Paul Barnard

I ordered a Lynskey Backroad frame on July 20. It is due to arrive Monday. They had to build the bike, so that seems pretty quick to me. I posted a bunch of questions in the Bike Mechanics forum. Using that info I ordered all the parts. Initially I was torn between drop bars and flats. Ultimately I settled on flats. I am starting off with a true flat bar and bullhorn bar ends. Handlebar changes are pretty easy if I want to try something else in the future.

I am going with Shimano XTR triple 10 speed cranks. The rest of the drive train will be Shimano XT. I have ordered 2 sets of disc brake wheels. One set is fairly light. I will mount Gatorskin 28's on it. The other wheelset is a heavy duty gravel/touring set that will see Schwalbe Marathon 32s. Hopefully moving back and forth between the two wheelsets won't require a whole lot of brake and dearilleur adjusting. I ordered through Bicycle Wheel Warehouse. They are a small business and don't man the phone. They prefer email contact. The first time I emailed them I didn't get a response. The second time I did. They were fairly responsive in getting me answers to my questions. Sometimes there were several days between my questions and the responses. They built the wheels very quickly once I ordered, though they are not showing as shipped yet. I found an online coupon that knocked over $100 off the price of the wheels.

I am going to install TRP Spyre mechanical discs. I have never wrenched on discs, so that will be a new experience for me. Disc brakes seem to be a point of frustration for our resident hobbyist mechanics, so I am a bit apprehensive about it.

At the present I am planning on going with an ISM PR3.0 saddle. I am using its predecessor on a different bike. It's the best saddle I have used to date.

I ordered my drive train and tires through Blue Sky Cycles. They had a 10% off coupon code. That on top of what I considered to be very good prices. The XTR crankset with BB was $199 after the discount. They shipped quickly. I ordered some of the smaller parts through ebay vendors. The handlebars Abaxo sent were not the ones I ordered. They got me a return shipping label quickly. They are supposed to ship the correct ones immediately after they get the return. We'll see how that goes.

I managed to get the very last steel fork in Lynskey's factory. There will be no more.

About Lynskey. During the exploratory phase and after the purchase I used the "Contact Us" feature on their website. In both cases I got an email back saying they had received my request for info. It is auto generated I am guessing. They never responded to my request for information. The Backroad page on their website is missing or unclear on some of the details someone will need to build a bike. I called them to get answers. One time I spoke with Adam who said he'd have Alex call me. Alex never did. Another time I left a message on Alex's voice mail and he never called me back. On my third call I was able to talk to Alex directly. He was VERY good to deal with. They are a small company, so I understand some delays in getting back with a potential customer. The 4 non-responses was a bit of a disappointment. I can't help but wonder if they don't lose business because of that. I know the frame is going to be fantastic. If everything shows up as I ordered it I'll give Lynskey a passing grade. I really wanted them to be an A+ company.

I'll post some pre, during and post build pics.

DeadGrandpa

Paul Barnard

Gramps, you make a pretty good point about the wider tires on the touring/gravel wheels. I have some nearly new Schwalbe Marathon 32s that I rode in CO and I loved them on most of the surfaces I rode on. They really were great on a 60 mile loop that had mixed paved, hardpack dirt and gravel. On the gravel I would have certainly benefited from wider tires. I am going to use the Schwalbes up then see how I feel about it. The rims I ordered are tubeless ready! It's really encouraging that you swap with no issues. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'll post pics too. I am starting with a flat bar and bar ends because this bike will fill sporting ride duty more than anything else. I may make it my sole road bike if I like it well enough.

DeadGrandpa

Regarding tire width and pressure, I learned a little lesson on the 120 mile gravel Denali highway a couple years back. Just drifting from one tire track to another was enough to cause my wheels to slide right out from under me. I was rolling a 700x41 Surly knobby on front, a 700x35 Clement pavement tire on rear, with probably too much air in each case. That was my introduction to gravel. Fortunately, I had tights and long sleeves on, but got scrapes from ankle to shoulder through the clothes. I called it a learning experience, and bought a plus bike for future bikepacking adventures. But I understand wanting to use up the tires you have, first.

Paul Barnard

Denali Highway got my attention. Touring AK is my bicycling holy grail. Did you post any pics here on that tour?

Tourist in MSN

You should not have any problems with the TRP Spyre. I put that on my Backroad in the rear. That is the first and only disc brake I have ever installed, everything went quite easily. I had a spare fork in the basement that was nearly the same specs (rake and the axle to crown length) as the Lynskey fork, except mine is for rim brakes. Thus my Backroad has disc rear and V brakes on front. I prefer drop bars, have that on all my bikes except for my errand bike.

The TRP instructions recommend compressionless brake cable. I used it. I do not know how important it is that you use it, but I had some so there was no reason for me to avoid using it.

I was pretty disappointed with Lynskey customer service, but by the time I finished building up my bike, I was quite happy with it.

