The issue is that some bikes were shipped from the Australian distributor without a straddle cable catcher.  This is a little hook that sits under the straddle cable.  It is there so that in the unlikely event that the main brake cable snaps, it can catch the straddle so that it cannot fall onto the tyre.  In the worst case scenario without the catcher, the tyre (if it had nobs on it) can grab the straddle and apply the brakes, which could cause an accident.

This is a far cry from BV’s coverage, which, from the way it was phrased, claimed that the brakes supplied with the bikes were faulty.  Firstly, the problem applies to only some of the bikes, not all of the bikes.  Secondly, the brakes are not faulty, but rather a secondary safety device was not supplied with all bikes – a safety device that does its job if another part of the braking system has already failed.

The majority of the Surlies we have sold cannot be affected by this problem, because mud guards, reflector mounts and fork crown mounted lights all do the job of a straddle catcher.  Both stand between the tyre and the straddle and make it impossible for a broken brake cable to cause any harm.

The Australian distributor has announced a voluntary recall (see image).  If you have bought a Surly (either from us, or from somewhere else) and you are not sure whether the missing part applies to you, then please drop in.  We’ll take a look and if there is a problem we will remedy it.

We’ve gotten a few Gilles Berthoud products in.  Among them is a saddle that I’m very excited about.   The saddle is a Gilles Berthoud.  It looks at first a little like a Brooks, and it’s this similarity that excites me.   The Berthoud is made from very thick high quality leather, which is screwed down to the saddle body.  Where the Brooks saddle body is all metal, the Berthoud has metal rails and a plastic back (called a cantle).  The plastic cantle is reputed to be amazingly strong and is designed to have a tiny bit of flex for extra comfort.  The looks of the plastic might put some people off though.

Overall the quality looks incredible.  Whereas Selle Anatomica saddles have tiny little bunched bits of leather between the rivets, the Berthouds are totally smooth.   This suggests that the leather has been perfectly shaped before being attached to the body of the saddle, and the screws just hold it in place, rather than having to tension it.  Hopefully that means it’s immune to the failure mode you see on old Brooks, where the leather starts to crack and tear around the rivets.

The leather on the Berthoud is much thicker than that on a Brooks, so over the long term it shouldn’t develop the little areas of sag at the back near the center which a Brooks seem prone to.  The tension adjuster at the front is operated with a 5mm Allen key, rather than the Brooks open ring spanner.  The internals are hidden by plastic, and though the mechanism underneath it might be the same as a Brooks, it looks less agricultural – or less charming, depending your taste.

When I chose my saddle I compared it to my Brooks Professional and picked the wider of the two available options because it was the most similar.  I was worried at first because the nose is a little wider and it felt uncomfortable to begin with. But I quickly got used to it.  Also, whereas on a Brooks I prefer the nose tilted up more than on a Rolls or a Flite, on the Berthoud perfectly flat was the ticket for me.  Once these were sorted out the saddle was comfortable, though very hard.   Over the long run I’m assuming it will soften a little, though the thickness of the leather makes me think it will take a long time.

We also have Berthoud bar tape, leather dressing and a small range of handlebar bags.  The bags are beautifully made, and have well-thought-out pockets and straps.  The bar tape is softer than Brooks leather tape and has nicely chamfered edges so that it doesn’t have bulky ridges where it overlaps on the bars.

The downside to the Berthoud gear is predictable enough.  It’s very expensive.  In my view the high quality of their products makes it worth it.

We’re one of the few bikeshops in Melbourne who specialise in custom wheel building and sell far more hand built wheels than factory built wheels at the medium to high end.  This post is intended as a discussion of some of the variables involved, and hopefully the huge range of possibilities will highlight why hand built wheels which are custom-built for a particular application are going to do that job better than factory-built wheels.  This post is long, and has some technical discussion of both component choices and then of the process of building itself, but it is not a how-to guide, so only click on read more if you’re keen.

Hubs:
Hub choice when it comes to building a wheel will be dictated by what the bike is intended to do.  There are hubs for disc brakes, internally geared hubs, cassette hubs, freewheel hubs, dynamo hubs, coaster brake hubs and many other types.  Often this is the feature of the wheel that drives the wheel build so the choice will be already made.  For instance, we make a lot of front wheels with dynohubs to upgrade existing bikes.  Once you know what sort of hubs you want on your bike you’ll still have a number of choices.  The options are too numerous to discuss here, but some of the features deserve to be mentioned.

First, you will often have a choice between hubs with sealed cartridge bearings and alternatives with cup and cone bearings.  Cup and cone bearings are the older option, and are becoming less common.  In some ways though they are superior.  For a hub of a certain size cup and cone bearings allow more ball bearings and larger ones and the combination is much more resilient.  They are easier to service and can be re-greased or replaced very cheaply.  Finally, because the cones contact with the bearings at an angle they are better at dealing with side loads.  The downside to cup and cone hubs is that each model requires a differently shaped cone.  Because cones wear from contact with the bearings (especially if they are not well maintained with good clean grease) you will eventually wear out the cones in the hub.  If you cannot get the right replacements the bearings will never run as smoothly as they ought to, and after a few years the manufacturers normally stop making replacement cones for their hubs.  Cartridge bearings, on the other hand, are made in standard sizes and can simply be pressed out and replaced.  Furthermore, even when they are used in a poor state they do not damage any integral part of the hub.

