Dream 26er Mountain to Gravel Bike - 25.5 lbs. - Reynolds 631 Steel - 1998 Jamis Dakota 

Love it. You preserved the 3x. Yay!

That looks better as a gravel bike than a mtb, for sure. Nice re-purpose! I always loved that Jamis orange.!

Saw this bike on marketplace then saw this video recommended to me a few days later lol. Crazy

Crazy light for 3x gearing and steel frame!

When i researched the mixed brakes between longpull and shortpull they said it wont work but your brakes works pretty good . I really appreciate your videos thanks for inspiration bike community

What an absolute beauty! Loved the video! I think I’ll copy your exact build on my 94 ParkPre Pro 825. Thanks!

Such an awesome build! It's so satisfying when you convert these and make a bike that rides just as good and everyone winds up loving it because they didn't know you could build these things so cheaply and stylish!

This is a primo build! The frame colour and the brown contrast colour looks fantastic. This is the inspiration for my next bike build out and conversion.

Fabulous choice of tyre, takes the look of the bike up another level 👌🇬🇧

Lovely bicycle. Best Wishes on riding it.

Thats a beauty! All the components work and the colors all work together...nice ride!!

This video really helped me convert my Mongoose Tyax (from about 2006) into a drop bar MTB. The 3x front gears were the most difficult part to set up, the 8x on the back wheel became 6x. Thanks a lot for this video!

Old School craftsmanship. Well done

Jamis makes tremendous bikes.

A beautiful retro bike even made better ❤

I love how this one turned out!

your videos are very relaxing and inspiring, I like your works :)

I like it. I ride only road bikes but you've given me an idea to do this with an old GT frame I recently acquired

What a practical and beautiful bike! Thank you for sharing this build.

That's a really nice build. It looks lovely there, in the woods in winter. That orange against the snow; and the tan side walls and bar tape.

Very beautiful renovation!

Just recently did the same thing with a 97 Stumpjumper which had a similar Deore setup. Great work, Love the channel!!

Really nice finished product looks comfortable also. Made one from a 92 Rocky and I find myself liking it over my other bikes and love it for a travel bike being more compact.

Man, I remember that era.. back when Ned Overend was dominating. During the late-90s in particular '98-'99, these shades of bright orange and mango yellow were among the trendy colours for bikes

perfect build

I have a gravel bike bought from new, and now after watching this video I regret selling my mountain bike to make room. It would have been a great project to convert to a gravel bike. But hey, who needs 2 gravel bikes? Kind of defeats the object and gravel bikes’ versatility is what makes them so attractive. Luckily I don’t have a lot of space otherwise I’d be afflicted with the same bike disease as you 😁

Great looking conversion. I've done a few conversions with a Kona Explosif, Voodoo Bizango and a Scott Pro Racing mountain bike frames

Glad I found this… kinda😂 ‘Left my retro-builder New Year’s Eve afternoon canceling my re-build of a Univega Boralyn (circa early 90’s) with AMP parallelogram suspension fork. ‘Really wanted a cool retro (gravel/townie/adventure/lock it up wherever) ride out of it but with top tier componentry. The problem: Thoough it originally came specked out with XTR (and the awesome XTR parallelogram brakes), when my shifters started sticking and I took them apart, a crappy bike shop talked me into new Shimano “crap” (crankset, rings, shifters) of the day (circa 2010) and I’ve regretted it ever since. My new builder showed me an 11 speed cassette would fit (saving the wheel set and moving me into my XTR shifter of choice) but it was determined my Crank Bros free-hub had enough slop to question the build going forward (and my hesitance for 2k and up ‘vested into it with a hub with some 15 degrees of engagement) as my desire was for top tier component shift quality and 650b kinda feel and tubeless when, a (new) bike sat right next to it in that form in carbon for just over 2k. Yeah… this is an endless rant with no clear solution going forward except perhaps my own personal project should I wanna start again at some point with a rim-brake, 26” tubeless hoop custom wheel build, centered around a hub with 240 points of engagement. Uhh… yeah.😂

Looks great, gonna last a long time. Nice work!!

I had the exact same bike back in the day!

I'd like to do a similar conversion to an early 00's aluminum 26" Gary Fisher. Thanks for the inspiration!

