For those that missed our last Rawland post, Rawland are a small American company that design bikes and have them made in Taiwan in the same factory that makes Surly and others.  Rawland bikes are always designed around wide tyres, and are meant to be versatile go-anywhere bikes with off-road capabilities, potential for touring and frames light and comfortable enough to be used for long fast randonneur rides.  Many of them are designed around the 650b wheel size.

The latest model, the rSogn is typical of their bikes in all of theses respects.  It is designed around 650b wheels, with cantilever brake bosses, touring braze-ons in abundance, room for big tyres and fenders, or even bigger knobby tyres and can easily be set up with relatively high handle bars.  Read on if this is the sort of bike you’re interested in.

The rSogn is similar in many ways to the Drakkar we posted about last time, with the reinforced head tube extension, the Pacenti fork crown, road-like geometry and the sloping top tube.

The chief differences are:

-It has cantilever brakes instead of disc brakes

-It has vertical dropouts instead of the sliding dropouts

-The tubes of the main triangle are smaller in diameter (making it more flexible)

-The rake on the fork is much sharper and lower down the fork blades (this not only makes the forks more beautoful but should allow the tip to flex more under load and thus cushion the rider somewhat from small bumps)

- It comes in more sizes than the Drakkar, with slightly different geometry.

-It has a pump peg that puts the pump on the seatstay, unlike the Drakkar, which puts the pump under the top tube.

We have already built one up with Sram Apex parts and wheels we built with White Industries and Hope hubs and Velocity Synergy rims.  It’s owner will use it in a number of different configurations, with Pacenti Quasi-Moto tyres when he’s doing serious off-road riding with mud involved, and with Grand Bois Hetre tyres for more road-based riding.  With the latter he will be able to go with, and without fenders for dirt road riding depending on the conditions.  Because Rawland have made sure that the fender bosses are equidistant from the wheel axles installing and removing the fenders will be less of a hassel.

Go here for Rawland’s pictures of the frame and fork on it’s own.  Photos courtesy of Angry. If you like long dirt rides, check out his blog – There will be dirt.

The other exciting thing we’ve moved onto the floor is our selection of Creme bikes.  Check out their site here.

We’re stocking their Cafe Racer models.  It is available in a men’s and a women’s version and each comes with two different build specs the more expensive Doppio model and the cheaper Solo.  They are all made from steel (our favourite material for bike frames), they have sensible wheels and are intended for regular commuting use and should stand up to it very well.

Their female Caferacer Doppio model is especially cool – a classic Mixte step-through with graceful curves, a steel frame with skinny tubes, nice parts and a great front rack for carrying things around.  It comes with mud guards, a light and a Brooks saddle.  It’s a great bike for someone who loves their old Repco traveler, but wants a newer, higher quality bike where everything just works like it should.  The dropouts on the Creme are forged and the rack and mud-guard eyelets are solid and reliable.  The brakes are powerful, the wheels and tyres are both good quality and robust.  The wheels have internal gear hubs that will be reliable and long-lasting and the mud guards and chain guard are thoughtfully placed and secured.  The front rack lets you carry quite a bit of stuff without it getting hard to handle, and it looks amazing – the whole bike has a very French look to it, and is inspired by some of the old French custom bikes, especially the Porteurs that were used for newspaper delivery and in some cases in delivery races.

The main differences between the two female Cafe Racer versions is that the more expensive Doppio ($1700 as of Jan 2011) has a 7 speed Shimano hub whereas the Solo ($1200 as of Jan 2011) has a 3 speed Shimano hub, the Doppio has a Brooks leather saddle whereas the Solo has a Velo saddle and the Doppio has nicer cranks.  There is also a dynamo option available on the Doppio which is more expensive.

The male versions of the Cafe racer are much the same, but with a few tweaks and the option of single speed hubs.  Mixtes were traditionally considered a unisex design and plenty of Peugeot mixtes get used by men.  Similarly some women prefer the higher top tube of the men’s models, so don’t feel restricted by the gender of the models.

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’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/cyclocross-and-the-black-market/ http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/cyclocross-and-the-black-market/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:57:13 +0000 Tristram http://commutercycles.com.au/?p=1273

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/ 4 http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/touring-bike-for-1000/ http://commutercycles.com.au/news/2010/touring-bike-for-1000/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:55:02 +0000 Tristram http://commutercycles.com.au/?p=1084 We’ve just got a nice new bike in, but in very limited numbers. It’s
a KHS Flite Tr-101.  It’s very similar to the Long Haul Truckers
(LHTs) we build a lot of (including two recently for a couple doing a
trip through Mongolia).  Like the LHTs we can customize them to meet
specific needs (the Mongolia trip bikes needed stronger wheels and
dyno hubs).  However, it’s ready as is, to take touring, with both mud guards and a rear rack.

Like the LHT it has room for wide 700c tyres and fenders, drop bars
with bar end shifters, all the braze-ons you need for racks,
mud-guards, etc and very wide range gearing with a triple chainring
crankset.  Both are made out of oversized cromoly tubing which should last forever if it’s well looked after.

Here are the specs for the KHS out of the box:
http://www.khsbicycles.com/05_flite_tr_101_10.htm

Overall, the KHS is a small step down from the LHT.  That said, there
are some differences that make the choice between the two less
clear-cut.  The KHSs have V-brakes (with Dia-Compe drop-bar levers )
which offer a bit more braking power and easier pad adjustment.  The
KHS comes with a rear rack.  It also has slightly more offset on the
forks, which should make the steering a little bit livelier and make
it better for taking a load on the front.

At the end of the day though, the LHT has nicer parts overall.  The
two bikes are normally similar in price, and because the LHT is such
great value the KHS didn’t sell that well.  But now we’ve got a few
KHSs at a lower price which we can sell for $1000.  At this price
they’re the best value touring or commuting bike we know of.  In fact, you could have a pretty heavily customized KHS for the price of a stock LHT.

You may have read about it in recent press,  RMIT is running a pilot for Bicycle sharing, in the hope it will encourage more folks to consider getting around by bicycle, and to use the service for short trips around the city. 

The various bike hubs allow people to pick up a bike and helmet, and drop them off on the other side of town. Sure beats a taxi, or relying on Melbourne’s PT network. 

Fingers crossed, the success of this program will encourage the bean counters to take this on as part of Melbourne’s long term infrastructure. 

For more information on the project, pop in to the hub (Our Workshop) or check out the common bike website. After a $5 registration, each ride under three hours only costs a gold coin. If you drop the bike off to a different hub, or stay out for an additional hour, another gold coin covers costs. 

For more information, registration, bikes- drop into the hub at Commuter Cycles or read up on all the details at 

commonbike.com