We’ll discuss particular hubs in later posts.  Generally though, we’re big fans of Shimano and Schmidt dynohubs.  You cannot beat Shimano for value-for-money in rear hubs, Phil hubs are incredibly smooth and close to unbreakable and DT, Hope and White Industries make great lightweight sealed bearing hubs.

Phil Wood

Rims:
There are a huge range of rims which suit different applications.  When thinking about rims it is best to have a strong idea of the sort of tyres you want to use, and the sort of brakes you want to use.  The size of the tyres you intend to use determines the width the rim has to be.  Whether or not you intend to use rim brakes determines what shape the sidewalls should be.  Some rims are eyeleted and some aren’t.  Eyelets are normally made out of stainless steel and are little inserts around the spoke holes that distribute the stress evenly.  There are single eyelets which are only attach to one wall of the rim and there are double eyelets which attach to both.  All things being equal, double-eyelets are better because they distribute the stresses over more area, but things aren’t always equal.  There are good rims that use double-eyelets, good rims that use single eyelets and good rims that use no eyelets.  (A ‘V’ section rim distributes forces in a similar way to an eyelet.)  In most cases it shouldn’t really be a factor in your decision making whether or not the rim has eyelets, so long as the rim is a good one.  An exception is if you are planning to use aluminium nipples, but that will be mentioned later.

Again, later posts will discuss the particular rims.  We use more Mavics than any other brand.  They are unbeatable value and great quality.  Open Pros are our default road rim.  A719s are terrific rims for touring.  The XM717 and its little brother the XM317 are both great cross-country rims.  We’ve though a lot about Mavic vs Velocity and overall Mavic wins for us.  The material in the sidewalls seems harder and stands up to brake wear a little better, the joins are smoother and the nipple seat diameter is more consistent.  For the most part we use Velocity rims where there are gaps in the Mavic range.  We use Dyads for light touring bikes, Randonneurs and road bikes with wide tyres because they are wide and light.  The closest Mavic equivalent is the A719, but it is considerably heavier.  We use Synergies for 650b touring wheels because there are no Mavic 650b rims.  We also carry VO rims, Stans rims, DT rims and others as needed, many of which fill gaps in the Mavic range.

Spokes:
Spokes are not something that captures many people’s imagination.  They just aren’t that exciting on their own.  But in a wheel they are immensely important and the right choices when it comes to spokes can separate a good wheel from a bad one.

The first question with spokes is how many to use.  This obviously has to be decided on in tandem with which rims and hubs you plan on using.  Some rims and hubs are only available in certain drillings.  Also, given a certain amount of load, the lighter (ergo weaker) the rim is, the more spokes you should have.  So where someone could get away with 28 holes in a Deep V, they might be better off with a 36 holes in an Open Pro.  Ceteris paribus, more spokes will make the wheel stronger, stiffer and more reliable.  The only real downside to more spokes is the increased weight of the spokes.

That said, there’s no point going way overboard, and even the small weight savings of lower spoke counts are worth something, if they come at no real cost to the reliability of the wheel.  If you’re a light rider and we’re making you a back wheel for your road bike using a reasonably strong rim, then we wouldn’t suggest using 36 spokes, because the extra weight isn’t getting you much.  Furthermore, since a front wheel is not dished and doesn’t have to transmit drive forces you could get away with even fewer spokes on the front.

The next issue with spokes is what gauge to use.  On any wheel that will get serious use we will recommend butted spokes of some variety.  One benefit of butted spokes is obvious – reduced weight.  This is not to be sneezed at, since it’s rotating weight, but it’s certainly not the only reason to use butted spokes.  Even without the weight saving we’d be using them for their mechanical properties.  It’s counter-intuitive that a thinner spokes could make a stronger wheel, so you sometimes hear people talking like the weight saving is the only real benefit, and you even hear some people suggest that the weight benefit comes at the expense of strength.  Some people build their touring wheels and MTB wheels with straight gauge spokes thinking they’re getting a stronger wheel, but it’s a big mistake.

Even though butted spokes are thinner in the middle than plain gauge spokes they make for a stronger wheel.  The main reason for this is that the two ends of the spoke are concentration points for the stresses in a wheel.   The shoulder of the spoke and the end of the threads are the two places where spokes most commonly break.  A thinner middle section will flex more under the impact and so transmit less of the stresses to the weak points at the ends.  This flex also means that the impact can be shared with more of the adjacent spokes.  Both of these points add significantly to the fatigue life of the wheel.

There are only two real downsides to double-butted spokes, they are slightly more work to build with, and for wheels where stiffness matters at all costs (track and trials wheels) that last little bit of stiffness can be bought at the expense of longevity by using plain gauge spokes.  The extra difficulty working with butted spokes is because of wind-up.  Tension is added to the spokes by turning the nipples.  As the tension on the spoke increases so does the friction between the threads in the nipple and between the nipple and the rim.  At a certain point the spoke will want to twist up rather than move further in the threads.  Good lubrication and careful building can get around this though.