What a Build ❤

That frame polished up nicely ❤. Personally I would have gone 1x10 with bar end friction shifter (microShift) and ditched the front derailleur. Overall a wonderful job👍😀

Very inspiring build!

Another really swish build. I did one like this with a 1995 Trek Singletrack cromo frame and it's my favorite bike. What do you do with all the bikes you build? Do you keep them and ride them all? I love building but don't have time to ride everything I build - or the garage space. But I'm still too attached to each build to sell them. I learned some good techniques from your videos, like holding the cable ends in the pliers when you put them on. I was always doing that with two hands and dropping the caps.

What a beauty

Nice conversion 👍🏼

Blooming amazing got a 26” hard trail mtb that I’m trying to change to a gravel bike just didn’t no what brakes and shifter to use thanks great video

Wow, very nice build man.

Me encantó, genial!

Nice looking bike

what a beauty congrats and merry xmas

While as a finished bike it looks cool. 1. Why remove the suspension fork? Is it because it doesn't have a lockout? Would be nice to have a lockout suspension fork on chunky gravel, but if it didn't have a lockout it would be spongy for sure 2. Road shifters are not compatible with mountain front derailleurs - I noticed you didn't shift the front in video -did you change it out? also gets into top versus bottom pull front derailleurs and you sometimes have to run a pulley to run a road front derailer on a MTB 3. do those linear pull brakes brakes work well? When I have used post mount brakes in the past with road levers, I always went with the canti cyclocross/touring bike specific ones. Did you use a cable pull adapter? 4. By putting drop bars on a flat bar bike it's going to have a longer reach, even with a shorter stem, especially in the drops - you do a fantastic job on your videos!

Amazing bike❤❤

Another bike mechanic from the Marcel freakin’ Marceau school of bike repair. Would it kill you to explain why you chose the parts and components to change, and which you kept? DePue’s bike shop? Peeyoo!

My Gary Fisher 2005 Tassajara was like this originally with the 110mm stem .

Another great build. This thing looks like a ripper !

Great video, just discovered your channel

So cool to see you kept the 3x8!! I always thought that brifters had trouble shifting the front derailleur on old 3x mountain bikes such as Deore/Exage LX. Did you have any problems with front shifting? I'd love to do the same conversion to my old 90's mtb

Nice upgrade, good parts. 👍 for the trick with the scratch removing product! My only objections are the flat pedals and the beige-colored tires. By the way, up to what pressure do you inflate them? I have also converted my 1989 mangalloy Peugeot road bike to a gravel bike, with classic V-brakes but modern shifting for the gears.

I wasn't aware Mosso made suspension corrected forks for replacing suspension forks with.. Will need to check them out. My go-to has been Soma (without complaint).

A solid can-go-everywhere bike! Loving your build. I have a question though, how do you find the brifters work with the V-brakes? I heard that V-brakes won't work well with brifters due to long/short pull mismatch. I'm planning to build something like yours.

Jamis 🐓🐆 Good Bikes

Good Job👍🏻

I am a fan of this era of mtb. Ridget fork and geared is my preference. Can you remove the rear wheel with out deflating the tire?

My 1990 rockhopper conversion weighs less, has a ubrake and it's DeNucci green. Not to mention Jim Merz (the designer) lit me up when I spelled his name with a t (Mertz) in a post about it. That orange is striking though.

Nice build. I think it is a different kind of riding mentality on a bike like this. More of a hike on a bike. Not trying to MTB a trail at fast speed.

Très beau vélo bravo!

Got me wanting to convert my Scott Scale 10. I’m so used to the lazy steering head angles of modern MTB’s that I now find the Scott too twitchy. Perhaps a Gravel conversion might be the answer to put an otherwise fantastic bike to use again.

Nice build, the bike is in a great condition and the color pops! However, not sure if the combination of v-brakes and brake levers works well, maybe better to put on cantis (also looks much cooler). Also maybe put 50/34 rings on the cranks to make the conversion complete.

Great build! Curious about frame size… Did you go with your normal frame size or size down?

