I heard that some of the vintage Trek MTBs had the same geometry as the 520 touring bike.

[Gravity Aided]

Raleigh, as modified. Note long head tube, long stem, and lower BB. I''ll probably remove all those rather loud decals and go for more stealthy/low key appearance, or mask off the decals and repaint in camouflage. I found an old Giant in a tiny frame at my Goodwill, and was able to convert this bike over to nearly full Deore group.

 

[Blue Hills]

Looks slightly bonkers but I fear I like it.

 

[8mph]

View attachment 431043
Raleigh, as modified. Note long head tube, long stem, and lower BB. I''ll probably remove all those rather loud decals and go for more stealthy/low key appearance, or mask off the decals and repaint in camouflage. I found an old Giant in a tiny frame at my Goodwill, and was able to convert this bike over to nearly full Deore group.

That's a long old stem and
I see that the brake cable is routed through it. I have the same set up, every time I get back ache I have to adjust the stem AND the cable!

 

[Gravity Aided]

I may go to drop bars in Spring, and an adjustable stem, if I run across some brifters or bar end shifters in the bike co-op.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Looks slightly bonkers but I fear I like it.

Very comfortable bicycle, rebuilt from a quite far gone state. I've also rebuilt a Trek 720 from similar circumstances, and that one will recieve the camouflage paint job, I believe. Much of the paint on that one is only emotionally attached to the bicycle.

 

[DCBassman]

Certainly my Trek 800 Sport has all the necessary mount points to be a tourer, and having discovered some old technical manuals online, the geometries are all fairly close, it seems.

 

[8mph]

Certainly my Trek 800 Sport has all the necessary mount points to be a tourer, and having discovered some old technical manuals online, the geometries are all fairly close, it seems.

I noticed that there is a Trek 800 Sport with drop bars going cheap on eBay listed as "Trek Touring / gravel bike". Bar end shifters to boot

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Looks slightly bonkers but I fear I like it.

You can think of those old 26" Raleigh MTB's as being like a super heavy duty Dawes Galaxy. They've got tourer-like gearing, they've got very sturdy frames like a tourer. The slack head angle combined with a long wheelbase rides very nicely even on really bad surfaces. What limits their performance in standard trim is the knobbly tyres. Get rid of those and put some easier-rolling ones on and you can end up with a very cheap but very practical machine whose wheels will survive the worst urban potholed roads.

 

[8mph]

That's a long old stem and
I see that the brake cable is routed through it. I have the same set up, every time I get back ache I have to adjust the stem AND the cable!

Is that a Bor Yueh low-rider rack? If so, did it come with the correct nuts and bolts?

 

[Gravity Aided]

No, I think it is a Nashbar. Let me check.It appears to be Nashbar, so of indeterminate origin. Nashbar is a big old mail order supplier of bike mdse over here.

 

[8mph]

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

That's really nice, I like the way you've built that up. Makes a lot of sense to use a relaxed geometry 531 MTB frame in this way. I can't understand why more people don't use old rigid MTB frames as the basis for comfort & durability oriented road bikes. They are usually dirt cheap secondhand and offer a lot of versatility.

 

[8mph]

That's really nice, I like the way you've built that up. Makes a lot of sense to use a relaxed geometry 531 MTB frame in this way. I can't understand why more people don't use old rigid MTB frames as the basis for comfort & durability oriented road bikes. They are usually dirt cheap secondhand and offer a lot of versatility.

It's so relaxed it's nearly falling over!

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Those sort of bikes are right up my street. You can ride them over really crappy road surfaces without the bike trying to throw you off or shake your fillings out. Plus they're lugged steel in many cases, and were often made over here not in the Far East (although that Trek 850 would be a Taiwanese cro-moly frame).

 

[Gravity Aided]

View attachment 431617

Looks the same. It's a good rack, in my opinion.