Bike From Scratch

Almost ready to go.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Just under a week now and I leave for Doug Fattic’s frame building class. I’ve got most of the parts I need for the frame here. The rest are being delivered to Doug’s shop hopefully this week or next. I’m super excited to go and build my first frame. I’ve talked with Doug a few times since my last post and the plans have changed slightly. It sounds like a 28.6 (the normal size on a “modern” road bike) steerer is something that will present a number of challenges for me as far as part selection and lugs. I ended up picking lugs that demand a 6 degree sloping top tube. Rather than deal with the slope (which is something I wasn’t wild about) Doug suggested we could try to do a bilaminate frame. So I’ll use the slanting lugs but cut off one end and fillet braze the tube to the remainder of the lug. This will a. look really cool and b. let me use whatever angle on the top tube I want (flat in this case).

I’ve got the tubing at my house, a big box of TrueTemper and various frame components from Henry James. For sure I open the box every day and stare at the tubes. Currently mystified on how this becomes a bike, thankfully I have Doug to guide me there. The rest of the components (aside from the rear hub, Chris King still hasn’t build 32 hole R45’s in red) have been ordered and I should have most if not all of them before I leave. Provided the front hub gets here I should have the front hub built before I go. If not eh… we’ll figure it out.

Progress continues on new road bike

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Winter has come with a vengeance in Minnesota. Since a week before Christmas most of my cycling has been done either in Washington (holiday trip) or on a trainer. Once the whole family is back together (my wife has been out of the country for awhile) I’ll be commuting on my bike again. It will be good to get back behind the bars outside in the snow. A little cold I expect, I can count the number of days we’ve been above zero in the last few weeks on one hand, but fun none the less.

Work has continued at a medium pace for the new road bike. I’ve selected most of my frame materials and now am waiting to hear back from Doug Fattic to make sure I didn’t pick anything too crazy. As a quick review I’m planning on building a club racer / pure road type affair that has zero use beyond that. So no racks, fenders etc.

So here’s the current plan, subject to change of course.

I’m going to make the bike out of steel, thats kind of given from the DIY aspect. I’m sure you can hand make a custom carbon frame and take a class to do so somewhere, but building a carbon frame doesn’t really interest me the way building something out of metal does.

I’m going to use TrueTemper Versus tubing for the main triangle and most of the rear with a bit of the Versus HT stuff thrown into the mix. I think I’m going to give bi-laminate construction a go using the slant six lugs from lewellyn. I’m using a 1 1/8th threadless stem and steerer so lug selection is a bit difficult, there isn’t much out there. I’m not exactly bummed about this as I wanted to try bi-laminate lugs anyway. I’ll also be using Henry James dropouts (I don’t get why people get so excited about dropouts, but I’ve been asked a few times).

One thing I’m very interested in doing is being able to swap a steel for for a carbon fork on the same bike. I think it would be slick to be able to ride both types of fork on the same bike and compare the difference. There are some challenges around this with regards to fork length (and probably rake too), but Doug thinks it shouldn’t be too big a deal. Finding a fork crown that isn’t hideous with the correct clearance has been a total pain in the butt. There aren’t many 28.6 compatible crowns out there. Those that are tend to have clearance of 50mm or more. That much clearance on either side of a 23c tire just sounds silly to me. too much blank space. I’ve comprised and gone with this triangular shaped thing (even as I write this I’m having second thoughts), I’d much rather have a flat crown. I may go for a Sachs crown (1/2 way down the page). He tends to build sportier bikes, so I think it would work. If I go that route I’ll try to find a reenforcement that doesn’t look like a card deck as thats not really my thing.

Component wise I’m going all out (or all out for me anyway). The current component list looks something like this. I’m most excited about the wheels. I’ll be building them myself again with a more interesting lacing pattern than I’ve attempted on previous wheel builds.

Wheels:

Chris King R45 hubs, 28 spoke front and rear

Mavic Open Pro 700c

DT Swiss Revolution

The first tire on it will be a Deda HST, but I’ll probably try to only use those for certain events / conditions that won’t rip them to shreds. I’d guess I’ll use a Vittora Rubino Pro
or something from day to day. I used some sort of Bontrager flat proof thing the last part of this season and was happy with it…. so maybe more of those… There will be tires of some sort on the bike.

