1994 Trek 8700 MTB to 'Cross-ish conversion

I miss my previous cross bike (http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/276354/), having used it on and off road, commuting and also being safe to put in a plane luggage hold. The issues I had with it though were:

No mudguard/rack points
No bottle cage braze ons
Too slack seat tube angle and having a wide q factor aggravated my knee pain.

So ultimately I sold it. I picked up this Trek 8700 from another forum. It's in great condition, the previous owner had owned it since new in 1994, and even threw in the immaculate brochure and proof of sale. I felt a bit bad taking it off his hands, feeling like he was already regretting selling it.

It's lugged aluminium with over-sized carbon fibre tubing on the main triangle, made in the US. A mix of Shimano MTB parts from that era, LX, XT and so on.

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First job is to see if my calculations are correct and that I can turn a medium sized MTB into something that will fit me (6'1") by adding drop bars.

I overlaid my current commuter bike with the Trek, centred the bottom brackets. The seat tube is pretty much the same, and with the current stem on the handlebars are virtually spot on.

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rad bike. not that I would expect anything less. subscribed

Nice. Looking forward to seeing what happens

Some progress has been made finally. I went to town and bought a new Thomson seat collar and Paul brake hanger, instead of looking for second hand ones on ebay.

Some ergos should be in the post, so I think I'll be able to do most of the build on Tuesday.

I've reused the 32t chainring, but it is very worn so I'll need to replace it with either a Surly or Wolftooth narrow wide.

As it stands the chainline isn't ideal, but I can only move it inboard if I use a smaller chainring. The gearing is already on the low side though (32t and an 11-32 cassette).

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that's a fine ride.
I love those sloping rigid mtbs.
It's a bit late for that but I'd be super interested in the frame weight.

Still waiting on a Surly 36t chainring, which I am hopeful will clear the chainstays. I will then see if the chain needs to be shortened so that the rear mech stops fouling the larger cogs in the cassette. Possibly will need to swap to a medium cage derailleur.

Latest pics

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That looks cool man. Would ride. :)

Nice! Brooks looks a bit off in this build though..

nice build

needs a flight saddle (ace build dude)

Cool. What size kojaks are those? Looks kinda skinny in the frame.

I've been trying to figure this one out as well, they have to be 2.0", though might come up narrower depending on rims. I guess the clearances are huge as well which makes them look small. Mudguards will help with that.