Can't Afford A Jeff Jones? Here's A Free Bike!

Few more shopping to do, as MTB have a slacker seat tube than normal, it's not idea if I want a bikepacking tourer however I realised that I prefer to ride with flat pedals when mountain biking, the biggest advantage is the huge platform pedals mean the saddle doesn't really need to be 100% spot on like on the road bike.

I order a pair of HT PA03A pedals in black, they're cheap, cheerful, offer great grip and slim enough, I brought one for my sister;s bike only to be impressed by their grip.

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I'm 756er on my klunker.

Used to have a 69+er, prefer the 756er set up, less wagon wheely.

That’s a great bike.

11-40 cassette arrived! With old 160mm for references, once I’m back from my holiday, the new fork, cassette, 29ers front (rear) wheel will be fitted, fork being alu should keep weight down a lots.

Maybe time to give brazing a crack by fitting lots of bottle cages mount.

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Maybe time to give brazing a crack by fitting lots of bottle cages mount.

Yes!

I think the 26/27.5 make more sense as they’re closer in sizes than a 29” with 26”, tyres sizes doesn’t need to be extremes to compensate.

26” 3.8 front and 27.5 2.8 rear could work well, haven’t run the number yet.

Got the part here, fitted except for fork as I do not have a headset tool let alone a crown race setter.

Almost freaked out by the fact the fork is actually tapered luckily the headset the seller provided is actually for a normal 1 1/8 headtube with the lower cup widened to accepted a tapered steerer, phew.

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New 8 speed shifter, 11-40 and a 32t ring fitted, work well, hanger is twisted, so the chain skipping a little on the bigger sproket, gonna pop into LBS to get it straightened due to not having a tool to do so (note to self; add to list of tools to obtain).

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Just to get an idea of how wide the fork is, the red fork is a non suspension corrected 26” one.

On top of the sheer sizes, it's lighter than the steel fork, which is a big bonus, the 29" rear wheel with the 2.2 tyres fit perfectly, and I reckon I can shoehorn a 2.8 29ers tyres on but that mean spending money on tyres I'm not gonna use once I made the switch to 27.5.

Next step: a cheap 2x 135mm 27.5 rear wheels to get the ball rolling, I got a nice pair of G-One Speed in 2.3 that was for the Arkose but end up being 2mm too wide to ride with enough margin for error, no need to buy new tyres at this point, and allow me to either source or build up a wide 27.5mm wheelset for it (thinking Shimano rear, and Surly singlespeed front).

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I got a 11-40t 8 speed cassette on order for £20

Link? Going to 1x my wifes commuter. Also found a used pair of the same titec bars you're using for this, strange things but will give em a try.

Sunrace CSM680

e.g.: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Csm680-SunRace-8-speed-11-40-t-wide-mtb-tape-ratio-bicycle-bike-flywheel/32857891288.html

Best value part ever!

Thanks!

That the badger, my only concern is simply the derailleur doesn’t have clutch, I’m gonna look into those 9 speed shadow derailleur if that help keep chain tension high enough.

Now project put on hold yet again as I’m heading back to London, mainly cause my bike stand and tool chest is at my parents whom doesn’t suffer the limited space I currently have in London.

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my only concern is simply the derailleur doesn’t have clutch, I’m gonna look into those 9 speed shadow derailleur if that help keep chain tension high enough.

Yep, bit of a pain in the arse that there's no 7/8/9-speed clutch options. I'm doing 8-speed friction with a 10-speed SRAM clutch mech but that is probably too ghetto/bodge for your bike. You might be able to do some cleverness by routing cables differently to get a clutch working on 8-speed.

Or a chain device?

No problems reaching the 40t cog with a regular 8/9sp derailleur? Why do you need clutch, I've a 1x10 setup on a mtb with NW chainring and a regular rear mech, no chain drops so far.

It's not reaching the 40t cog, it did so quite well once the b-screw is wound in, however it's the fact I'm running a 32t chainring mean that I'll be riding predominantly on the smaller sprockets, thus result in the chain bouncing more frequency than it did on the old 36t chainring where I'm on the bigger sprocket a lots, not using the 11t at all.

It currently on an old Deore derailleur which so far work flawlessly, however I might said differ if I were to take it off for some trail fun, next weeks, fork fitting, derailleur hanger straightening and test riding.

10 - 50, 12 speed

I'm quite tickled by the straight-to-tapered headset that come with the fork, as this mean the possibilities of acquiring a tapered suspension fork is now an option, especially one with a boost thru axles for the 27.5 + wheel.

Obviously this gonna cost money, like actual money I don't have, but it's nice to know I can have that option in the future if I were to use the Jamis a lots more.

would be fun and funny if this ends up ed buying a jones

Are you sure that headset is going to fit? I thought it wasn't possible to get 1½" fork in a 1⅛" headtube. You know a hell of a lot more about it than me though.

Edit: my understanding was it's possible to do it if you've got an internal lower 1⅛" headset but yours is external already

Its not really.

Unless the headtube is 44mm.

https://www.canecreek.com/FAQ/can-run-tapered-fork-1-1-8-head-tube/

Nice project btw Ed. I love a ratty cheap build.

I’ll re measured the headset again when I get back, there’s a possibility it’s 44mm, seller annoyingly wasn’t clear on description, just said it’s 1 1/8.

I am pretty sure the headset won’t fit. I think the headsets only work on a 44mm headtube which I don’t think the bike has judging by the pics.

Yeah it's impossible the id of the 1 1/8 headtube for esternal headset is 34mm , 1 1/5 fork race is already 40mm..

was it running before a sturmey 3 speed thumb shifter base with a shimano 8/9 speed bar end? Seems a way to do a paul thumbie on the cheap...