this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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Bicycles
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Apparently there is now a trend to repurpose old 80s mountain bikes as gravel bikes. Sounds logical, but many of them had really long top tubes and very slack frame angles. Not sure if that really works well with drop bars. The rear dropout spacing probably wouldn't accommodate modern cassettes without some modifications either, they were designed for 6 cog freewheels.
The steel frames can be pretty easily widened to accomodate 142 or 148 mm thru-axles. If you had a good frame then, you have a good frame now. Making a gravel bike out of an 80's or 90's MTB works because gravel bikes are, contrary to popular belief, nothing new.