Going To Build A Gravel Grinder

Well there seems to be a new discipline in the bike world...not so much new as it seems to be catching the eye of many riders..gravel grinding...basically riding bikes on gravel roads..the gnarlier the road the better..the longer the roads and ride the better...the colder and wetter the weather the better...pretty much a sub culture of dudes who like to ride and suffer...like the down hill of road biking...a couple advantages to this discipline is fewer cars to deal with...you pretty much can do it with any bike other than a traditional road bike unless you are so hard core you like changing tires and hearing rocks clunk off of you high zoot carbon road frame..actually you just can not run tires wide enough on the road bike to get a decent tire set up to accomplish riding serious gravel roads..

I got into the gravel grinding thing as kind of a fluke...I was wanting a bike that I could use for everything..road..off road...commuter...and ended up getting a cyclocross bike..other than the geometry and brake set up these bikes look pretty much like a standard road bike..I am currently running some 700x35 Schwalbe tires on mine and have ridden trails around here like Gateway..Isle Du Bois and Johnsons Branch..Gateway was fun..the other 2 trails not so much fun and  I rode them because a few dudes I know said it could not be done...blah..I did it..and paid..sore..beaten down and it took me twice as long compared to my mountain bike..

Riding the cross bike on gravel roads has worked great for 90 per cent of the roads I have done..but even a cross bike has it limits as far as how wide a tire you can fir in there..so this was my first year to try a 29er and as I have been riding the 29er this reoccurring thought keeps going through my head...like a mad doctor...I want to merge a 29er and a cross bike into one ultimate gravel grinder...I have a spare cross bike that is to big..so I am going to get a 29er hard tail frame..build it up with every part I can off of my spare cross bike...drive train..crank..handle bar..everything..get  rigid fork and slap some road disc brakes on the new frame...29er wheels...and see what I come up with...the goal is to build a bike that is still gravel grinding capable..keep the weight down some..but will be more comfortable than my cross bike..will still be trial worthy by slapping bigger 29x2.1 tires on it if I desire..think this may either look so cool or so hideous that either way it will be something out of the norm and will serve the task at hand great!