Potential gravel bike?

[carpiste]

I have a Calibre Rivelin road bike I bought from Go Outdoors 3 years ago, https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/15901365/calibre-rivelin-road-bike-15901365
It has only done around 500 miles and sat in France sulking with a Scott hybrid I love to ride when there.
I was thinking of bringing it back to the UK and modifying it to a gravel bike as I don`t ride a huge amount on roads these days. Any thoughts? Will this convert easily?

 

[Jenkins]

First thought is the lack of clearance for wider tyres.

 

[fossyant]

What's the tyre clearance like - that's all you need TBH. Us old MTB'ers have what are 'gravel bikes' now.

 

[carpiste]

Problem is the bike is in France right now so unsure of clearance. I believe some have used a smaller wheel to get around that? It`s more about the potential with the gears, frame, bars etc.

 

[fossyant]

Problem is the bike is in France right now so unsure of clearance. I believe some have used a smaller wheel to get around that? It`s more about the potential with the gears, frame, bars etc.

Wait then....

 

[fossyant]

Wait till you see the gaps on the frame, then you can try and fit something.

 

[carpiste]

I was hoping if anyone had this bike or had converted one I could just take over a couple of new wheels and use it. I guess I could also just buy a couple of wheels from Decathlon, France too if it will work.

 

[Cycleops]

You might be able to get some 28c tyres on but that's about the limit with that type of frame.

 

[si_c]

You might be able to get some 28c tyres on but that's about the limit with that type of frame.

I doubt even 28c tyres would fit that frame. I think it's totally unusable as a "gravel" bike, there will be no clearance for wider tyres because you won't be able to fit them under the brake calipers.

Sizing the wheels down won't help as the forks are too narrow to fit anything significantly larger anyway and you'd still have the problem of the brakes, which would be too narrow and too short to reach the rims. Replacing the brake calipers would then be confounded by needing to find them with an additional 20mm of drop which would be difficult, and you'd still have to fit tyres under the caliper anyway, so maybe up to a 32c tyre max, which puts you at the upper end of whats normal for a modern road bike and a long way from gravel size tyres.

 

[fair weather cyclist]

Don't think I've ever seen a gravel bike with rim brakes.

Gravel bikes tend to come with disc brakes as they allow for bigger tyres compared to rim brakes.

 

[Cycleops]

I managed to get 28c tyres on my Trek SL road bike when I wanted something more comfortable for here. There was plenty of clearance under the front brake caliper and the rear, the problem was the narrow chain stays.

 

[wonderloaf]

I've got the next model up (Achieve) which I think used the same frame but had Sora gearing. It was delivered with 23mm tyres which I replaced with 25mm ones and they're pretty tight, actually on the fork they have slightly rubbed the fork arms, so I would say that even 28mm tyres wouldn't fit. Add in the brake problem then I think the Rivelin is unsuitable as a gravel bike....Sorry!

 

[carpiste]

Thanks guys. I think you answered my question so it looks like it`ll stay as a roadie
But on the other hand it is still a nice, cheap and cheerful ride so

 

[cougie uk]

I have a Calibre Rivelin road bike I bought from Go Outdoors 3 years ago, https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/15901365/calibre-rivelin-road-bike-15901365
It has only done around 500 miles and sat in France sulking with a Scott hybrid I love to ride when there.
I was thinking of bringing it back to the UK and modifying it to a gravel bike as I don`t ride a huge amount on roads these days. Any thoughts? Will this convert easily?

Nope. Gravel bikes have disc brakes for big clearances. Yours hasn't.

You can still ride bike paths and easy trails though.
How gravelly do you want to go ?

 

[carpiste]

Just enough to get me safely down gravel paths on the River Mersey and two lakes I use a lot. I manage on my 700x42 Raleigh Motus but wanted to get some more use from the Rivelin.