Klein Budget for a Klein bicycle / gravel's biggest chopper

Very nice

Rad.

That turned out really nice!

Red seatpost is a bit much for my taste, but very purposefull looking build!
Sora as a dropper lever sounds like the true essense of functional.

I'm revisiting this project after a couple of months of use. I recently completed building a 1x10 speed Steve Goff shopping bike (swept back bars, basket, the lot.) for my partner and was hit by a car shortly before completing this, so decided I need something more practical/functional to get around on than a Dolan Pre Cursa, especially when I'm riding with said partner.

Following the crash, I have received a payout for damage to the Dolan (written off) and also injury compensation, part of which I want to spend on making this into a bad ass dad swag mobile, and the other part I'd like to save/take the lady away for a few days with.

I'll follow up shortly with some updated images of the Klein, since the previous photos its had a porteur rack fitted, sti shifters, a dropper seatpost and a flight saddle.

So far I've had a very enriching and insightful conversation regarding fork options to swap out the beefy surly troll fork I currently have on this thread:

and I'm currently considering buying a Toseek full carbon 26" fork to replace it. Only thing stopping me is a seemingly synical conversation I had with someone at p&l cycles telling me the Klein is already practical, a fork won't make a difference and that I should just do nothing to it.

Please help me and advise on what I should do. Do I sell it and start a new build from scratch? Or do I use what I've got to build my ideal dad swag gravel commuter?

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Project aim of this goes ahead, is to make it lighter. The beast weighs 13.5kg.

I think it looks cool, but if you don't want the fork I'll have it back for the same price you paid me!

If it was me, I’d lose the dropper, swap to carbon forks and switch the cranks. Those FSA ones are quite heavy I think. Deda cockpit parts are nice but cheap too so probably a nice light compact bar too.
That’d help a load

But it looks plenty functional as is

@platypus Thanks! Don't get me wrong, I think it looks rad too and I love it as it is, I just hate how heavy it is so I wanted to inject some money to sort that out, whilst also putting some swankier components on because as @PhilDAS rightly points out, for the most part its a bodge of cheap bits literally harvested from work's parts bin. I'd happily sell the fork back to you, has been used though so I'll knock something off/throw something in.

@PhilDAS you're the kind of voice I was hoping to hear, I had these intentions fully but was put off after going to P&L earlier.

My original plan was deore xt drivetrain, Nitto Jitensha, Ritchey WCS Ergo grips, Paul love levers, BB7'S, Carbon Fork, Thompson Stem + Seat Post, Halo Whiteline disc wheelset or run some 27.5 Halo's instead?. Not sure whether to go ahead with this now though.

If anyone could advise on whether this is pointless of perfect, that would be great!

pointless or perfect

Both

This was unhelpfully helpful.

I guess if @platypus is happy to buy back the fork, I'l dive in head first and order that death trap chinese full carbon fork I was looking at.

Well it rides doesn’t it? Anything you want to do to it is unnecessary but if it brings you joy, go for it. Life’s short

That's quite a pragmatic way to look at it, perhaps that was what the guy at p&l was getting at.

The bike definitely gives me joy, but its weight doesn't so I'll go full steam ahead on sending it to fat fighters to shed some weight and give it face lift whilst I'm at it.

cool, let me know when your carbon fork arrives and I'll get it back off you.

Re: fork, your troll is 420mm a-c, most 26” rigid forks are around 425mm so it would be an ideal swap and the geo would remain very similar.

Also, FWIW, I wouldn’t throw loads of money at the bike if you’re still not 100% sure it’s what you want or if you’ll keep it long term. Try and spend as little as possible getting it to a point where you’re happy. You can always upgrade bits and pieces later and you’ll still have the cheaper parts you end up removing which can be used for other projects. If you throw money at it and end up deciding to get a new bike altogether you’ll potentially have wasted a fair bit of cash, plus £££ doesn’t necessarily = fun, sometimes it’s quite the opposite!

@platypus will keep you posted, should be here some time next week.

@ThePeginator thanks for clarifying, I was almost thinking of buying a 27.5" rigid fork before both you and @alialias had mentioned during separate conversations.

Absolutely, I've had a turning point today and decided that maybe this doesn't need what I had originally planned. I think rather than throw a load of money at I'll just change the essentials, like the TRP HY/RD callipers to a lower maintenance set of bb7's and also get rid of the dropper for commuting purposes +carbon fork as mentioned.

Dad swag build can happen later when I'm more certain of what I want out of a commuter, but for the time being this is almost perfect (to me)

Do you need drops? Some flat bars would make it more upright and would make the rack more usable. Also seeing the point of swapping out the calipers, HY/RD don't really require more maintenance

Drops were for the sake of making it more of a 'gravel bike' so they were a necessity in that sense. Was thinking of meeting half way with some compact flared drops.

I beg to different on the callipers, or atleast in my own case. Front one keeps leaking, rear one has leaked, spent more money on pads than on the brakes themselves due to mineral oil constantly making its way onto them.

HY/RD callipers are great once they're set up, but you have to keep setting them up and servicing them to maintain performance I"ve found which is why I'd like to try some cable actuated ones instead.

Ritchey Venturemax Comp bars, 46cm wide, plenty of flare, short drop, would suit this build perfectly.

Those are some sexy bars, they're definitely what I need!

If you get the comp ones, they are not expensive either.
I'd recommend them as well!

Phase one facelift and weight loss went ahead today, toseek fork arrived and was surprisingly good quality, felt nice and stiff first few miles I rode it. Only time will tell if it holds up though.

Went ahead with buying a 26" fork too which came up a treat (thanks to those who expertly advised me on this).

Next will be a Thompson seat post, stem and hopefully some Richey venturemax comp bars. Although before buying the bars I might also look for some Sora r3000 shifters to clean the front end up a bit but whilst still being compatible with the rest of the drivetrain I'm running.