I am running 45 mm fenders and 37 mm tires, my tires are Hutchinson Globetrotter, which I think is now discontinued, it is similar to a Schwalbe Marathon. I have several bikes so I only built up one set of wheels, if I want to ride on narrower tires I use a different bike. Including the Lynskey, I have two derailleur touring bikes and a Rohloff expedition bike, the Lynskey is my light weight touring bike. Plus some non-touring bikes too.

I have conventional hubs, not through axle. Some people complain that when they put a wheel into the frame with conventional hubs that their disc brake is never set right. But I have had no problem at all. If I pull my rear wheel out and put it back in, the disc brake is set perfectly.

I have one suggestion - there are replaceable dropouts in the back, each are held in place with a couple 4 mm bolts. Pull the bolts out one at a time and apply some blue loctite. (Blue is the version that can be removed with regular tools later, if necessary.) One of those bolts started to unthread on me on a short tour I was doing about a year ago. To make an extremely long story very short, I was fortunate I had all the tools that I usually tour with including a cassette removal tool. Thus, when that bolt started to make a total mess of things, I was able to fix everything. This past April I was on a group trip, one of the people had a new Lynskey that had the same dropouts. I warned her of that and she said that it had already happened to her too. So, it apparently is a common occurrence.

Just a quick heads up, if you have not bought a rear rack yet, you will find that the rear rack mounts up pretty high above the axle, much higher than on most other bikes. That means that your rear rack will be higher above the rear tire than typical.

Some photos of mine at this link:
https://www.bikeforums.net/20160286-post32.html

In the photos, the rear rack I have is a RackTime AddIt rack, you can see how high up it is. Fortunately I chose a rack that has the lower rails to hang the panniers from, if I had a rack without those lower rails my panniers would be rather high up.

Good luck with your build.

DeadGrandpa

Denali General Store


Diorama in the Welcome Center of Denali National Park
I did not post any pics. The photos I took with my phone did not capture the grand scale of what I saw. However, with the ever present "Pics or it didn't happen" mantra, I will attempt to attach.

Paul Barnard

I completely understand what you mean when you say that you can't do the scale and beauty of the area any justice with a camera. That happens to me too.

Paul Barnard

Thanks for the tip on the derailleur hanger. Is the rack that you installed a disc brake specific rack? I am curious as to how Lynskey customer service disappointed you.

Tourist in MSN

My rack is a standard run of the mill rack, not one with the odd bottoms of the legs to push it further out. Such a rack would not be needed on a Backroad because the disc unit is on the chainstay, not on the seatstay. You can see in the photo below that the rack and brake are not anywhere near each other.



Lynskey occasionally sells frames on Ebay. And I bought mine on Ebay. Before I had my frame in my possession, when I asked questions about the frame by e-mail, Lynskey would ask what my serial number was, which I of course had no clue about. And the Ebay photos were older, showed the older style of disc mount. So, after I won the auction, I ordered the parts I needed including a post mount disc brake. Lynskey sent me a frame with a flat mount brake.

You will note in the photo that there are three bolts that go through the chainstay to hold a brake mount and they sent me a mount that differed from the photos. Lynskey then sent me a mount like in the photo so that I could install the brake, but that mount interfered with the bolts on the hub that hold the disc to the hub, thus the wheel would not turn. At ths point the clear lack of quality control for designing the brake mount gave me some significant concerns. On the next try, Lynskey got it right and sent me a functional brake mount. But by then almost a month had passed after I had paid for it. There were some other hiccups in our communications too, but the rear brake mount and the incorrect photos on Ebay were the main points. If you are curious, I got a great deal on the frame, that is one reason that I was much happier with Lynskey once I had a chance to start riding the bike. And now a year later, I am still very happy with the bike.

I am considering moving the rack to the lower mounting point where my fender is mounted, but that is a low priority right now. Will probably do it before my next trip on the Lynskey. For riding around town, I am not using that rear rack, instead I am using a smaller lighter duty Nitto rack that has a lower platform on it. And my next tour will likely be with my Thorn Nomad because that tour will be on a lot of gravel. Plus, my next trip will be internationals and my Nomad has S&S couplers which reduce my international air transport costs by a lot. So, I am not sure when I will get around to taking the Lynskey on another trip.

I expect you are getting a flat mount for your disc, that should work fine too. My Lynskey frame and yours probably are almost matching for specifications but I think yours will have a conical shape headtube where mine is cylindrical.

It is a touring bike and I like touring bikes that are robust, reliable, easily repairable and with components that are easy to replace. Thus, I use a square taper crank, rear hub that has quarter inch steel ball bearings, eight speed chain, bar end shifters, etc. I think my rear derailleur is from the 1990s. So, our final builds will be quite different from each other. And although I considered going light weight on many components, I used Dyad rims which are not exactly light either.




One more suggestion, there was no form of chain stay protector on the Lynskey when I got it. I put a piece of electrical tape on it as you will note in the above photo. Costs nothing (I already had a roll of tape) but looks nice.

fietsbob

Gluing down a length of rubber rim strip works well ,& being thicker , chain will not ding the metal, like it may,
through the thinner electric tape.

Paul Barnard

Wow Tourist! That is great info. Thank you very much for taking time out to share it.