The spokes we use are mostly DT Swiss.  The spoke we mostly commonly build with is their Competition.  It’s double-butted – 2.0mm at either end and 1.8mm in the middle.  It’s a good choice for the majority of wheels.  One either side of this are Revolutions and Alpine IIIs.  The Revolutions are also double-butted but 1.8mm at the ends and 1.5mm in the middle.  This makes them very light but not as strong or stiff as other spokes.  The Alpine IIIs are triple-butted with 2.3mm shoulders, 1.8mm middle sections and 2.0mm threaded sections.  They are very heavy duty and great for loaded touring bikes, tandems and extreme downhill bikes.  There are two other spokes that we use less often because they are more expensive, though both are great spokes – Super Comps and Aerolites.  The latter are partially bladed and are very very light and very strong.  The Super Comps are triple butted but thinner than the Alpine IIIs being 1.8mm at the threads, 1.7mm in the middle and 2.0mm at the heads and are great for cross country disc brake wheels (among other things).

In addition to DT, both Sapim and Wheelsmith make nice spokes.  Sapim’s CX-Ray is a great lightweight spoke, though it is very pricey.  We will happily use either brand where they are appropriate.  DT spokes are still our default though, just because we’ve been really impressed by their quality control, and there are no significant gaps in their range.  When weighing up DT vs Sapim it just comes down to the particular spoke in question and how well it fits the application.

The next choice with spokes is what lacing pattern to build the wheel with.  The classic choice is 3x where each spoke crosses three other spokes on its way from the hub to the rim.  In most cases this is the strongest way to build a wheel, since it puts the spokes closest to 90 degrees leaving the hub.  (Number of spokes and size of flange have an impact on this equation though.)  This is best because it efficiently transmits drive forces and braking forces between the hub to the rim.  There are a number of other options for lacing pattern – 2x and radial being the next most common.

Nipples:
The main choice here is between brass nipples and aluminium ones.  The only real selling point of the aluminium ones is that they are light.  But this is a worthwhile consideration because of where the nipples are – right at the outside of the wheel.  This puts them in the most significant area for rotational weight and they need to be accelerated up to about twice the speed of your bike.  The weight savings from aluminum nipples aren’t huge, but in the context of variations in tyre, tube and rim weight they are quite significant.

The downsides with aluminium nipples are pretty much what you’d expect from something that saves weight -  they are less robust and reliable.  This is for a number of reasons.  First, the nipples are weaker – the heads can pop off under tension (though this can be avoided to a great extent by choosing spokes long enough to fill the nipple), the square section used to tension them can be more easily rounded out, the threads will fail more easily than with brass nipples (though if this is happening while you’re building it’s probably a sign that you’re doing something wrong) and they are less likely to survive an impact.  Secondly, aluminium is less suited to being threaded than brass is.  Brass is self-lubricating whereas threads in aluminium are more inclined to gall, seize up and strip threads.  Suitable lubrication can help with this, but all things being equal brass is the easier material to work with.  Thirdly aluminum is less resistant to corrosion than brass and is more likely, over time, to seize in place and resist truing.  Finally, aluminium nipples are hard to use in direct contact with aluminium rims, again because they can gall under the friction.  Eyeleted rims are usually best when using aluminium nipples.

Negotiating the pros and cons here is case-by-case and depends on the work you want the wheel to do.  If you’re going touring or doing extreme downhill riding aluminium nipples are a bad idea.  If you’re building Open Pros onto White Industries hubs with Revolution spokes then you’d be wasting an opportunity to save some important grams if you used brass.  In between these two cases it gets less clear.  As a general rule it’s best to err on the side of caution.

Process:
The manual side of wheel building has a reputation as a black art, but although it requires skill, practice and patience it’s not really that mysterious when it comes down to it.  There are many slightly different methods people employ, but they all aim at the same thing – producing a wheel that is laterally and radially true within accepted limits, dished correctly, and has spoke tension that is as even as possible.  The physical world being what it is, and manufacturing tolerances being what they are, getting each of these variables absolutely perfect is not an option.  But the better the quality of your parts the closer you can get.  A rim that is straight and round out of the box will be straight and round when all the spokes are pulling evenly.  Eventually though, there will be a degree of choice in balancing the goals in order to produce the best possible wheel.

One classic mistake when balancing the variables is to blindly chase lateral run-out and produce a wheel that is as laterally true as possible, without regard for the other variables.  For one thing this wheel will not be very radially true and will have little hops in it, which the rider will be able to feel while riding.  But more significantly, the spoke tension will be radically uneven and the taughter spokes will be doing all the work.  This means that the wheel won’t last as long (since some spokes do most of the work, and others are so loose that the slacken in use and so fatigue due to the movement from being loaded and unloaded).  It also means that even the lateral trueness of the wheel won’t last very long, since the loose spokes will loosen further and the alignment of the rim will change.

