm, but I kind of realized that everyone's requirements are different. My bikes would probably be overkill in many places, but here it make for great fun and speed.
Howdy all-
Lots of bar options. 