Soo__Fuego

Love this, awesome.

jonpear6

Figured I could just throw this out there.

TejanoTrackie 

I like it. Very utilitarian. I'd suggest you also re-post it in the townie thread.

jonpear6

Yeah, this the utilitarian mode. I love this bike because it is capable of so much. With a wheelset change, stem swap (w/ bars and lever), and saddle swap it is in good enough form to haul me around the track at a good clip as well, or on a longer ride. Love the thing.

tadswana

Well, just picked up a 12-month old lightly used steam roller last night. Fantasizing about what I'm going to do with it over the next few weeks.

It's running fixed with a 48T/20T ratio at 3/32, not sure why he had front/rear brakes on it. Definitely taking the rear brake off and changing the seats and bar.

Any ideas on the ratio? I previously ran 40T/16T which is slightly lower, however I like the 20T surly SS ring it already has. I'm in Melbourne, which is nice and flat with rare hill climbs.

50voltphantom

48/20 is pretty low, especially for a flat area. You'll spin that gearing out for sure. Nice bike.

50voltphantom

Hoping someone here can tell me what the fattest tire is that they've successfully mounted in this frame? I've heard as large as 40mm, Surly says 38's. What say you guys?

50voltphantom

Christiaan

I'm thinking of getting a Steamroller. Couple of questions:

1. Does anyone know if the seat stay tube is 16 mm in diameter? I have a seat stay splitter (for converting to belt drive) and it's 16 mm outside diameter and allows 1 mm for tube thickness:
https://www.framebuilding.com/acrobat...%20Coupler.pdf

2. The frameset takes 622 rims right? (I have some 36H Velocity Aero rims I'd like to use)

50voltphantom

1. I'd contact Surly.

2. Yes.

sbdark

Hey everyone!

Unfortunately, surly has no dealers in my immediate area . So, I began searching craigslist for 2 months attempting to find a surly of any kind. I finally found a 2007 Hershey "poop brown" steamroller 4 1/2 hours away. After a million questions to the seller, I quickly took off to take a look/pick up.

Upon meeting the seller who was riding around, I knew immediately I chose the right bike. I checked the seat tube, which had no grease - very very light rust towards the top of the tube. Chain completely rusted, I decided to buy her. Some would think I was crazy considering how dirty the bike was, but I knew what i wanted and I had every intention of providing proper TLC.

Crankset, wheels, hubs, and frame were covered in black filth. I didn't care! I quickly trekked the 4 1/2 hours back home (in a car) and immediately stripped the entire bike down, minus the cranks due to no crank puller lying around. Stem screws had some rust, fork steer tube had light surface rust as well, brake caliper caked with dust as was the rest of the bike. Wd40, 3 boxes of q-tips, and maybe 5-6 hours later cleaning, polishing every nook and cranny... She looked brand new!! I could not be happier with my new steamroller, although I could use some tips as to how to clean the wheels, looks like grease has stained the rim.

Amazon is great, I ordered two ritchey classic stems, ritchey classic drop bar, origin 8 riser bar, new chain, ritchey seat post. Near future additions will be, Brooks swift antique brown, brooks bar tape and grips, maybe a paulcomp crank, and definetly a paulcomp love lever. All of which will be transferred to a new frame in a few years.

I hope you guys enjoy, as I put my heart into this bike. I do realize i should have taken before pictures, but this is only rebuild no.1 with hopefully more to come. I'm open to any suggestions or criticism. I won't fire back

I am officially a proud surly owner, so wheres my family patch?!

IAmSam

Great job - looks almost like it is a brand new bike...

Things worked out for the best - but did you not know that every shop with a QBP account is a Surly dealer?

Anyway...if you haven't already - your very next purchase should be some sort of foot attachment. And please do yourself a favor and remove the Pauls cranks from your shopping list...not only are chainring sizes limited - they are just fugly.

Otherwise - keep up the good work and enjoy your new Steamroller

edit...Oh yeah, doesn't your frame have a slight reddish cast to it? If so - you might want to refer to the color as "Boston Baked Beans Maroon" instead of poop brown...

surlymonk

I've run a 40 mm Vittoria Randonnuer on the front, but can only manage a 35 on the back because of brake clearance.

50voltphantom

Thanks for the reply. I ended up getting some nice 33mm Maxxis Raze tires which fit comfortably in the frame.

jonpear6

I had it in the back of the dropouts, but I got a 45c Specialized Fatboy Slick to clear the stay and forks.

50voltphantom

Cyclocross race set up.

sbdark

Some updates to my build: Ritchey classic seatpost, Ritchey classic drop bar, and most importantly Pedal Cages

The C-Record Pista will be installed soon, just waiting on my philwood BB and 1/8cog to arrive. Brooks saddle, Brooks bar tape, and cane creek calipers+drop levers when my other bikes sell.

Edit: Also removed fork and chainstay decals

50voltphantom

^Nice build!

sbdark

Thanks 50! Love your blog btw

ethet 

'Tis the season...



...for 40mm studded tires.

50voltphantom

Thanks! I wish I had your Ritchey cockpit. I'm conflicted about switching to a silver stem/headset/seatpost.

thewilson 

This is so painfuly good!

ethet 

Thank you so much, @thewilson

50voltphantom

This build really is spot-on. Every component makes sense.

SquidPuppet

Nerd bars with tape. Seal of approval!

The mood is captured nicely in the photo too.