With good quality parts not much compromise will be needed, but where compromise is needed, then all factors must be balanced, and the rim must be true enough and round enough, but with some precedence given to evenness of spoke tension.  This will produce a stronger wheel that holds it’s shape better for longer.  The only reliable way to do this is to build the wheel using a spoke tensiometer.  This is a tool that measures the deflection of the spokes under a load.  This deflection can then be translated into an amount of load on the spokes.  Any wheel we build will have each of its spokes checked to be sure that variation in tension is minimal.  There are people who will tell you that the amount of resistance on the nipple or the pitch of a plucked spoke is enough of a guide to spokes tension.  However, the plucking is far too blunt an instrument to rely on since audible differences in pitch are produced by larger changes in tension than are relevant to a well-built wheel.  The resistance of the nipple to turning is a measure of too many extraneous variable to be a reliable test for spoke tension, since friction at the threads and rim both affect it and so it it very sensitive to differences in the effectiveness of the lubricant used and small variations in the evenness of all the surfaces in contact.

Another common mistake is to build the wheel with insufficient overall spoke tension.  This will produce a weaker wheel, prone to breaking spokes at the shoulders, and the extra movement of the rim will make it prone to cracking at the spoke holes.

There are a few techniques that help to achieve the best possible balance of evenness of tension and trueness of wheel.  First, lubrication is a key factor – reducing the friction between the nipple and the spokes and between the nipple and the rim helps a great deal.  This will also help to bring the overall tension high enough.  As mentioned before, building with a tensiometer makes a huge difference, letting the builder achieve a higher degree of evenness of tension and letting them know when they have enough overall tension.  Once the balance of tension and trueness has been achieved the wheel is stress-relieved and re-examined.  Stressing the spokes does a few things.  Firstly, it relieves any wind-up in the spoke.  This creates a pinging sound and the spoke looses tension, because the wind-up that is being removed is effectively shortening the spoke.  Secondly, stress-relieving beds the shoulders of the spokes into the flanges of the hub a little bit.  Thirdly, stress relieving cold-sets the spokes.  By taking the metal in the spokes past its yield point, we change the shape of the spoke, which means that the spoke isn’t trying to return to the shape it was before it was built into a wheel.  If there is too much wind-up then stress-relieving will dramatically throw out the balance of the wheel.  All of the results of stress-relieving effectively lower over-all spoke tension, and they don’t necessarily do so in a totally even fashion, so another round of tension checking and adjustment is needed (as well as truing).  The process is repeated until everything settles in, and further stress relieving makes no difference to the wheel.  This stability means that the wheel will hold it’s shape while being used.

Next, thread-locking compound is used (weak enough that it does not impede later truing), rim tape is applied and the wheel is ready.

If you want to read more about wheel building there is a great book by Jobst Brandt called The Bicycle Wheel which has a very interesting (also controversial) discussion of the mechanics behind bike wheels.  It available here.  There is also some very good advice on building wheels in Gerd Schraner’s book The Art of Wheelbuilding.   It’s available here.  Both books have their strengths and weaknesses and should be read with an critical and open mind.  There are also some great resources on the net.  As always, Sheldon is a great resource for someone planning to do it themselves.  Look here.  Peter White also has a very good discussion here.

Drop in or call us if you want a wheel built and we can talk about the best way to balance all these variables for your bike.  We’re also always happy to build wheels for interstate customers.  The most recent wheel we built for an interstate customer was a Phil Wood SLR Touring hub with 36 holes, DT Competition spokes laced 3x to a Mavic 719 rim.

]]> http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/hand-built-wheels/feed/ 0 http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/polo-bike/ http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/polo-bike/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 03:08:40 +0000 Huw http://commutercycles.com.au/?p=1331 Commuter cycles is excited to be sponsoring Damon Rao at the Bike Polo World Championships in Berlin and the London Open Tournament. He’ll be riding a custom made polo bike, a Symes Whiskey. He’ll be heading off tonight for two weeks in Europe and then competing in the Australian Championships in Brisbane with it later in the year.

Symes Whiskey - Photo by Damon Rao

The bike was made at Commuter Cycles by Scott with geometry developed over 18 months of playing polo to emphasise nimbleness, but still remaining stable enough for one handed control. The bike fits standard mountain bike parts for ease of interchangeability. The bike also runs a “dingle” (dual single) gearing for dead easy manual gear changes. It’s currently set up for running a 63” street gear and a 42” polo gear with only a tiny change in wheel position between gears.

A hydraulic rear brake was fitted to relieve hand fatigue during long playing sessions, especially at tournaments. This left a vulnerable disc, caliper and hose. The hose was routed inside and behind the tubes along which it runs. To protect the disc and caliper, a stainless steel guard was fabricated which attaches to integrated mounting points on the frame. The polished finish nicely balances the chrome fork too.

Stainless Steel Disc Guard

For polo, the rear tyre needs to be extremely hard-wearing as a popular manoeuvre is the “skid turn” to evade opponents. The Panasonic RiBMo is a high quality, supple, hard durometer (rubber hardness scale) tyre with a kevlar bead and lots of tread. A regular Commuter Cycles customer is reviewing this tyre on his commuter bike, after 1000km he had this to say:

“I can report that I have had no punctures (touch wood) even with the wet weather and even though I just pulled out a sizeable piece of glass from the rear tyre. Apart from this they are not too cut up.”

