I honestly believe you're one of the most down to earth bike mechanics I've ever come across. Really appreciate the content you're sharing! Great inspiration.

"Gravel bikes are drop bar hybrids... fight me." LOL true story!

When it comes to charging for your services, I've found that charging for the service is better than your time. I am a piano tuner/technician and when I first started tuning 25 years ago it took me almost 2 hrs. to tune a piano. Now, I can tune a piano in as little as 35 minutes for clients that regularly service their pianos. Same thing with other repairs/regulation. Over time one should get more proficient with the work and quicker with evaluating any problems. You can still base your fee on how much time you estimate a job should take. Our profession has a guide for how many hours it should take the average tech to do a particular job. If it takes me longer than the recommended time, I'll just consider it a learning experience and eat the cost. Love your channel!

In 2007 I purchased my first mountain bike with my own money. It was a Trek FX 7.3 Disk. I put drop bars, Shimano 105 10 speed with an XTR front and rear mechs. 2X XT cranks,. Thompson stem and seat post, Hadley hubs on DT rims. Then I put on some European CX tires and used it to rip on dirt roads. Everyone said it was a silly pointless bike. I loved it and rode the heck out of it, even did some long road touring on it towing a bob trailer. I still have the bike, and I’m about to put a 1x12 set up on it 😂.

That "7-speed" STX rear derailleur definitely would have worked with the road 8-speed shifters. The cable pull ratio is identical between those two. And the inter-cog spacing the same, so accuracy of movement is the same. The Tiagra will have a 28 tooth rear cog limit, the STX has a 34T limit. Using the STX RD would have allowed the customer to put a wider range cassette on if they found the low gear wasn't low enough.

For a home bike mechanic who just cleans and tunes parts, I'd enjoy seeing the parts your working on listed somewhere on the screen. It would help me get familiar with all the parts your dealing with during your tear-downs and builds.

Just came into a 90's Trek 750 Multitrack and am figuring out what to do with it. I saw the Trek in the thumbnail and had to watch! Much appreciate the content!

"twenty bucks is my time." Buddy, you just revolutionized my entire approach. Expertise and tools have a cost and I have been undervaluing mine for a long long time. Don't charge by the hour, charge by the question.

I have one of these small frame treks, installed a flat bar with sora short pull brake levers. 28mm tires and it’s a great loaner bike for someone small!

The original 750 wheels really would have been better as they are wider and that makes for a better gravel bike result. I believe that 750 is 135mm spacing and the road bike 130mm. So you'll have some mis-match there to deal with. You could have just left one of the 8-speed shifter clicks ignored (i.e., turn it into a 7-speed since the inter-cog spacing is practically the same between 7 & 8). Or, used Sheldon Brown's "7 of 8" cogs from the 8-speed cassette if you are concerned about the inter-cog spacing. Or, you could have looked in your parts bin for an 8/9/10-speed body and switched that out on the 750 wheel.

On some road bikes, a 650B conversion can sometimes bring new life into those bikes. I did it to my old Trek 420 and boy that really brought it back from the dead. I ride it on the roads and on dirt trails. I built up the wheels, front wheel with a dyno hub and use the Gravel King 650B x 38. Ultra smooth ride and I have ridden many miles of dirt trails and roads with no fear.

I converted my 2021 Verve and I love it. Kept the 3x8 and since I didn’t have a donor bike for parts I used MicroShift R8 shifters and Tektro mechanical calipers. I do miss the hydraulic brakes so I’ll probably instal some Juin Tech R1s.

So I'm mainly a viewer of Personal Computer (PC) building content. Like the bike industry there is constantly new products to buy on a near yearly basis to keep your rig up to date. I've had this feeling that your video style reminded me of someone I watch regularly. I've really started going down the rabbit hole with your channel and after seeing your use of the sonic cleaner in this video I've figured it out. Tech Yes City is a Tech Tuber that likes to go out and find used PC parts, cleans them up and builds them back into complete systems. I think his monthly used parts hunts and his Tech Yes Loving (cleaning used parts) have lots of similarity to your style of repair, building, and maintenance. It might be fun to watch you go out and find used bikes to refurbish/convert. For now I'm happy to go through your catalog of videos and enjoy the great stuff you've already put out there. I am curious if you have any suggestions for storage of bikes/parts for other would-be Bike Farmers. I struggle to just manage a small family's worth of bikes and am curious if there is a way to sneak in an extra bike or 2 through storage/organization techniques that you may have found along the way.

Totally spot on drop bar hybrid!!!

I always pluck the spokes to hear how the tension is and try to get them all similar first then tune up the wheel from there. Its not uncommon to find one or two that are super tight or super loose and the ones next to it are taking up the slack. Not plucking them you could miss that potentially.

Looks like a dream touring bike.

My thoughts on the old frame. I wonder why folks do not gobble these frames and even bikes for using on a smart trainer like Zwift. I would never put my "good" bike on a fixed trainer. Cheers.

We bought a 2007 Trek 1000 in that size in july in that that color, Mystic Blue $250, it's a beautiful color. My wife hates the Sora shifters. So we bought a 2001 2300 with ultegra $220. Since it is a 650b 23mm tires, all the good stuff will go onto the 1000. Then see what the Trek 2300 will sell for, or gift it to the g-daughter lol

With the use of a torch and a new fork ...my Raleigh C50 hybrid became a cyclocross bike with a sloping top tube....

