About Guitar Ted
Guitar Ted hails from Iowa. Home of over 70,000 miles of gravel and back roads. Co-creator of Trans Iowa in late 2004, he has been at the forefront of the growth of gravel events and riding since then. Creator of Gravel Grinder News in 2008, he produced the premier calendar of gravel and backroad events. GT joined forces with Riding Gravel in late 2014.
Huge thanks to Guitar Ted for the opportunity to share my lovable scruffy mutt with the gravel community!
Nice! Now I can explain to my wife why I need to keep my old Superlight around!
Thanks! This is a great use of that older 26″ bike whose geometry makes it outdated but we’re too attached to get rid of. Also…are you THE Chris King? If so…#fanboymoment.
Hmmm, I’ve got a Castellano Fango frame hanging up in the garage that might make a good mutt……
I did the same thing with a Specialized Epic by using light 29×1.8in(700x45mm) tires. However, I didn’t care for it. The suspension sucked up my pedaling energy on pavement and gravel. The narrow, lightly tread tires didn’t hook up well on singletrack. Also, the suspension added unnecessary weight that I didn’t feel that I got much benefit from. Honestly, I think very light weight 2.3-2.4in tires would have performed better. Overall, I think a full rigid bike with very wide, low pressure tires is best for gravel.
I had a Titus Racer X, which has a Horst link (FSR) suspension and found it uninspiring unless I used a lot of compression damping. That was the main reasons didn’t choose a Horst link bike as the base for the build. VPP really livestream up to the hype here.
This looks like a fun project. Looking at the Orbea Oiz UFO frame, that would make a weird looking gravel rig. I don’t know anything about how good the frame rides though. Anyone have any experience with those?
My worry about the Oiz UFO is that the flex tail design with the short linkage behind the seatpost binder has very little anti-squat. Cannondale did that with the Scalpel for a while and I remembered that bike needing a LOT of compression platform to not bob, which sort of defeats the purpose of the suspension. That’s why I ended up going with a chain growth controlled suspension, which is to me a known quantity.
Of course, subtle changes in geometry and linkage ratios can have a bit effect on suspension characteristics, so take that with a grain of salt.
So I see the Giant NRS suggested – which seems like an ideal candidate due to the suspension design Can anyone here confirm that a 40-42mm-ish 650B will fit out back? From the pictures I can see, clearance to the seatstay bridge looks pretty snug with the stock 26er tires.
Asking because an almost mint NRS just popped up for sale 20 minutes away from me.
I have the same low clearance issue with this bike. I used Sheldon’s page to reference the build together
A 26×2.2 tire has an outside diameter of 670.76mm, while the 650bx44mm tire has an outside diameter of 672.00. Almost certainly a 650bx42 will fit if the bike can clear a 26×2.2 tire.
Here’s the link! http://www.bikecalc.com/wheel_size_math