“I think that they are a more comfortable tyre than the Marathon and may be a little faster being lighter and having a lower rolling resistance. Cornering and general feel for the road I believe is improved. They look better too, which is important!”

Commuter Cycles have been doing some modifications to customers’ frames too. A Surly Karate Monkey we built for fast commuting was upgraded some months ago when the standard mudguard eyelets snapped under the load of panniers and frame flex. Seriously beefy rack mounts were fabricated and brazed into place.

Surly Karate Monkey brazing

We’ve also brazed on cable stops to a Surly Steamroller prior to a refurbishment including powdercoating and a set of nice Phil Wood / Mavic Open Pro wheels.

Surly Steamroller cable stops brazed on

Build Spec for Whiskey:
Custom frame and fork – mixed tubeset (CroMo, Columbus, Dedaccai)
48 spoke front wheel (suzue touring/tandem hub, custom drilled Velocity Aeroheat)
36 spoke rear wheel (Hope Pro II Single Speed/Trials hub, Velocity Aeroheat)
Shimano R600 compact road cranks, 34t & 38t rings, bashguard
Avid Juicy 7 Rear brake, 140mm disc
Damon’s own stem & offset handlebar
Maxxis Columbiere front tyre
Panaracer RiBMo rear tyre

]]> http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/polo-bike/feed/ 0 http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/velo-orange-porteur-racks/ http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/velo-orange-porteur-racks/#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:39:45 +0000 Tristram http://commutercycles.com.au/?p=1310 VO Porteur racks are back in stock. They’re a great rack for commuting bikes since they can hold a lot and can easily take additional load if you have to grab something on the way home.  They’re also very beautiful.

They are made out of stainless steel.  They’re very durable and strong, and the surface doesn’t get chipped or rubbed bare like a powder coated rack would.  The have a large platform (about 36cm x 29cm) on top and a removable rail.  They weigh about 1kg.  You can tie down a bag or a box (a pizza box for instance) or any other large items.  It also has hooks and a rail for panniers.  It has four bosses for attaching your light and one boss underneath the platform for a mud guard. It mounts to the brake bridge on the fork crown and an eyelet at the dropout.

Carrying the load up front is nice because you can keep an eye on it, and because it doesn’t have the tail-wagging-dog effect of a heavy rear load.  It also stresses the front wheel rather than the back, which is good because in the course of riding the front wheel is less stressed than the back and is stronger anyway.

Price as of August 2010 is $250.  As always, we’re happy to ship interstate.  And as always, if you get us to fit it we’ll make sure it’s done as neatly, a strongly as possible.

A customer we sent one to said in an email: “The rack is very nicely made and I’m please to see that there is a bit of subtle triangulation on the support struts – something that had concerned me as this wasn’t obvious in the on-line pictures. Time will tell of course but I’m looking forward to getting a lot more use out of my old mtb.”

As I’m sure you’re all aware by now, Cyclocross is the new black.  Or the new tweed ride.  (Or something cool anyway.)  Just ask these guys….  Hipsters discussing CX

The Brunswick Cycling Club is running a great 3 race series which we’re using as an excuse to host the inaugural Bicyle Black Market – an opportunity for all of us to either fill up (or clear out in the case of stall holders) our bike parts bins.

We’ve had a couple of really nice cyclocross bikes through the shop recently.  We grabbed a photo of one – an amazing Lynsky titanium beast equipped with a new SRAM group.  Nice hand-built wheels with Chris King hubs and Open Pro rims.  The bike is a pretty amazing mix of light, stiff and agile.

There was a great cyclocross race in Warburton a while back, in which Huw raced, using an old Peugeot with really noisy Mafac brakes set up single speed.  He did pretty well even though in the final analysis his gearing was way too high and his brakes could have been a bit more powerful.  this just goes to show that even if you don’t have an amazing cyclocross bike you can still give it a shot.

There’s even a series of races coming up to try you luck at.  Check it out here They’ll be running two categories, one for 700c cross bikes and one for mountain bikes.  There are some pretty strict regulations for what counts as a cyclocross bike in UCI events (tyres under 32mm wide, etc) but I don’t think they’ll be pushing that for this event.

If you’re looking for some inspiration for a build of your own check out this site or come in and have a chat with us.

Finally, if you think of a bike to make, and it doesn’t meet the UCI regs, then we have the perfect venue for you to source your parts.  Under cover of darkness, away from the prying eyes of roaming UCI officials we’ll have a bunch of unshaven men with long jackets selling the good stuff.  Time trial bikes with 650c front wheels, saddles with lumbar support, cyclocross tyres in 38c, fairings and EPO all in the one spot.  After the event we’ll be screening something Cyclocross related to get people fired up for the next race.  Shoot us an email if you’d like to set up a stall, otherwise just rock up and check out the stalls.  Bring your monstercross bikes.  23rd of July, from 5pm.

Frame Only.
You can buy the LHT as a frame only, and build it up by swapping your old parts onto it.  The LHT frame is very well-designed.  It offers good geometry for a very stable ride.  The tubes are 4130 cromoly and are strong enough and wide enough to remain stiff and stable while carrying a load, and will last years doing it.  There is plenty of room in the frame for wide tyres and fenders.  All of the braze-ons are in the right places and allow you to easily, neatly and securely attach your mudguards, racks and so on.  It has vertical dropouts, which means the wheel is easily removable with mudguards and racks and it’s easy to get the mud guard a fixed distance from the tyre all the way around.  There are even threaded bosses for mudguards that face towards the tyre, making mounting very rigid and clean.  There is even a little braze-on to carry spare spokes.

