Carlton Criterium... Ratlook on trend 'gravel bike'.

Howdi folks.

Thought i'd introduce myself to the forum with a butchery of a perfectly servicable bicycle.

Here it is before i started destroying it.

Flat bar singlespeed that was passed on to me by a friend, that had got it off a mate, who didnt want it anymore.

Id always like the way it handled and after getting the tape measure out, thought it might fit me very nicely with drops. Cue a bit of experimenting and i decided to repurpose it as a commute/gravel/adventure singlespeed.

So, here we go. How to put my stamp on it? After a bit of thought, i found myself sanding the middle of the top tube. 12 hours and a lungful of dust later... heres what i ended up with.

I decided to leave the lugs as ratty as possible but strip the main tubes and add some details. It worked out alright. Some lovely straight lines.

After a bit of neatening up, i added some Carlton decals from worldcycledecals on ebay (yes i know the graphics are from a differnt model... i dont care.

With Graphics

Looks good man. Nice work.

Looks good man. Nice work.

The gravel tyres JUST fit at the front

Looks very nice, r u gonna clear coat it or go rust?
Brakes?

Reading this I thought the sanding idea was going to come out terrible but it actually looks decent! Brown saddle and rim stickers need to go though. Dirt drops are a must.

Cheers.

It looks a bit ratty in the flesh, but thats the point so im happy with the finish.

It's had 4 coats of cheap clear coat so it will probably rust through. Should look good for a while though.

The inspriration for this bike is the ratrod scene. Cars like this.

You need a good rack for a ratrod... here's my ghetto start at a little nitto style front rack.

You bend that up yourself?

I like where this is going!

Everything about this is on point!

yep, stuck it in the vice, pulled it about a bit and hit the shit out of it with a hammer. Ideally i didnt want it to crease at the front but hey ho, il try a different method next time.

Nice work.

I was thinking of buying some stainless tubing and building a (small) rack for the front of my Day One. Wasn't sure how bending the tubing would go. Could try filling the tubes with water and freezing before bending to lessen the kinking.

This is the rough idea im taking the rack in. Need to figure out how im going to fix the boards to it first though.

Also need to give the wood a coat of grey paint, sand them back a bit and clear coat it all.

I tried something similar, sand (well actually it was wallpaper paste powder but the principle was the same) It didnt work for me. However I didnt approach the bending process very intelligently. Pretty sure if i did it again i could gt a much better finish.

I paid £3.60 for the steel (not stainless obvs) inc postage on ebay. I only bought 60cm first off to see if i could get the general shape. Im going to order some more tonight to make the stays. The whole thing with the held together with P-clips so I cant see it holding much weight

this is already looking great! love the job you did with the sanding, not a huge fan of the wood on the rack though, but I'm sure this is going to look real nice when its finished!

I've actually had a carlton frame sitting around for a couple of years now and this has given me a bit of inspiration to get it built up!

I've got a rack where the previous owner attached wooden slats with p clips underneath the wood to the rack and used countersink allen head bolts on show on the top side of the wood.

Thats pretty much my plan. Ordered some of these.

Bit of colour.

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As it is so far. Have fitted paselas since this photo

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strong text

Getting there

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Black or brown saddle and tape?

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Black!