The Rest:

Sram Red Group (Cranks, breaks, the whole deal). I’m using a 68mm bottom bracket so I think I’ll use the GXP ceramic stuff they make. I briefly considered doing a BB30 bottom bracket shell (paragon makes one) but one step at a time.

Alpha Q Prolite Stem

3T Ergosum Pro Bars (the aluminum ones, can’t bring myself to lay down the extra 200 bucks for bars that are 60 grams lighter)

Fizik Cyrano Seat Post

Fizik Antares Saddle

I leave a little less than a month from today, I’m super stoked. Still lots to figure out, but it’s going to be a good time.

Filed in Building Bikes, Thinking about bikes | Tagged custom, doug fattic, frame building, frame materials, road bike | Comments (0)

Frame building class & a new road bike

Thursday, November 26, 2009

I’m taking a frame building class in February! I’m pretty excited and it should be a good time. I’m taking the class from Doug Fattic. My plan is to build a road go fast / all day rider kind of bike. Something with road angles, and maybe slightly longer than normal chain stays. The bike will be completely “joy ride” focused, no tabs on the drop outs for fenders or racks, no attachment points on the seat stays and forkq. The plan is for it to replace my Specialized Allez as its starting to show its age. I’m thinking I’ll have a slightly longer head and top tubes and less drop than the Allez. I like the notion of a sloping top tube, but we will see how difficult that is to do. I can’t make up my mind between lugged and fillet brazed. I have both options, so I will have to decide before the class starts I guess. I’d really like to do bi laminate joints, but I am pretty sure that’s too difficult for my first time out.

So far I’ve have a few emails back and forth with Doug. He sent out information describing what materials and recommendations he has for beginners. He also sent out a form asking about what components we will be using. So far I’ve settled on SRAM Red and 3T bars and stem.

I plan to build my own wheels again, I’m thinking the new Chris King Swift hubs when they are available laced to Mavic Open Pro rims. Probably using some kind of bladed spoke because I’ve wanted to try building with those for awhile now. Maybe with radial lacing… The new hubs from King seem like a pretty great deal, they have fewer contact points than the Classic hubs so they will be a bit more quiet. It sounds like they have the same King reliability and adjustment as the classic hubs. They also come in all 10 colors.

All in all it should be a good time. Learn to build a bike, for roughly the same price it would take me to get a custom. I’m sure it won’t be as nice as picking up an Ira Ryan or Sachs but it will be mine and built (mostly I suspect) by me.

Filed in Building Bikes, Thinking about bikes | Tagged frame building | Comments (0)

Sackville Saddlesack Large Review

Friday, October 23, 2009

I’ve been running around with a Large Sackille Saddlesack on my Hillborne for about six months now (serial number 41). I’ve got almost no complaints.

Large Rivedell Sackville SaddleSack

The Good:

Its fricken huge, like cavernous, this bag will eat other bags, and then more. I’ve been able to do our regular grocery run, a weeks worth of food for three people. This includes big things like milk, a watermelon once, 12 packs for beer etc. The straps can cinch down really tight, even when there are really small items in the bag. This keeps them from moving around if you don’t have the bag full.

My typical use for the bag is commuting. To do this I shove a messenger bag inside of the saddle sack. My large timbuk2 bag fits inside just fine. I have to do a bit of finagling to get inside the opening of the bag, but once in the messenger bag sits flat, with my laptop and lunch inside of it. Getting the messenger bag out is pretty easy, just pull. The little tongue flap comes over the bag, everything closes and its great.

There are some great little pockets that face the front of the bike on either side of the seat. I stick my wallet, phone, keys and ID badge in there on my way to work. You can zip them if you’re worried about things falling out. I usually forget and have not had a problem so far. The coolest thing about these is that they are so easy to access while riding. I fiddle in mine all the time, occasionally I’ll shove snacks in there and whatnot.

