Mod retro conversion....the ultimate 80s trackie.
- Thread starter Tootyred
- Start date
Its xl 60cm. The tyres are 40c nanos. They measure up at 41mm.
The xc pro is just some bits from the shed, the levers dont actually have the correct barrel adjusters...
The shifter was built out of my xc pro shifter spares box...over the years ive gained loads of them as scrap. I normally get the bodies, clamps and tops cerakoted then rebuild the guts from bits of others.
Great shifters and genuinely do 8 speed (they switch between 7 and 8 which is a great help. Plus suntours spacing was more akin to shimano 8 speed for both 7 and 8...so oddly they do 8 speed shimano, better than 7!
The xc pro is just some bits from the shed, the levers dont actually have the correct barrel adjusters...
The shifter was built out of my xc pro shifter spares box...over the years ive gained loads of them as scrap. I normally get the bodies, clamps and tops cerakoted then rebuild the guts from bits of others.
Great shifters and genuinely do 8 speed (they switch between 7 and 8 which is a great help. Plus suntours spacing was more akin to shimano 8 speed for both 7 and 8...so oddly they do 8 speed shimano, better than 7!
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Bit of an update.
The carbon forks must DIE. Evil must be eradicated wherever you find it...and I'm sorry to say that includes those carbon forks. The amount of bow flex was doing my head in...to a point of not being able to ride without the feeling of imminent death and disfigurement
. Its probably just me, but, well not for me shall we say.
In there place I've bolted a trusty pair of surly crosscheck forks....steel is very much real. Ok they weight 300g more, but tbh, they are much faster as im not in a blind panic at anything over 10 mph with these
.
In this form its been ridden a fair bit including a 70+ mile blob around suffolk yesterday.
The carbon forks must DIE. Evil must be eradicated wherever you find it...and I'm sorry to say that includes those carbon forks. The amount of bow flex was doing my head in...to a point of not being able to ride without the feeling of imminent death and disfigurement
. Its probably just me, but, well not for me shall we say.In there place I've bolted a trusty pair of surly crosscheck forks....steel is very much real. Ok they weight 300g more, but tbh, they are much faster as im not in a blind panic at anything over 10 mph with these
.In this form its been ridden a fair bit including a 70+ mile blob around suffolk yesterday.
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I like this, hopefully it will up for sale one day in the future 
One other issue was the gearing, whilst i can get away with 36 front and 11-28 8 speed on the rear on the road, off road i ran out of gears......once on a type2 horse trail, it was so loose and uphill, i had to get off, as without the bail-out afforded by the 26 granny, I was stuck.
The answer was to shove an 11-34 9 speed cassette on and flick to friction on the xc pro shifters. That then solved the issue, but left me in 1970 with no indexing.
Ive now shoved a 9 speed XT m770 rapid fire shifter on, its against my "retro ethos", but im kinda out of options, as a front derailleur won't fit unless i drop to a sub 35mm tyre or go for a very modern direct pull jobbie.....yuck.
The issue with the 11-34 is the jumps between gears are a bit too big for me these days. The 11-28 has manageable jumps (god knows how people ride an 11 speed 11-52 cassette..
).
Ideally 10 speed is tje answer! 11-34 offers the exact 8 speed 11-28 ratios...PLUS the 2 bailouts i need at the top. However, pull on the shifters wont work with my xt m735 rear mech.
Time to investigate some tiagra shifters?
Or possibly 10 speed thumbies....although are they road or mtb pull?
Nobody said it would be easy..
The answer was to shove an 11-34 9 speed cassette on and flick to friction on the xc pro shifters. That then solved the issue, but left me in 1970 with no indexing.
Ive now shoved a 9 speed XT m770 rapid fire shifter on, its against my "retro ethos", but im kinda out of options, as a front derailleur won't fit unless i drop to a sub 35mm tyre or go for a very modern direct pull jobbie.....yuck.
The issue with the 11-34 is the jumps between gears are a bit too big for me these days. The 11-28 has manageable jumps (god knows how people ride an 11 speed 11-52 cassette..
).Ideally 10 speed is tje answer! 11-34 offers the exact 8 speed 11-28 ratios...PLUS the 2 bailouts i need at the top. However, pull on the shifters wont work with my xt m735 rear mech.
Time to investigate some tiagra shifters?
Or possibly 10 speed thumbies....although are they road or mtb pull?
Nobody said it would be easy.
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Wish me luck with my 11 speed 11-46 dinner plate then. I am a newbie when it comes to 1X so this could be interesting.The issue with the 11-34 is the jumps between gears are a bit too big for me these days. The 11-28 has manageable jumps (god knows how people ride an 11 speed 11-52 cassette..