Awesome!! Is this one for sale?! Orange is my color 😂

For me, other than the Safety Orange paint, the drop bar, the aluminum fork and the short stem...I like it! 😆 I was also not too crazy about that generation of XT cranks (kinda weird looking). But, there's nothing like a higher quality steel mountain bike from the 90's. I have a 1998 Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo with the triple butted True Temper OX tubing. Best mountain frame I've ever owned...and probably not too far off from this Dakota.

Now i want to bild one for myself :o

Nice bike

I thought road levers were not compatible with mountain front derailleurs due to the pull ratio? And they are not compatible with V brakes due to short pull levers versus long pull brakes?

Thanks for the Inspiration. I have my 1998 Specialized Stump Jumper that I want to do the same thing to. How long did it take you to get that fork? Amazon shows about a month from China?

What makes it a gravel bike? Is it because you changed the stem, handlebar, and tires? I'm trying to convert my 26" wheel mtb also.

Are those long-pull brake levers? Seems like a necessity with V-brakes. Nice looking build.

are those brake levers compatible with v-brakes? nice bike build, keep it up! this thing looks a lot of fun! love the color. ke

I’ve found it hard to find good rigid 26” forks with Calipers brakes are these 1 1/8 thanks

I was hoping to see it turn into a 1x…very cool ride though!

как по мне до переделки вел был просто бомба.

I'm here mainly for the dork disk throwing ceremony. Also, I gotta get better at fitting tires, it always takes me WAY longer than this..!

It looks great, but I suggest installing an brake stroke adapter.

Nice build? Which saddle did you use?

have a 1993 Stumpjumper that I've been thinking about converting like this. Great video.

So you feel the need to take out the headset cups but don’t service the bottom bracket?

Where did you get the V brake fork, I have a 2000s Rockhopper and thought about replacing the suspension fork but the forks I've seen are disk brake forks.

You don't have that spoke protector back there behind the cogset. If ever something were to cause the chain to derail into the spokes, the chain can really destroy those spokes.

did you stick with 26 in wheels and tires?

hi! sorry if this is too general. how do you pick the size of the frame for a conversion like this? is there any rules of thumb to follow?

How are you using Road levers with V-Brakes? Do they pull enough cable?

Are there no problems with pull ratio on breakes? I got problems on same shifters even on shorter than standard v-breakes?

Why no helmet? Otherwise - gread build and nice job!

Been eyeing those shifters for a while but I couldn't find much info on them. How do the pull ratios feel? Thinking of putting them on my bike with mid-90s Deore STX/LX 3x8.

weren't the brakes weak because they weren't compatible with sti?

Does the front derailleur work correctly? I've read many times that the pull ratio of MTB and Road is different and then the triple front derailleur is unable to reach all three chain rings if the systems don't match.

cool

Great build, what size frame and how did you determine the size of fork to order . I have a similar bike but XL frame would like to convert it to gravel

I'm thinking of doing something similar to a '95 Bontrager Privateer, is there any reason not to just keep my suspension fork (Marzocchi Bomber Z3 1 inch) other than weight? Also, verifying that those shifters work well with the XT derailleur/Shimano 8 speed cassette? I was thinking bar end friction shifters to keep everything simple, and I can just use Tektro (or Shimano) long pull caliper brake levers with Vbrakes, I have no issues with bar-ends but the micro-new shifters look interesting if they hold up over time, although they open up a can of worms over the brake levers- I would probably just use cantilevers that, IMHO, are just as good as V-brakes when set up well- inexpensive Tektro CR720s would be my brake choice, cheap, wide profile for good pad clearance. Have them on my tandem, no issues in steep terrain.

did you do 2x8 or 7 ?

How did you make your shifters work? These are compatible with 3x8 shimano road derailleurs, but mtb derailleurs have different ratios. I've tried it before and it didn't work.

I expect sporty hybrid bike is better starting point sice frame should be as gravel bike frame

Nice bike. No problem with front shifting compatibility between the shifter and the derailleur ?

How much did it weigh before?

What wheel size? Ty for the vid.

Hydraulic Breaks and everything is fine..

No consigo ver la mejoría respecto a la mtb anterior. Manillar más incómodo, ausencia de amortiguación delantera, sillín más incómodo. La tontería de las gravel no aporta nada respecto a una mtb tradicional.

Not a fan of drop bars, but a rad build nonetheless. Awesome work