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
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.
3T Ergosum Pro Bars
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.
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