Frankengravel bike build - frame choice

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Wow!
That's a lot of hand positions on the first one!

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Here's my Franken-Gringo

Speaks for itself - Orange Gringo - RX9 Forks - 700c Disk wheels



I need to sort out the brakes before I give it more of a ride out.
Then it gets broken up - and sold off as I have other rides.

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Looking good - did you manage to fit 700c wheels onto 26" frame?

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Vittoria 700x34c tyres and about 1cm of clearance

I'll post some pics when build is done, but still waiting for a new headset to be delivered before I can start. ZTTO on its way from China. Classy stuff.

Now, here's a question: what sort of head angle would you aim for in a 69er or 659er? Starting position on the goose is 71 degrees for 26ER. Changing front to 700c will make the angle slacker; changing rear to 650B will tighten it up. My rigid Bxt is 430 axle-to-crown. Looking at chinacarbon forks, anything between 380 and 460 is possible, which will allow to dial in a couple degrees of final angle, if I was to use a different fork.

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Well, I'm way too impatient to wait for the headset. This is how I spent my morning.
Used the original Manitou Magnum 2001 fork that has never been serviced... Not sure if I can even get a rebuild kit for it. I guess it will need to be rebuilt at some point. What would be your suggestions? Just add some fork oil? Reluctant to thorw it away, but not sure if it can be brought back to life.

The bar is a midge to set up. The drops are too short, so there is limited amount of twist that's acceptable and it's difficult to dial in the brifter height. Any adjustments to the position of brifters moves them sideways, backwards/forwards and tilts them. I ended up just fully raising the stem and that has brought the brifters just about high and close enough. The frame that was too small is now a bit big. I think a niner fork & wheel up front will put the bars just where they need to be.
Will have to play a bit more with the bar before wrapping the bar tape.

These are 26" wheels with big apples on them. Who said that 26" weren't cool? Total diameter is closer to 27.5.
The ride is butter smooth, even through the rough stuff, but the bike is damn heavy. Putting it up onto a roof rack on a van was a bit of challenge.