Rebuilding HT into gravel

[JohnnyNT]

Hi All,

It's been a long time I visited this forum, glad to see it's still going strong

6 years ago I build a 29er hardtail, with the help of the wealth of knowledge of people here: https://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,781.msg8546.html

It's been serving me well over the years, but a lot have changed as well. I moved from Europe to Australia. Down under I can't just leave home on MTB and enter trails 20 min later, I have to load it into car and drive 50 km to any reasonable trail network. Also, the trails themselves are way more technical than 5-10 years ago (or I'm just getting old). As a result I bought a road bike and spent way more time on tarmac recently. Still, trusty HT has never let me down on occasional fire-road trips and bikepacking adventures.

Recently, I noticed that a smal crack has appeared in hte chainstay. Was planning to rebuild it to FS for quite some time (to get more leeway on technical trails) but then realised that with standards moving on (boost everywhere) most of the parts wouldn't be compatible anyway. That's where the gravel idea appeared.

Did anyone here try that, was it successful and worth it?

My line of thinking is that:

* Wheels in HT are 15x100 front and 12x142 rear. Rear should fit most gravel frames without a problem, for the front width is ok I would just need to find fork with 15 mm axle. (There seems to be DT conversion kit for front hub going from 15 to 12, so that's an option)
* I should be able to use parts of the drivetrain (XTR M9000 rear der, cassette x01 10-42, chain) + have spare Ultegra crank laying around, which can use for the front
* I can also use current brakes (upgraded to XTR-M9000 since the original build) since all shimano road/mtb hydraulic systems are compatible
* New parts that I would need are (apart from the frameset):
    - Hydraulic mechanical road levers (7020/8020)
    - New BB
    - Tanpan to make der work with road shifters
    - PM to FM adapters for calipers
    - Front der

Am I thinking right?
What are the recommended Gravel framesets? I was looking at Winspace G2 initially ...

[Confused]

Have you considered something like the Surly Corner Bar for the handlebars?  There is a Chinese carbon version of those out - it will give some hand position options and let you keep your existing levers and shifters.

Frames have such a wide variance in geometry/sizing/price - what size are you looking for?  Any price range?

[JohnnyNT]

I'm 183 cm/ 6.0' so M/L depending on the manufacturer. Wasn't really aware that there are significant differences in geometries. I'd probably take something more aggressive than relaxed. T47 BB would be nice as well as low weight, don't mind paying a bit more if needed. Thanks for the tip about the bars, but I think I'd still prefer traditional road ones.

[Confused]

I have been looking for something similar as a build.  It sems that this year the integrated carbon stem/bars for gravel are getting wider - 540mm+.  https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2251832866385525.html is a complete gravel frame as a reference.  Lightcarbon, Haideli, and others have a variant on this with a different seat post clamping structure. 

http://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,2837.msg20146.html#msg20146 has a build a few years back which used a non-boost MTB frame.

At the far end on geometry is the Nukeproof Digger.  It isn't Chinese carbon but it provides a good reference point for geometry. https://nukeproof.com/products/2022-digger

[JohnnyNT]

Thanks, this Tantan GR044 indeed looks pretty decent.