Smaller LHTs come with 26″ wheels, whereas larger ones come with 26″ or 700c wheels.  For the smaller frames the 26″ wheels make a lot of sense.  They make it possible to avoid toe overlap without compromising other features of the frame.  They also look right on smaller bikes.  The option of 26″ wheels on the larger bikes is driven by two thing: a) all things being equal the smaller wheels will be a little stronger and b) 26″ tyres are available anywhere in the world, whereas touring 700c tyres can be tricky to find in some countries.  The sacrifice is that 26″ wheels don’t roll quite as smoothly, and there aren’t quite as many options for 26″ touring tyres.

The new LHT colour is the blue seen below.  It replaced Truckerchino – the beige-y colour in the first line-up.  In some sizes both colours are still available, but for the most part blue is the colour you can get these days.

Stock LHT.
You can buy the LHT as a complete bike, out of the box.  The stock LHT is already a great bike.  At a bit under $2000 there’s nothing on it that cries out for replacement and it’s incredible value for money.  One of its strengths is the very good wheel set it comes with.  The wheels have DT  spokes, XT hubs and Alex Adventurer rims.  The XT hubs are very well sealed, roll nicely and with occasional servicing will last for years and years.  The rims are wide enough to take comfortable tyres but not so wide that you can’t run a narrower tyre.  The spokes are a sign of the quality of what you get out-of-the-box.  This is where bikes built to a price-point often save money, since spokes aren’t glamorous.  But spokes are very important for the reliability of a bike, and good quality spokes like DT will last much longer than cheaper unbranded spokes.  Likewise, the bottom bracket, which you can barely see, is a good quality Shimano square taper cartridge unit.  This is another standard place for companies to take a short-cut, but it becomes one of the most annoying parts when it fails.  The Shimano bottom bracket is good quality, and will last for years.

The LHT has a triple crankset with 48-36-26 chainrings and a wide range 9 speed cassette.  This gearing is sufficient for most non-racing riders.  The high gear is high enough to go fast, and unless you’re doing extreme self-sufficient touring the low gear will get up any hill.  The gears are shifted using bar end shifters (aka barcons).  They are very robust and allow you to shift without removing your hands from the bars.  They also have a non-indexed mode that is useful if you damage your derailleur somewhere remote.  The derailleur itself is an XT shadow derailleur which is high-quality, robust, and well-positioned to avoid getting knocked. The Tektro brake levers are very nice with a wide flat area on the hoods which most people find comfortable.  They have a built-in quick release to make wheel removal easier.  The Tektro cantilever brakes work well and offer a lot of clearance for mudguards and racks.

It doesn’t come with pedals, which makes sense.  There are too many different incompatible pedals out there and most people considering an LHT will already have a preference.  We often fit single-sided SPD pedals so that on a long ride you can clip in, but if you’re just going to the local shops you needn’t change shoes.

A Few Mods.
We often make a few mods to the out-of-the-box LHT.  First there’s all the matters of personal preference.  A lot of people have strong preferences for certain saddles and bars.  Swapping bars and saddles makes a big difference to how a bike feels and is a good way to make a new bike feel like it’s yours.  Some people swap a Brooks saddle and a Nitto Noodle onto a LHT.  Others swap on ergo bars and a San Marco Rolls.  You might want butterfly bars and a gel saddle.  This comes down to what you find comfortable, and what will help you enjoy spending more time on your bike.

One of the next most common mods is a new pair of tyres.  Vittoria Randonneurs are one of our go-to tyres, and give a good balance of longevity, puncture resistance, efficiency and comfort.  We’ve also used Marathon Duremes on LHTs for a similar but slightly different balance of the same factors.  There are a huge number of other options, and changes here will make a big difference to how the bike feels on the road.  Changes in tyre size also allow you to find a balance between comfort and speed that suits you, and the frame has lots of room for large tyres which help you to play with this variable.

Fitting mudguards is a good way to make the LHT more versatile.  As mentioned above, the braze-ons on the LHT are all well-suited to this, and the frame offers excellent clearances.  There are also a few different choices of fenders that will personalise the bike.  Velo Orange hammered aluminium fenders give the bike a very different look to the Cascadia polycarbonate fenders.  Likewise, racks improve the versatility of the bike, and there are a whole slew of options.  You can have low rider pannier racks on the front, or a huge Surly Nice Rack, or a tiny Nitto M12 rack for a small bag.  We often put Topeak Super Tourists on the back, but there plenty of other options, including Tubus.  How you set up your racks will determine how the bike handles when loaded and should be based on the loads you typically carry.

We also fit a lot of kickstands to LHTs.  If you have panniers and need to get something out of one of them during a ride they make the job much easier.  The nicest kickstand we do (and probably the nicest there is) is the Pletscher bipod stand.  The issue of kickstands displays one of the only shortcomings of the LHT frames – they don’t have a kickstand mount.  Although this is slightly inconvenient, we can work around it and make sure that it’s our problem, not yours.

