Diamondback Sorrento Revival

[gregkline55]

So my father has had this '95 (I think) DB Sorrento that he purchased new, along with a matching one for my mother. Well both of these bikes have been sitting in various barns on the farm wasting away so I figured I'd try to revive my fathers! The plan has been to turn it into a dropbar adventure/gravel bike, upsize the wheels to 650B, convert to disk brakes, and update the drivetrain to 1X with a more hill-friendly cassette.

The day I pulled it out of the barn:

Dirty but nothing more than a little surface rust in spots, really will just be using the frame and fork, will be replacing all other components with newer stuff!

 

[gregkline55]

Found some Mavic 27.5" (650B) wheels locally for a really good price so I went ahead and grabbed them, QR rear hub and 15mm TA front hub so I picked up an adapter for the front. Had to cold set the rear to get the 135mm spaced hub in the 130mm frame.

Also grabbed an adapter to run a threadless stem on the 1" steerer, then tossed on some flat bars I had laying around for a test fit!

 

[gregkline55]

Shortly after I picked up some Maxxis Re-fuse tires in 27.5x2.00 to start test fitting, get them super cheap locally so they were perfect to get an idea of what I can fit in the frame. Turns out they fit! But not with a whole lot of room, theyre usable in the frame and fork but less than ideal clearance on the fork crown and the chainstays. Will find some smaller tires for actual use, these are equivalent to 650B x 50 (a little over that actually), would like to find a 650B x 45 tire for that little extra clearance.

Also got some Easton AX70 bars, slight flare and not too wide, perfect!

 

[gregkline55]

Next step was tackling the disk brakes on the rear. To do this I made up a simple jig out of some aluminum bar, looks rough but was made very accurate and worked really well! Bolted it up to the dropout, got out the grinder and the files, then welded it up nice and clean! Im not a professional welder by any stretch but its good enough for me! Will add a support between the stays

 

[gregkline55]

So current build update for this point in time, a few weeks ago at the time of writing this.

Sram GX 11 speed 11-42 cassette, Shimano XT GS derailleur, Truvativ cranks with a BSA BB, Easton AX70 bars, Mavic 27.5" wheelset, and some stem I dont remember LOL

 

[gregkline55]

*more time passes*

Slowly finding more parts, including some Shimano brake levers (single control), Microshift bar end shifter, and a Sram 1130 chain! So in total this drivetrain is provided by 3 different manufacturers and its works pretty damn well!

 

[gregkline55]

Next I added some cable guides on the seat stay, simple fusion welds on these. Then removed and smoothed the old canti mount locations, love me some filing!

 

[gregkline55]

Few days later I started on the fork, added a willits ISO mount, has the longer arm to help spread the braking forces. Also removed the canti mounts here as well. Still need to add a cable guide.

 

[gregkline55]

And as it sits today, brakes need some tweaking and a new rear caliper but I purposely got cheaper components for it initially so that if things needed to change I wouldnt be in too big of a hole. But this thing rides like a dream, geometry is on point and it really does cruise great, sucks up the bumps great too cause that STEEL IS REAL BABY. Also thats a 38T chainring in the front.

 

[minor_LEGEND]

Great stuff. I'd say that's a 1990 model maybe 91, but certainly earlier than 95.