Long time no see Peter! My CS256-SL cracked just 2 weeks ago, I guess you don't make those anymore either?

Thanks, this Tantan GR044 indeed looks pretty decent.

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 ...

Loving CS-256, if I ever need a replacement it would probably be CS-821. Good luck everybody!

Hey carbonazza,

Any update on those pedals ? I'm thinking about getting a pair or two for myself.

Thanks!

Your best bet would be asking at a lokal bikeshop. Usually they have plenty of spacers lying around.

Is 12/14 psi even possible ? I mean it's less than atmospheric pressure (~14.5 psi). I run my 29er around 25ish , anything less and it gets the "float" that I just cannot stand.

Aussie bike forums are not very active but theres a few facebook groups thats are worthwhile joining.

QLD MTB Buy, Swap & Sell is probably the biggest and best.

Thanks for the advice, I tried joining, my request is hanging for over a week now though.