There are huge pockets on the sides of the bag (parallel to the wheels). I don’t use these at all, I think I’ve opened them once to shove some zip ties in there. They have neat leather flaps over them that at least give the impression that water won’t get in there.

Waterproof, no, not even a little bit. Water resistant, yeah you bet. I’ve ridden with mine in light rain, downpour and snow at this point. Water has not gotten inside during the rides. On a week long ride it spent the night outside in the rain and hale, water got inside and pooled (unfortunately with my car keys in the water). It was a tremendous pain in the butt to get the water out. I ended up have to tip the bike upside down. I would love to see some sort of drainage hole on the bottom in the corners. Hail and snow were no problem.

The Bad:

I’ve managed to tear out one of the leather attachment points on the bottom of the bag. I’m of the opinion that it wasn’t abused and should not have ripped. From the emails I’ve had with Riv they will replace it, but I’m not worried about it until I tear out another one. I’ve been working with three attachment points and my rack loop thingy in the pocket.

Things I’d like to be different:

I’d love a way to get into the back when I’m riding. Mostly to shove a shirt or something in there.

The large Sackville, and I think maybe the medium come with this goofey clip on extra bag / wallet holder thing. It doesn’t do anything for me, the clips get in the way when I want to tighten the straps, and the extra pockets provide nothing that the front and side pockets can’t already take care of. Personally I’d like to see them drop this extra part to hopefully bring the price of the bag down a touch (I’d guess that its cost prohibitive for a lot of folks).

Construction:

The bag is thick, and heavy, like it should be. The fabric doesn’t feel like you can tear it. It feels much like a sail to me (or what I recall a sail feeling like from when I was a kid). Super thick, and the waxed cotton isn’t too waxed. As I said above the leather on the bottom ripped, and after the straps break in they feel a bit thin. I think the strap thing is mostly perception, as thicker leather would be hard to pass through the loops to close the bag. I would really like to see thicker leather on the bottom of the bag to prevent the tearing problems I’ve had.

Overall:

It’s a good bag. I can camp with this thing, do groceries, commute with room to spare and carry other folks stuff (which seems to happen a lot). Its not quite an xtracycle, but I do think its the next best thing. It weighs a fair amount, but that isn’t really on my radar. Its super easy to get most things in and out. The plastic board at the bottom of the bag is secured with Velcro. It doesn’t move. When I ride, even with three straps on the bottom as opposed to four the bag doesn’t move around. For the most part I don’t notice it behind me unless I’m trying to get something out.

Filed in Reviews, Thinking about bikes | Tagged bag, review, rivendell, sackville, saddle bag, saddle sack, SaddleSack | Comments (3)

One of my favortite pictures from RAGBRAI

Friday, September 11, 2009

My Rivendell Sam Hillborne on a foggy morning. I’ve been sick and off the bikes for over a week. I’m having serious withdrawal problems. Hopefully I’ll be feeling good enough to get out of the house and do the St. Paul Classic this weekend.

Sam Hillborne in the fog.

Filed in Rides | Tagged ragbrai, sam hillborne | Comments (0)

3 months with my Sam Hillborne

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

So I’ve had the bike for awhile now. I’ve put about 2000ish miles on it so far. The bulk of that has been around town to and from work or the grocery store. I also did RAGBRAI, which about 450 miles over a week. Over all I’m pretty happy. I’m still working out the kinks on positioning, but its been a great bike so far. My Hillborne is from the first production run (the green ones, but I got a custom color) and it is 60cm. To my knowledge there have not been any changes in the subsequent production runs. The bike was built in Taiwan under contract from Rivendell. I’ve read that Maxway builds them, but I’ve got no idea if that’s true. I’m a pretty big guy (6′2″ 200 – 210) so keep that in mind when I talk about things like ride, handling etc. I think if someone weighs less than me they would have a different experience on the bike.

