Conversion ... Part One

I took advantage of yesterday to put the old Rincon back together after having completely disassembled and cleaned every possible part. I lubed and adjusted everything and installed a set of cheap drop bars and stem friction shifters that we cannibalized from an old garage sale road bike. The most difficult part was figuring out how all the springs, spacers, washers and screws went for the cantilever brakes. Everything always looks different when you’re putting things back together, and that mental picture you had of the parts prior to disassembly has vanished.

We called my reassembly of the Rincon a “proof of concept” … the concept being making a decent loaded tourer out of an old mountain bike. The concept is sound. This old steel mountain bike, like others typical of its time, has a nice long wheel wheelbase and the top bar is parallel to the ground. I happen to like the look of the classic non-compact frame. It has long chainstays, rack eyelets on the seatstays and on both front and rear dropouts, 26 inch wheels, and low gearing suitable for loaded touring.

I took it out for a quick spin around the neighborhood this afternoon and wa-laa! it’s alive! Now I need to take inventory of what it needs to actually enable me to feel confident about beginning short day trips and training for some multi-day touring. For sure I’ll need a new rear wheel (a bend and a small crack), some cables and a touring saddle, even if that means borrowing the Bl7 from my Cannondale. To be truly confident and comfortable I’d be looking at a new component set, but I’m thinking maybe I can piecemeal it. We’ll see. There’s no need to be really committed to this thing yet … I can afford to wait and see what develops. Besides, scrounging parts can be fun.