Paul Barnard

My brake mount looks nothing like yours. I am afraid the same thing that happened to you happened to me. Mine is flush with the chain stay, not bridged like yours. Is that "riser" piece on yours threaded?

I will post a pic later. I guess I need to call them.

Marcus_Ti

He has QR dropouts and post brake mounts. You probably have flat-mountings I'd guess. Post-mount is going the way of the DoDo in favor of flat.

In general...Lynskey puts their rack mounts in odd places that are rather high-centered on many of their models.

Paul Barnard

This is my first time working with disc brakes, and I may be missing something, but I don't know how my brake which isn't threaded mounts to this which isn't threaded. The holes don't come close to lining up either.

Tourist in MSN

Yup, yours is for a flat mount brake. I am not sure if teh flat mount they sent me looked exactly the same or not, that was a year ago. When I pointed out to Lynskey that the photos on the website were for a IS type mount and that I had already bought a 160mm brake that would fit on a post mount or an IS mount (with adapter), then they sent me a post type mount. And the one they sent me did not function correctly, I told them what was wrong with it with a photo, they then sent me a functional post mount.

Did you already buy your disc brake?

At this link they show a flat mount brake unit. But I have no clue if your Lynskey mount is for a 160 mm brake disc or some other diameter.
https://www.jensonusa.com/TRP-Spyre-Flat-Mount-Mechanical-Brake-BlackSilver?pt_source=googleads&pt_medium=cpc&pt_campaign=shopping_us&pt_keyword=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI 1PHNmJvw3AIVArjACh2kWgzzEAQYASABEgKw2_D_BwE

I see you have the same dropouts I have for a 135mm conventional hub. Both drive side and non-drive side should have the bolts locktited in with the kind of loctite that can be removed later, blue in color. Or a thread locker that is a competitor to Loctite.

When they started putting disc brakes on road bikes, the roadies did not want a big brake unit, they wanted something small and discreet so that it would look small and elegant and light weight. The manufacturers obliged and created the flat mount.

I am leaving town for over two weeks, the last that I will have web access will be mid day on Sunday. So, get your questions in quick.

Some day someone will ask you what the various components weighed. If you have a luggage scale, you could start weighing things and taking notes before you assemble. I was surprised to learn that my frame weighed less than my rear wheel with cassette and tire on it, but that is a touring wheel with robust rim and 36 DB-14 spokes on a steel axle XT hub so it is not the lightest wheel.

My seatpost went in pretty tight, but with grease on the seatpost it slid in easier.

Paul Barnard

I have 160mm brakes that are post or have the adapter for IS. I already have the front brakes mounted. They are Spyres just like yours. The spacing of the two holes on the frame is much narrower than the spacing on the brakes. The holes are not threaded either. It sounds suspiciously like they shipped my bike with the same mount they originally shipped yours with. I likely need the piece yours is pictured with.

Paul Barnard

Here's a better photo of what I am working with.

Tourist in MSN

This website just deleted my response, I am a bit more concise the second time.

Yup, you got a flat mount on the frame and a post mount brake.

If Lynskey wants to charge you for the post mount, you might consider an adapter instead. I am guessing that this will work but since I have no actual experience with this adapter, I am only guessing.
https://www.trpcycling.com/product/f...mount-adapter/

Paul Barnard

I did weigh the ML frame with a 300g seatpost attached. It was right at 5 pounds. The fork pre-cut is 2.5.

I guess I am not getting this thing built this weekend. I guess I can have everything sitting on ready for the brake. I don't think I am going to get Lynskey to ship me a post mount adapter. I am just going to order a flat mount brake and be done with it. I'll add the other post mount brake to my spare parts bin.

TiHabanero

Be sure the brake cable housing being used is compressionless housing. Not sure if TRP specs it, but I set them up on my son's bike with standard housing and the Spyres were less than satisfactory. Switched over to compressionless housing and the things work great and convinced me to never go hydraulic again.

Tourist in MSN

I do not know what diameter disc that mount is designed for. If I was in your shoes, I would call Lynskey first and discuss options. They might offer to send you the post mount for free.

And if I decided to get the flat mount brake, I would ask them what diameter disc the flat mount is designed for so you get the right brake for it.

Paul Barnard

They do spec compressionless, and I did buy some. Thank you. Hopefully this brake issue will be my only snafu.

Marcus_Ti

Mounting disc brakes, you generally just need the right adapter (there are some odd exceptions like adapting flat brakes to post mount mounts). Flat-mount brakes typically use a flippable adapter like this to adjust for rotor size to flat mounts:

https://www.jensonusa.com/TRP-Flat-M...-Mount-Adaptor

As only the tools at Campagnolo were dumb enough to design their calipers to be rotor-size specific.

In your case, something like this is probably what you need:

https://www.competitivecyclist.com/s...-brake-adapter

Select the right one from the pull down.

Paul Barnard

That's what I need to do. Their web page for the Backroad needs a little love. It doesn't give the builder all the info they need. Since it's sold as a frame only, I'd think they'd load the consumer up with all the info they need.