The detail work on the bike is nice. The lugs look good, and the powder coat I got seems of decent quality (no drips etc). It is obvious from a distance that the frame is not as nice as the other frames in the Rivendell line. But at less than half the price of an Atlantis or a A. Homer Hilsen that is to be expected (I had my bike next to a Hilsen at RAGBRAI is where I first noticed this). It just doesn’t have the same kind of finish quality that the other bikes do. Part of it is paint (the Hillbornes tend to be a solid color without the cream head tube, and mine is powder coated instead of wet paint), part of it is the decals just don’t look as nice, and part of it is the lugs aren’t as fancy as the other bikes. All that makes it sounds like the bike looks bad. It does not. In fact it looks better than most other things on the road. Pictures of mine can be found on flickr. People stop and ask about the color and what it is quite often. Like most other Rivendell owners I get the typical “did you restore a vintage bike” type questions. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them the bike was built in the last year.

The ride is great, maybe the best bike I’ve ever ridden. Handling is responsive without being twitchy (I’m running 33.3 Jack Brown’s on Mavic a719’s with Deore LX hubs and drop bars). At a reasonable speed (anything past walking pace) a lean will get you where you want to go, and the bike holds its line without any additional input. At slow speeds you turn the handle bars to go places, like any other bike. I’ve found it to be incredibly stable at slow speeds. At 5mph it isn’t hard to hold a line.The low speed handling of the bike is easily the most impressive thing about the ride. The fork, aside from being gorgeous absorbs most of the shocks from the road, like a good steel bike should. I have only good thoughts about my comfort on the bike. Even after long days on less than perfect Iowa farm roads, never too bumpy, yet I always get some rode feel. Bumps are softened quite a bit compared to my aluminum go fast bike, and not quite as squishy as my front suspension ATB.

Riding out of the saddle I feel a little frame flex. Nothing too terrible. When I’m mashing out of the saddle and working hard with a load on the back I can make the chain skip from one gear to another. I have a nine speed drive train, so if one was to have fewer gears in the rear I doubt they would experience such a problem. I’ve had it skip on me two or three times. I do feel the bike plane when I’m moving at a good clip. Its a fun feeling once you figure out what it is.

For the most part the bike is very stable, at speed slow etc. One thing I’ve noticed is front end shimmy when I’m riding with no hands. There are usually a combination of reason for this behavior, and most of them aren’t related to frame construction, or so the internet says. So I don’t blame the frame yet. As soon as I lean forward its goes away (before I put my hands on the bars). This is probably the only thing about the bike that bothers me. I’ve switched out handle bars, adjusted my saddle position (height and front to back) and not been able to make it go away… meh, whatev.

With a load I notice no significant difference when I’ve got it down low (in my saddle bag) on the back. I’ve carried cases of beer, camping gear, snacks, laptops and clothes etc. Probably up to 30 lbs in the saddle bag at one time. I notice nothing with the weight down low. Occasionally I’ll put a child seat (xtracycle pea pod, or BoBike if you’re Dutch) on the bike. This attaches to the seat tube and the seat stays. Its possible to ride out of the saddle when I have my son behind me (30 lbs or so), but I don’t feel very comfortable doing it. I really feel him moving around behind me and the frame flexing quite a bit in the rear triangle. I don’t think any bike is designed to carry a load up high like this, so I don’t fault the bike for it. I have stopped carrying my kid on it though for fear of him getting hurt and breaking the frame (I’ve got an old trek that is a bit stouter in the rear that I use for this now). I’ve never carried anything on the front, so I don’t have any good feeling for how the bike does with a front load. One of these days I’ll buy a front rack for camping and update this post or create another.

I really did think this would be the one bike to rule them all, and I do ride it quite a bit but I don’t think it will replace all the bikes in my garage. I still ride my go fast Specialized quite often. They claim that it can be a club ride bike, I’m not convinced on that front. I think most of my skepticism has to do with the size of the frame, with the saddle level to the bars I can’t get myself out of the wind. I’m still mucking with this a bit, and I’m sure I’ll have something more to say about it when I get the positioning all worked out. Its great for tooling around and commuting, but to go fast with my friends I pick another bike.

Overall, great bike. If you can stomach what other people assume you and your opinions are when you ride it (and that’s another post all its own), get one. You’ll be glad you did. I worked directly with the folks at Rivendell (Grant initially and later Jay) when I bought mine and was pretty happy with the buying experience aside from a few communication issues regarding the paint (which I have discussed elsewhere). In the end they made that right and I think only good things of those guys. I’ll continue to shop there for sure.