Another popular upgrade, but a more involved one, is to install dynamo lights.  This means rebuilding the front wheel with a Shimano or Schmidt hub and choosing lights.  Our favourite hubs are the Shimano 3n80 (or LX if you’ve got 36 holes), the Schmidt SON28 or the SON20R depending on the budget and application.  For lights, the Busch and Mueller IQ Cyo Plus and Flatlight Plus are the pick of the bunch value wise. A Schmidt Edelux or Supernova E3 Pro are both spectacular lights if the budget permits, or you’re after maximum light output.

It’s a hefty initial outlay, but it means no more batteries, seriously bright lights, and not having to remember to bring lights since they attach permanently.  We like to spend a bit of time finding a good way to attach the lights to give you a good beam pattern, keep the light protected, and allow a nice clean way to run the cable from the hub.  Sometimes it’s best to put the cable under the fenders, sometimes rack stays are useful, often brake lines are useful, but if you get us to do it, then we’ll nut out the best way.

Full custom
Fully custom LHTs are some of the most satisfying builds all round.  Starting from the frame only, or heavily modifying the stock bike we can build it up to suit  particular rider.  We really enjoy working out unique specs with the customer, and at the end of the process they walk away with a bike that’s exactly how they want it to be.  We’ve done quite a few already.  Because the LHT frame is so sensibly spec’d there is a lot of scope for different builds.  It’s part of the Surly design philosophy to make the bikes as versatile as possible.  One example of this versatility is the choice of shifter bosses.  Most people will use bar end shifters or brifters on their LHTs, which require cable stops on the frame.  Surly have spec’d shifter bosses with removable cable stops so that the 1% of customers who like down tube shifters will be able to use them.  This thinking on Surly’s part makes it possible for us to work out how to accommodate most people’s preferences in a custom build.

Powder coating is a nice option for a custom build.  We work with a local powdercoater and we can get the frame bead blasted and powder coated any colour you like.  We can even get mud guards and racks coated to match the colour of the frame.  We’ve also had a fork chromed to go with a white frame.

If you are doing a custom LHT build we’ll almost invariably recommend dynamo lights.  Modern hub dynamos are so efficient and the LED lights are so reliable and bright that there is almost no downside to going this way, and if the wheels have to be custom built anyway, this takes a lot of the sting out of the associated costs.

We’ve set up a lot of bikes, and seen a few of the pitfalls of custom builds, so with our help you won’t wind up with brakes that interfere with fender or rack mounting, or tyres that barely fit under the fenders, or a too short/wide bottom bracket.  You won’t buy a stem that doesn’t fit your bars, or bars that don’t fit your levers.

Jack’s bike is a good example of a custom build.  We had the frame powder coated, with matching powder coated rims built onto nice hubs (including a Schmidt SON28 Dynamo hub on the front), his own choice of racks, 9 speed Dura Ace STI levers, LX cranks to lower the gearing so he can tow a Bob trailer, etc.  We have even had the rim on Bob trailer powder coated to match the frame.  It has a Supernova E3 Pro headlight and an E3 taillight, which are among the brightest lights out there.  The Dynamo is also hooked up to a USB charger mounted on a second stem that can recharge phones, cameras and so on.  He’ll be using that when he and his wife Lauren ride across America in late 2010.

LHT vs Crosscheck
A number of our customers have had to choose between the LHT and the Crosscheck.  The two bikes are broadly similar.  Both take wide tyres, use cantilever brakes, are robust and comfortable.  The pros and cons that separate the two are all just a matter of degree.  The Crosscheck is little zippier and handles a little quicker due to steeper angles, shorter stays and a more aggressive riding position.  The LHT has a few more braze-ons and takes racks and fenders a little better and gives you more heel clearance for panniers.  Basically, on the continuum from loaded touring bike to road bike the Crosscheck is one step closer to the road bike end.  It can also be used for it’s theoretical intended purpose – cyclocross.  Both can be made into very capable touring bikes or commuters.

We’ve just finished an exciting build. We used a 650B randonneur/porteur frame made by Velo Orange, called the Polyvalent. Ours might be the first in Australia. We’ve built it up as a showcase for some of the VO gear we stock (and as a great bike in its own right). It has a big VO Porteur front rack, VO cantilever brakes, headset, saddle, rims, etc. It has a dynamo hub, is shod with Grand Bois Hetres and stays upright while stationary thanks to a Pletscher bipod kickstand. It will soon have a VO chain guard.  We installed a B+M Lumotec IQ Cyo just under the floor of the rack, and a B+M tail light on the rear mud guard.

We lent the bike to Blakey, a local bike aficionado, friend and sometime customer.  Here’s a link to a flickr set he’s made to document his weekend with the bike.  You’ll notice we’ve stolen some of them for this post – he  takes a nice photo.  Blakey loved the bike and raved, in particular, about how it rides over rough ground.  Not surprising since the bikes that it’s inspired by were used by Parisian newspaper deliverers over rough cobbles.

