This build thread is dedicated to the evolution of my bikepacking rig from start to wherever the project ends up. This project is something I've been thinking about for a while but haven't had the resources to pull off until recently.
At this point the project has just started and I got word my new frame is going to be here next week. Hot off the frame jig...
I'm a big guy at 6'5 with a huge inseam coming in at just under 39.5" so not many off the shelf bikes fit me well. I spent lots of time researching blogs and looking at bikes like the Fargo and Ogre but they just don't fit right... despite Surly making a truly tall man size 24" Ogre. My beef with with the Ogre is the bottom bracket height and my love of proportionate length cranks. So the seed was planted to build up a rig that would take me into the unknown and back with all the features the cool rigs have and the fit I like.
A big inseam means I need lots of seat post showing on a stock frame and the bars are always too low relative to the seat. My Dad's 19" Fargo feels like a kids size bike, my knees at the top of the stroke are way above the top of the bar. To compound matters I firmly believe that proportionate length cranks
work for me and I enjoy riding a bike with crank length from 20.5% to 21.5% of my inseam. That translates into crank lengths of 205mm to 215mm and requires a bottom bracket height much higher than a regular frame. The trick is that the longer crank allows for a shorter distance between the bottom bracket and seat. My road bike has 215mm cranks with 31.5mm BB drop and a Specialized Allez has 175mm cranks with a 67.5mm drop. Cranks got 40mm longer and the bottom bracket moved up 36mm meaning the seat stays about the same so my COG isn't goofed up. The proportionate length crank idea even works for guys with a 33" inseam and puts them in a 170-180mm range... stock leg length means lots of stock bikes to pick from. I'm going to run 205-210s on this bike. Shorter than the road bike because mountain riding requires quicker transitions in cadence but still in my sweet spot range.
Knowing I was planning to go with a custom frame I agonized over the details and options spending plenty of time thinking about what I wanted after having done a few trips on other bikes. Here are a few of the features I added to the design.
The picture above shows the Paragon Rocker dropouts with eyelets for a rack and fenders. They feature an adjustable chainstay length with an aluminum dropout plate which can be swapped out for different versions. Some of the options include post mount or ISO disk brakes along with setups for single speed, geared, and internally geared hubs. This part is truly one dropout to rule them all. The frame is setup with eyelets for racks and fenders. This is the only dropout that would allow for adjustable chainstay length and good locations for eyelets on the dropout side. Traditional slider dropouts don't do this well because of the disk brake caliper location.
The next feature I added was a seatstay break from Paragon so I had the option of a belt drive. The Gates belt drive is something I've always been curious about, especially when paired with a Rohloff. The biggest issue with the belt is how to get it on and off the bike. This requires a split seatstay because belts don't have a master link. Rohloff, belt drive, cable pull disk brakes... I'm going to get board someday looking for parts of this rig to plan a maintenance cycle for. Untill then it is a 2x10 setup from my old bike for now.
I spent quite a bit of time reading
http://www.whileoutriding.com/ and
http://gypsybytrade.wordpress.com/. That nifty Salsa Anything Cage kept popping up in pictures looking useful. Even more so now that Salsa is reworking the next production batch to have more beef for heavy loads. Naturally I had all the water bottle spots done with the triple eyelet configuration so they would be compatible with Anything Cages. A third water bottle location has been added to the bottom side of the downtube.
In addition these two photos above/below show some of the cable routing options. I've had all the provisions to cleanly route a Rohloff hub included in the frame. I really want to try a belt drive Rohloff but the bike is going to have standard gears to start and the cable routing for that is under the top tube. The disk brake routes on the top side of the downtube with the double guides on the bottom side for the Rohloff.
I went with the 44mm headtube up front because I wanted the option to run a tapered steer tube fork. There is a nice Niner brand carbon rigid with a 470mm axle to crown featuring a tapered streer tube and 15mm axle. My buddy worked at Niner in an engineering role. He beat the crap out of that fork with a ball peen hammer and then ran fatigue tests on it using an instrumented test cell to apply and measure force. According to his experience that thing passes multiple European test cycles after some hammering.
On the suspension side of things the nominal geometry is setup for a 90mm Fox fork. That boils down to a 490.8mm axle to crown with a 71.5 head angle. Subtract the 20% of 90mm travel equals 472.8 axle to crown for a baseline rigid setup. That will allow me to run just on the steeper side of my 71.5 head tube angle (when A-to-C=491mm) for a rigid setup/90mm sag point which is what I want. I'm plenty happy with a 72 head angle rigid off road. On the slacker side of things I can put on a 100mm fork at 20% sag and get some extra front squish. If I want a little slacker rigid setup I can go with a +5 King crown base plate and headset or even a White Brothers Rock Solid in the 490mm length. Bigger bikes with a long wheelbase and 29 inch tires tend to handle slow so I'm not trying to slacken anything up too much. I previously did a garage built steel monster cross with 200mm cranks and 72 head angle rigid. It was good handling and maybe just a little slow even when I was bouncing through stuff and hoping for the best. If you've been on a rigid you know that bump and grind prayer!
I can't wait to start getting bags on this and shaking it down loaded with gear!
