Retro hybrids

Good stuff guys. Keep 'em coming.

bluetomgold":2qzqf2ac said:

Perhaps more in common with an old-school tourer rather than a proper hybrid though... not sure... I wonder if something more "modern" would be better. See what turns up locally I guess...

Click to expand...

Café racer style...

To be honest I'm a bit fed up with the heavy, dead feeling frame (it wasn't one of the posher pioneers, sadly) and would like to go for something more modern. Nearly picked up a Pinnacle Neon for £60, but dithered a bit too long.


If you've got a big pile of old bits (think a few of us on here may do...) then you can pick up something locally cheap and collection only ebay/gumtree then swap out the usually horribly heavy cranks/bars/stem/seatpost, loose the wide squashy gel saddle they invariably have and get something really quite nice after a bit.

LongboardSi":2x03xmb6 said:

bluetomgold":2x03xmb6 said:

Perhaps more in common with an old-school tourer rather than a proper hybrid though... not sure... I wonder if something more "modern" would be better. See what turns up locally I guess...

Click to expand...

Café racer style...

To be honest I'm a bit fed up with the heavy, dead feeling frame (it wasn't one of the posher pioneers, sadly) and would like to go for something more modern. Nearly picked up a Pinnacle Neon for £60, but dithered a bit too long.


If you've got a big pile of old bits (think a few of us on here may do...) then you can pick up something locally cheap and collection only ebay/gumtree then swap out the usually horribly heavy cranks/bars/stem/seatpost, loose the wide squashy gel saddle they invariably have and get something really quite nice after a bit.

Click to expand...

Yeah this is my thinking. I wouldn't mind something that's at least specced well enough that I can start riding it right away - I need something for winter. But I don't want a crappy gas pipe frame, and I'd also ideally like decent braze ons for rack etc... actually that little Dawes ticks all the boxes on paper, but it's possibly just a little bit small/far away/not cheap enough to be worth traveling to. Clean though!

On a side note I just tried putting a 700c wheel in a Saracen Trekker frame I have. It fitted... with a reasonable amount of room to spare. Might be a faff to get brakes on it though... I wonder if that would be a "worst of both worlds" build or worth trying?

you can get pad adapter things that you fit to V-brakes, which allow you to run the pads further from the pivot - meaning (I think) that you can run 700c rims in a 26" frame/fork. They are sold as being for some other size conversion, but look like they work.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Refires ... 91049.html

somewhere on ebay was doing them too...

I've been tempted by this - let me know if you take the plunge

here you go: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bicycle-V-Brak ... 2864317070

LongboardSi":296db0qa said:

here you go: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bicycle-V-Brak ... 2864317070

Click to expand...

Cool, although in this case there's the further complication that it's a double U-brake frame, so the posts are in completely the wrong place. I'll do some measuring and have a think. I have got a Tufftrax frame which is a bit more conventional...

Of course, this thread's now mutated from the very sensible idea of buying a bike that's designed to do exactly what I need, to a complicated (and probably expensive) "experimental" build of a bike that might be hopeless at everything and ride like crap.

:facepalm:

There's a Kona Dew for sale cheap round the corner...needs a bit of love. Also keep looking at Dawes Galaxys... not a hybrid, but possibly what I ought to buy.

Just had a look at a Dynatech hybrid in my dad's shed... nice! Looks a bit small though, and apparently the seatpost is stuck...

Anyway, just been buzzing around town on my street-spec MTB and enjoying it very much... Maybe I should just put mudguards on and call it a day...

:roll:

700c with narrow-ish tyres isn't too far off the diameter of £26" with big fat rubber on, so handling won't be too far out. Whether it's worth it probably depends on what you've got lying round... I'm really tempted by the 700c in an old MTB frame lark.

Oh, forgot to say that the above adapters mean that you can run standard canti style levers with the V-brakes too, as the cable pull ratio is more like cantis than regular Vs, making drop bar set-ups easier too.

Si F

Re:

this is what i would be getting, big fan of these bitd, pretty rare find though. my dad has 1994 dawes mean street lx which is lovely to ride much quicker that mtb.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dawes-synthe ... SwN~Zbn~Al

Re: Re:

sheddweller1993":39ibglkm said:

this is what i would be getting, big fan of these bitd, pretty rare find though. my dad has 1994 dawes mean street lx which is lovely to ride much quicker that mtb.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dawes-synthe ... SwN~Zbn~Al

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's really nice. In fact pretty much exactly what I had in mind. Shame its miles away... Although seeing as I've just bought another Orange it might be a blessing in disguise...

I've been looking out for Mean Streets, but hadn't come across the Synthesis. Glad to hear some love for Dawes hybrids, generally speaking I'm a big fan of their frames.

I'd just been wondering whether it's possible to build a "gravel bike" on the cheap using a retro hybrid, and this thread seems to confirm it's possible!