It’s a great bike for taking medium-sized loads and is prefect for around town.  This is thanks to the frame geometry, which is optimized for carrying a load on the front, and running large-volume tyres, just like the old French bikes that inspired it. Blakey says it earned a lot of admiring looks, and it certainly looks right with something nice in the bidon cage.

This build came in at around $2500 and  is going to another of our favourite customers, but we’ll be building more. If you’re interested, drop by and have a talk – because the frame is so versatile, radically different builds are an option – it could be run as a single speed or with a gear hub.  I would really like to build one with drop bars and a small front rack that could be used for fast commuting and day trips in the country.

]]> http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/velo-orange/feed/ 1 http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/bicycle-quarterly/ http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/bicycle-quarterly/#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 07:17:16 +0000 Tristram http://commutercycles.com.au/?p=1158

We’ve been quietly stocking Bicycle Quarterly for a while. Bicycle Quarterly (BQ) is our favourite bicycle magazine. It started out life at Vintage Bicycle Quarterly and dealt mostly with old French Randonneur bikes, as well as the people who rode and still ride them. As the magazine has progressed there has been a growth in interest in this world, and new more builders have started making bikes inspired by the classics (Herse and Singer, most famously), so the focus broadened to include these. I believe that Jan Heine started the magazine on his own, and over the years has gotten help from Alex Wetmore, Frank Berto and others.

There are a number of reasons that it’s our favourite bike magazine. For one, we’re interested in the bikes and people they talk about. But as much as that, it’s how thoughtful the articles and reviews are that really endears BQ to us.  The reviews are always based on long, serious test rides of the bike, and are always very thoughtful and considered. When they find a problem with the bike being reviewed they often suggest solutions to the problem – in one issue the bolts attaching a mud guard jiggled loose and they suggested that the problem was that the bolt had too small a head to get sufficient torque with the appropriate allen key – how many other magazines look at details this small. 

We also like that the articles are opinionated in the best possible way – there’s a very clear type of bike that they like, and very clear preferences, both aesthetic and functional. The fact that they overlap to some degree with our own leanings is nice, but more than that, the preferences are cogently expressed, sensibly defended and clearly the result of real experience and testing. They are also very good at marking potential conflicts of interest – often their reviews come with little notes stating that the product being reviewed is sold by someone who advertises in their magazine. This is a very welcome contrast to magazines in which content is indistinguishable from advertisement.

There are some sample articles on the BQ site which will give you a good sense of the range of things talked about.  This is the first page of the BQ review of the Long Haul Trucker, a bike we build a few of. BicycleQuarterlyLHT-1.

Jan has also published two books, one about French Constructeur bikes called The Golden Age of the Hand Built Bicycle, and one with a more general range of bikes used in a variety of elite competitions, called The Competition Bicycle. Whereas BQ is printed in black and white and has a lot of technical discussion, the books are beautiful and lavish with much more of a focus on full-colour studio shots and archival photographs of the bikes with less accompanying text. We’ll soon have a shop copy of each, if you’d like to take a look.

Having stocked a few issues, we’re planning on increasing our order, so if you’re interested in a copy shoot us an email and we’ll get even more.

In the last few months we’ve done quite a few Surly custom builds.  We really like the Surly bikes, and from early on have built Long Haul Truckers (LHTs) for a lot of customers, as well as Crosschecks. Recently we’ve had a Big Dummy build and a Karate Monkey.

But definitely the most exciting builds are the customized ones.  Recently we’ve built:

• A pair of LHTs with Surly Nice Racks on the front and Tubus racks on the back. We rebuilt the wheels with triple butted spokes and dyno hubs in the front (one Shimano 3N80 and one Schmitd SON28). We fitted Marathon XR tyres. They’re about to take a couple across Mongolia and up to Turkey.

• A Big Dummy with a black frame and a full Alfine groupset including hydro discs (also black) with black Mavic EX721 rims, a Black Alfine dyno hub and a black Edeluxe.

• A Crosscheck designed for fast commuting, built with an ultegra groupset, powdercoated red and black.

• A fast commuting Karate Monkey, with Marathon Dureme tyres, Shimano Pro bars, stem, headset, etc and black Dyads built to XT hubs with double-butted spokes.

• Another LHT, with mustache bars.

You’ll notice a lot of these builds have dyno hubs. Any time we can steer someone towards a dyno hub we do. These days they’re getting so good that it makes no sense not to, unless it’s a dedicated go-fast bike. The hubs themselves are getting very efficient and are becoming very good value. More than that however, the new generations of LEDs are so efficient and powerful that the lights can work incredibly well off a small amount of power, and are spitting out enough light to see by, as well as be seen.

The bikes we built to go across Mongolia are an excellent illustration of why LHTs are such great value. There can’t be many other bikes, even vaguely in this price bracket, that require so few mods in order to do an unsupported trip of that magnitude. But there was room for some fun little touches – we mounted mud-guards, but since there’s a danger of extremely wet muddy roads, we mounted them further from the tyre than normal, so they don’t get clogged. Also because they’re doing such long distances with serious loads there’s a danger of the rack bolts shearing, so we’ve run them in from the back of the braze-on and put a nylock nut on the other end so that if they do shear they can be extracted and replaced on the road.