Wow, would have loved to had the opportunity to buy a 300 road bike for my fam. They're small and needed a new ride recently. Was priced great but I understand about the sizing issue. Was actually thinking about doing the same drop bar conversion to a Trek Flat Bar Hybrid.

"Hybrids are flat bar gravel bikes"...couldn't agree with you more!

You need a shorter stem, you will find its super twitchy in the steering with that long stem. I had that issue with a drop bar conversion I did. Well mine was a 26er conversion maybe not so much with a 700c bike.

Ministry t-shirt, sweet! 🔥

Endurance road bikes equals gravel bikes... aka it's whatever you want it to be...

"fight me"....with the Wisconsin accent cracks me up....

I've got a Hard Rocx hybrid, with 3x8 shifters and hydraulic brakes. I'd like to do this to my own, but I'm having a hard time finding 3x8 shifters for hydraulic brakes for drop bars. Is this just too odd a combo, or could it be doable? I've got a high end CNC machine available, and mechanical experience, so if there is some way to modify something to fit, I'm in a good position

That’s a pretty broad statement, although I’m not sure it’s entirely inaccurate. Nonetheless, despite the generality of your premise, I should note that modern hybrids do convert well to gravel. They take wide tires, the geometry is not dissimilar, and you can beat them up. A few years ago, I repurposed a Trek 7.4 into a drop bar gravel bike. It’s now 1x9 with MicroSHIFT Advent. It works fine. My son will soon be riding it on the Katy Trail in Missouri.

That's such a shame seeing that small frame bike being torn apart and parted out! It's hard for me to find small frame bikes! That is unless I buy new.

100% True. I wanted a gravel bike so I bought an 8 year old Diamondback Insight Hybrid off of FB Marketplace that was in exceptional shape. Put some 40c cyclocross tires on it, dropbar and took a 7 speed junk road bike i had with 3x on it. Swapped over shifters and basically good to go. Has a more relaxed geometry, very comfortable and an excellent do everything bik.

MINISTRY!!!!

"Jesus built my gravel bike..." 😂

Your work bench looks exactly like mine, a total mess lol.

You know what sucks? Refurbishing my old mountain bike I had since the mid nineties, making it look good and function good as new, then discovering a cracked head tube! Now everything I did and the money I spent on it is down the drain! BTW, the bike was 7005 aluminum.

Does frame geo tend to be similar from hybrids to gravel bikes? The former is designed around flat bars, and the latter around drop bars (usually), which makes me wonder whether stem length or other components may need to be changed when converting from flat to drop bar or vice-versa.

In my opinion I’d use a 90mm reach stem….just sayin’🚲

Hi i may be interested in the road bike frame

Dumb question, what's with all the different names on these bikes? There bike's skinny tires or fat tires ,cruiser or mountain bike. Hybrid?

Calling it as it is!

Flat bar gravel bike is how my Ribble hybrid rolls

These hybrid conversions are great but they need a new steep and short quill or threadless conversion. The reach is way too long just sticking drops in the MTB stem, plus choices on bars going 25.4 to 26 are just meh. Get a short cheap 17° threadless stem plus a Profile Design converter then some flare bars and good to go!

I would have bought that blue trek from you lol

I am building a gravel bike.... for my commutes 😂

definitely a nice frame

Okay just curious, you consistently wait till after you remove pedals etc to remove the chain as opposed to just popping it off before. Just curious why, figure you've got a reason.

As a 3 time Trek owner with 1991 thru 1995 950s and 970s, WHY 'convert' these instead of keeping it as is or upgrading their orig parts to vintage period correct XTR? (I hate drop bars and think drop bar gravel setup is the latest trendiness)

I'm starting to have a problem with buying bikes on Facebook marketplace. 90% of them are small extra small. At least in my price range😅 it hurts my feelings to strip really good frame because it's made for tiny people. So I have fixed fout bikes sitting in my house I have to get rid of and I almost bought another one this weekend! 😮 Am I going to have to seek professional help?

What is the name of your bike shop?

Ministry🤟🏻✌🏻👍🏻

another fine video

I like most of the videos I have watched but this video is a reason I hate buying used crap, you never know what crazy things have been done. I just bought a brand new Schwinn 21 speed for 300 bucks, yes trek may be a better bike and I plan to buy one when I can afford it.

Even if gravel bikes are just drop bar hybrids, which they aren't, what's wrong with that?

I agree, its just another marketing scam by the bike industry. People shoild not fall for it.

MINISTRY🤓🤟🤙

i don´t get that gravel hype. i´m a mountainbike guy and never liked racing bikes. they are the worst, especially if you try to do a testdrive after you´ve done an inspection. sitting on that thing like a monkey with safety shoes on klick pedals wich are smaller than pedals on a kids bike. also try shifting while pushing the brakelever to the inside is just stupid in my opinion. and all the sudden people buy these racing (gravel) bikes with wider tires on them and try to go offroad with a bike wich has no suspension... well good luck :D