Custom frame for Rohloff

[nicknoxx]

Thought you might be interested in my 50th birthday present:

[julk]

Very nice.
Many happy returns.

[wheezy]

So I guess it's titanium?

How would you describe it?

[Andre Jute]

Happy birthday. Love those frame ends. -- Andre Jute

[nicknoxx]

So I guess it's titanium?

How would you describe it?

Well, I haven't ridden a steel bike for decades but this one, Ti as you suppose, is amazing. It's stiff enough to be confidence inspiring but is still comfortable to ride. It's got full length mudguards on it now as the lanes round here are covered in s**t.  It looks a bit odd because you never see bikes designed for rigid forks these days so the head tube is relatively long. The bars have been lowered a bit too.

Is it the best bike I ever ridden? Yes, it is. But then I did spend over a year designing it and I'm particularly chuffed with the dropouts.

The only thing that's at all annoying is the fact that the cables coming out of the Rohloff shifter point forwards and so have to do a long bend to reach the downtube. Has anyone tried a brake noodle right after the shifter to get the cables pointing inwards?

[tandemman]

The airnimal rohloff has a pair of flexible noodles on the shifter and they look really good, i tried a standard noodle and it wasn't wholly successful.

[wheezy]

I was curious about its vocation, sort of thing. Light off-road would be my guess? Can't imagine there's a lot of room for big tyres in there?

[nicknoxx]

I was curious about its vocation, sort of thing. Light off-road would be my guess? Can't imagine there's a lot of room for big tyres in there?

Ah, I see. Almost all of my riding is on rural lanes, tow paths, bridleways - light off road as you say;  so that's what the bike was build for. It can just fit 29x2.0 tyres which is what I'll use in the summer months but under mudguards 700c 38 are better.

[nicknoxx]

The airnimal rohloff has a pair of flexible noodles on the shifter and they look really good, i tried a standard noodle and it wasn't wholly successful.

I didn't think the flexible noodles would be very effective - did the normal ones make shifting harder?

[tandemman]

The standard ones needed the taper on the noodle trimming to fit snugly into the base of the shifter housing and then took on a life of their own when the handlebars were turned ,swivelling about quite a bit , the flexible ones on the airnimal in Cycle Heaven York took up a right angle bend just like the standard ones and were not affected by turning the bars. they were not the standard straight flexible noodles but were a right angle shape, i just haven't been able to source any, i tried e-mailing Airnimal but got no response. They look really good, and shifting them, in the shop , was not at all stiff.

[MilitantGraham]

Looks nice. I like the custom Rohloff cable guides on the down tube, that's one thing I miss on my off the shelf Lynskey.
I take it you've got an eccentric BB.
I think, if I was going for a custom frame, I'd have had a split chainstay or seatstay. I'd like the option to run a belt drive when they become cheap and proven.

My Lynskey Ridgeline 29 race bike.

Lynskey by Vegan Graham, on Flickr

[PH]

That is really nice nicknoxx.  I like the forks, off the peg or did you get them custom made as well?

There must be something about being 50, Ti and Rohloff, though as mid life crisis go it's a cheap one   Here's my 50th birthday present to myself;


And just in case anyone thinks I'm lowering the tone with my no name Chinese frame, my other bike was built by Linskey;

[nicknoxx]

The forks were made by Waltworks.  They're steel but quite light because they're tapered and very compliant.  He can make forks to and length and rake you like.

[nicknoxx]

Looks nice. I like the custom Rohloff cable guides on the down tube, that's one thing I miss on my off the shelf Lynskey.
I take it you've got an eccentric BB.
I think, if I was going for a custom frame, I'd have had a split chainstay or seatstay. I'd like the option to run a belt drive when they become cheap and proven.

Quite late on in the design process I asked Lynskey about splitting the dropout and they said that they wouldn't guarantee the frame against breakage so that was the end of that. They also said the an EBB (which mine has; a Bushnell) wouldn't provide enough movement to tension a belt. Van Nic manage it though. I think they just didn't want to redraw the frame and create a delay - wouldn't have mattered the bike shop in the uk took months to get all the components together so it was delivered 10 weeks after my birthday anyway. :-(

[stutho]

PH

What rack is that?

Stu