Filed in Thinking about bikes | Tagged review, rivendell, sam hillborne | Comments (2)

Big dummy on a trunk rack

Monday, July 27, 2009

I had been wondering for awhile if we could fit Dave’s Big Dummy on a trunk rack. For RAGBRAI we were going to have to figure something out. We were able to make it work without too much trouble.

The rack we used was a Saris Bones Trunk Rackon a 2007 Nissan Altima. Dave and I tried a few different alternatives, but we ended up mounting the big dummy via the tube that is where a seat stay would be on a normal bike (by the 3rd water bottle mount). The anti sway clamp was wrapped around the tube that runs parallel to the ground behind the bottom bracket. We took the front wheel off for this to work. See the picture below for a better explanation. The bike is mounted on the straps closest to the car.

Big Dummy on a Trunk Rack

Later on we had to figure out how to get my bike out to Burnsville to catch the balance bus. That was a bit more straight forward, but the huge head tube on my Hillborne doesn’t make life exactly easy when trying to mount it.

Hillborne and Big Dummy on a Trunk Rack

Filed in Rides, Thinking about bikes | Tagged Big Dummy, sam hillborne, Surly | Comments (2)

Weather for RAGBRAI 2009

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I’ve pulled this information from weather.com for the overnight towns. I’ll update when the 10 day forecast gets the last two towns. Looks to be cooler this year than the last few years, with perhaps more rain. I welcome the drizzle and cloud cover, hopefully we will avoid the downpour we had one day last year.

Council Bluffs (July 18) 80 and sunny
Red Oak (July 19) 80 and sunny
Greenfield (July 20) 81 and sunny
Indianola (July 21) 82 Isolated T-Storms
Chariton (July 22) 82 Scattered T-Storms
Ottumwa (July 23) 83 Partly Cloudy
Mount Pleasant IA (July 24) 84 Scattered Showers
Burlington (July 25) 83 Scattered Showers

Filed in Rides | Tagged ragbrai, RAGBRAI 2009, Rides, weather | Comments (0)

RAGBRAI packing list

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

RAGBRAI is coming up and some folks have been asking me what to pack / what I bring. I try to keep things small and simple. I can fit this all into a Large REI bag. Here is the list I follow:

Bike (Rivendell Sam Hillborne this year)
Tent (In the past I’ve used a target 4 man, this year a REI 2 person ultra light, don’t forget the rain fly)
Sleeping Pad (I use this one)
A blanket (thinish, no need for a sleeping bag)
Plastic bag to cover the seat
3 pairs of shorts to ride in (baggy for the win, no diapers, but to each their own on this front)
4 shirts (suitable for riding or hanging out, wool, and bamboo, check swobo lots of good stuff)
Undies, 3 pair wool
Socks 3 pair
Shoes for riding (converse all stars)
Flip Flops
Board shorts, for swimming / hanging out doing whatever. Make sure the have a pocket for the wallet.
Tools for the bike, nothing more than I’d take on a normal ride
Shop rag
Chain lube
3 or 4 extra tubes (I’ve got a big saddle bag, and no weight hangups)
A long sleeve wool shirt
Long sleeve jersey (layering)
Rain coat suitable for riding in (I’ve got this one, I also have a real rain coat that folds up small I may throw in my bag, it has a hood)
Towel
Camping clothes line (dry the clothes after I wash them)
Flash light
Toothbrush and toothpaste
Camp pillow
helmet
sunscreen (2 bottles, spray kind)

Filed in Rides | Tagged camping, packing, ragbrai | Comments (0)

New Rack!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Today I got my new rack in the mail! Its a top rack made by Nitto. I’ll finally be able to carry the saddle sack I picked up from Rivendell awhile back. I’m really excited about this as I’ve been commuting with a messenger back for the last few years. It will be nice to finally get my load off my back and into a bag. Not to mention the bag is big enough to get a full load of ingredients for making beer back from the store.

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