My current flat bar gravel bike is a heavily upgraded 8YO, 9spd Kona Honky-tonk with SL-R440 shifters. They are ment to swap from drop bar shifters to flat bar thumb shifter without having to change any of the DT. This bikes life is coming to an end and I want a more stiffer aggressive version of the same thing, essentially an aggressive flat bar gravel bike. Nothing factory seems to be what I want so my options are build a gravel frame from the ground up with a full MTN bike DT or find another convert option. I don’t want to buy a complete bike then swap the whole DT. Anyone know of a convert option or have out of the box ideas…?
Check out the Commencal FCB.
I was considering buying one of these and adding drop bars and brifters, but decided to go another way. If you google ‘drop bar commercial fcb’, you’ll see a few interesting builds.
Have you looked at used xc hardtails? If you could find a deal on a used frame you could build a solid bike with a wide range drivetrain and a suspension corrected fork.
That’s the only stock on that I like and are considering. What did you end up doing instead?
Not 100% yet, but looking at a stock gravel build for my first rig of that type.
I just didn’t want to spend the $ on hydraulic shifters and the changeover.
I don’t want to do the 29er MTN with skinny tires route. You end up with ugly chain stays sticking out the back and a fork 3 times wider then your wheel. Plus MTN frames tend to be more rugged and heavier. this is a 50/50 smooth hard pack dirt trails and road bike, don’t need a very tuff bike .
We are in the same boat hehe
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Marin has a few great ones as well