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PhilDAS
@jdmitch
Wanting to get on the g̶r̶a̶v̶y̶ gravel train, but (obvs) can't bring myself to use a bike for what it was built for, so I want to get a cheap-ish hardtail 29er frame to use with the Merlin fork that was selling for silly cheap 2 months ago.
I feel like on paper this makes sense (at least more than bolting on track ends) even though the fork is not designed to correct for suspension geometry, because a gravel bike should have a steeper HT angle than your normal slack hardtail, right?
I was hoping to be able to fit fairly big tyres (the fork actually takes up to 2.25), which eliminates most cyclocross frames (that I've seen so far) and all of the actual gravel bikes going on eBay/here just seem like more than I want to pay. There must be a good reason why a mediocre 29er hardtail with a decent gravel fork doesn't work though - what am I missing?