You'd think that after two failed modern gravel builds I'll give up on the idea of a gravel bike and ride an old 26er, but no, I'm too dang stubborn, so I decided to continue my quest for finding the right long-distance compromise between tarmac and offroading.
Also, the number of gravel events seems to be increasing all over the country, and I'm quite keen to ride in some of them, so a dedicated gravel bike won't be gathering dust in the shed.
My personal gravel requirements are:
- No pizzacutters. I have liberated my bike shed from these horrible abominations. Thank you @Woz for words of wisdom.
- Reasonable offroading capabilities, so ability to fit at least 42mm tyres + guards.
- Drop bars for long-distance hand comfort
- Reasonable rolling resistance for long rides on tarmac.
- 9x1 drivetrain
Most 700c frames seem to fail in 42mm+guards department, and the ones that do allow this clearance are huge (Spa roughstuff anyone?). The choice was down to 26" or 650B, and 650B tyre offerings seem to be better than 26" these days.
@Mickeyspinn has planted the idea in my head of using an old french randonneuse frameset with 650B wheels. Probably as a bad joke, but he didn't know that I was in an emotionally unstable state after having to strip & sell the last 2 gravel bikes and would take his advice seriously.
An evening on ebay has yielded me a 1950s French Liberia randonneuse frameset with Durifort forks and unknown steel frame tubing.
It is my understanding that Durifort is a French brand for "tuyau de gaz extraordinaire" - the French Reynaults so to speak.
Even if it doesn't ride like five-three-one-see, I welcome the opportunity to try out the 650B gravel concept for a very little financial outlay.
The frame was purchased from a seller called street-of-vintage-bike-2 who turned out to be quite a friendly chap. He listed the paint condition as "very bad" but assured me that damage & rust were purely cosmetic, and the frameset looked structurally sound.
I was reluctant to believe him, as the pictures, that made the Liberia look like a badly rusted frame in merde brown colour scheme. Not that I don't trust French ebay sellers, but it's more that in France a "structurally sound" frameset means that at least one of the seat stays is still attached to the seat tube and the rest is firmly secured with gaffer tape and jubilee clips.
Shipping from Grenoble (the hometown of Liberia bikes) + UK import tax cost as much as the frameset itself, but I didn't care that much, as my head was spinning with dreams about the new idiot bike project.
A bit about the frame:
The weight for a 57cm frame+forks is only 3.2kg. Quite light by gaspipe standards I think. Fork is 800g - the same as my Reynolds 531 sloping crown Bob Jackson.
Seat tube angle appears to be 72.5 and headtube looks like 72.5-73.
BB is French threaded - not a big issue these days.
96mm front spacing;
116mm rear spacing (!) took me by surprise, as the frame is equipped with an old-school simplex hanger;
The fork race diameter is 27mm, and the fork threads are 24tpi, so standard ISO/Italian/JIS. WTF Francois?! I wonder is the frame builder was guillotined for treason for this grave mistake. I'll try a JIS cup to see if it fits well into the headtube, otherwise, I'll need to order in a 27.0 Italian headset.
There is one downtube shifter mount, but it's not the modern M5 x 0.8. Could this be M5 x 1.0?
A bit of searching on the French bike forum has produced a photo of how the original bike looked like - see green pic attached.
Some info on Liberia bikes:
www.classicrendezvous.com
The intension is to build it up with modern components, so the only retro part of this bike will be the frameset.
Didn't know which forum to put this in, but since the frameset is a 1950s road one, this ended up in retro road bikes.
Hopefully, I won't destroy the frameset while working on it, and won't discover any hidden damage.
As they say in France, Bonnet de douche!
Also, the number of gravel events seems to be increasing all over the country, and I'm quite keen to ride in some of them, so a dedicated gravel bike won't be gathering dust in the shed.
My personal gravel requirements are:
- No pizzacutters. I have liberated my bike shed from these horrible abominations. Thank you @Woz for words of wisdom.
- Reasonable offroading capabilities, so ability to fit at least 42mm tyres + guards.
- Drop bars for long-distance hand comfort
- Reasonable rolling resistance for long rides on tarmac.
- 9x1 drivetrain
Most 700c frames seem to fail in 42mm+guards department, and the ones that do allow this clearance are huge (Spa roughstuff anyone?). The choice was down to 26" or 650B, and 650B tyre offerings seem to be better than 26" these days.
@Mickeyspinn has planted the idea in my head of using an old french randonneuse frameset with 650B wheels. Probably as a bad joke, but he didn't know that I was in an emotionally unstable state after having to strip & sell the last 2 gravel bikes and would take his advice seriously.
An evening on ebay has yielded me a 1950s French Liberia randonneuse frameset with Durifort forks and unknown steel frame tubing.
It is my understanding that Durifort is a French brand for "tuyau de gaz extraordinaire" - the French Reynaults so to speak.
Even if it doesn't ride like five-three-one-see, I welcome the opportunity to try out the 650B gravel concept for a very little financial outlay.
The frame was purchased from a seller called street-of-vintage-bike-2 who turned out to be quite a friendly chap. He listed the paint condition as "very bad" but assured me that damage & rust were purely cosmetic, and the frameset looked structurally sound.
I was reluctant to believe him, as the pictures, that made the Liberia look like a badly rusted frame in merde brown colour scheme. Not that I don't trust French ebay sellers, but it's more that in France a "structurally sound" frameset means that at least one of the seat stays is still attached to the seat tube and the rest is firmly secured with gaffer tape and jubilee clips.
Shipping from Grenoble (the hometown of Liberia bikes) + UK import tax cost as much as the frameset itself, but I didn't care that much, as my head was spinning with dreams about the new idiot bike project.
A bit about the frame:
The weight for a 57cm frame+forks is only 3.2kg. Quite light by gaspipe standards I think. Fork is 800g - the same as my Reynolds 531 sloping crown Bob Jackson.
Seat tube angle appears to be 72.5 and headtube looks like 72.5-73.
BB is French threaded - not a big issue these days.
96mm front spacing;
116mm rear spacing (!) took me by surprise, as the frame is equipped with an old-school simplex hanger;
The fork race diameter is 27mm, and the fork threads are 24tpi, so standard ISO/Italian/JIS. WTF Francois?! I wonder is the frame builder was guillotined for treason for this grave mistake. I'll try a JIS cup to see if it fits well into the headtube, otherwise, I'll need to order in a 27.0 Italian headset.
There is one downtube shifter mount, but it's not the modern M5 x 0.8. Could this be M5 x 1.0?
A bit of searching on the French bike forum has produced a photo of how the original bike looked like - see green pic attached.
Some info on Liberia bikes:
Home Page - Classic Rendezvous
Dedicated To Lightweight Vintage Bicycles Circa 1900 – 1987Learn about or rediscover your favorite lightweight VINTAGE bicycles from the days when craftsmanship and individualism was the hallmark of the “good stuff”Dedicated To Lightweight Vintage Bicycles Circa 1900 – 1987Learn about or...
www.classicrendezvous.com
The intension is to build it up with modern components, so the only retro part of this bike will be the frameset.
Didn't know which forum to put this in, but since the frameset is a 1950s road one, this ended up in retro road bikes.
Hopefully, I won't destroy the frameset while working on it, and won't discover any hidden damage.
As they say in France, Bonnet de douche!
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if it were me I'd look at 12 speed....2x6 early 7 speed freehub but with a chopped down 9 speed block.....but that's me and my advice 
. So parcel got delayed by a few days.
