Meet a drop bar mountain bike converted to the rigors of gravel in 2015 – aka the “El Dorado” – created in the interest of a safer experience for taming the gnarlier side of gravel. Events, races and gravelly roads in states such as North Carolina and West Virginia can push the limits of conventional gravel bike designs. Circa 2020, many manufacturers have addressed some of those concerns with bikes featuring huge tyre clearance, but in 2015, those bikes weren’t readily available.
One of the members of the Gravel Cyclist crew, K-Dogg, now at the spritely age of 65, has always been a star rider when the road tilts uphill. Descending isn’t K-Dogg’s forte, and this bike was built to help him navigate tricky gravel roads with bigger tyres if desired, and the option of swapping the Niner RDO carbon rigid fork, for an MTB suspension fork by Fox.
K-Dogg’s converted MTB to drop bar gravel stomping machine has taken age group victories at several marquee gravel races, meaning it doesn’t sit around his house looking pretty.
This bike is further proof that you don’t need to spend a ton of money on a bike for gravelly roads. Most of the drivetrain on this machine is 10-speed Shimano Dura-Ace, kindly handed down to K-Dogg from his lovely wife, Mrs K-Dogg. You may not have the luxury of a trickle-down effect from a spouse or loved one, but older generation parts are just fine for building a bike of your own. Additionally, this bike eschews the established rules of bike design, something our fan club at USA Cycling or the UCI would frown upon. Keep gravel fun!
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Additional Photos
Links of Interest:
- A Conversation with the UCI… something is cooking up
- Crusher in the Tushar Race Experience Video
- RAW Crusher in the Tushar, 2017 Edition: 90+ Minutes of Utah Gravel – Perfect for your Trainer!
- Quiring Cycles Gravel Bike Revision 2
- Quiring Cycles – https://www.facebook.com/QuiringCyclesLlc/
- JOM’s Lynskey Drop-Bar Mountain Bike Revision 3
- Gravel Cyclist Contact Page
- Panaracer Gravelking SK Tyre Review
- Panaracer Gravelking Mud Tyre Review
- Panaracer Gravelking SS Tyre Review
- How to Descend on a Gravel Bike with tips by Dave Zabriskie!
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How much did it cost to convert to a drop bar
The owner pretty much built it from scratch. It isn’t difficult to figure out the cost… drop bars, road shifters and so on if you are doing a conversion.., you may need to add derailleurs as well.