tangerineowl

Hmmn. How about starting with a Crust Lightning Bolt 2 frameset then? (if it can also take big 26" tyres).

Or a Crust Romanceur frameset (26"):
https://crustbikes.com/products/the-romanceur-presale/

rhm

I was interested in the Rawland Ravn, as originally announced, and became pretty enthusiastic about it to order one. Unfortunately they started changing the design, making it into a very different bike than initially promised, and I backed out. At that point I went the custom route.

I'm pretty conservative, when it comes to bikes. Here's what I ended up with:



I'm not going to pretend it's the greatest bike ever. I have had some second thoughts about it. But the bike I ended up with is exactly what I wanted, and I'm increasingly happy with it. Over the last two or three weeks I was watching the weather forecast for the DC fleche, that I'd already signed up for, and I realized this was exactly the right bike for that ride. As it turns out, the weather was much better than we'd expected, but I rode this bike as planned. And I was pretty happy with it.

jonpear6

You should look into the Crust Romanceur. Another batch will be done in the next few months and I LOVE mine. It isn't the lightest build ever, but I have seen some that are much lighter than mine. I run Compass RTP tires. Velocity Dually rims to SP/White Industries hubs. Simplex DT shifters, TRP Spypre Brakes. Berthoud Aravis Saddle, Rene Herse cranks.


My Pass and Stow rack, Ocean Air Saddle Support, and what I load it up with weigh it down.

clasher

The surly midnight special might worth looking at, and if you're looking to shave weight it'll run a carbon fork too. Has thru axles and flat-mount brakes so it seems future-proof.

I heard MAP cycles is open for business again.

tangerineowl

Any pics?

jonpear6

See the photos attached below of my Romanceur. I highly recommend it.

jonpear6

I apologize for the image rotation.

ThermionicScott 

Looks great. iPhone? Make sure the little camera icon is right-side up before snapping the pic.

Craptacular8

Nice bike. what rack are you using?

jonpear6

It is a 1st Gen Pass and Stow Rack. The new ones are much lighter and much more adaptable.

Craptacular8

Sweet. It really looks like a very useful design.

twodownzero

Standover is too much for me. I'm really not sure what they were thinking with 772 mm on a "XS".

verybigsquirrel

Such a nice bike I'm seriously considering one. What size is yours / how tall are you? Having a terrible time trying to figure out sizing

Clem von Jones

Velo Orange has a cool 26" touring frame called the Polyvalent and it has clearance for the 2.3 slicks (Compass 418g) with fenders.

https://velo-orange.com/collections/...cts/polyvalent interesting

This is a really intriguing category of bicycle. I tried to create something similar from a discarded vintage mtb frame and it became perhaps my all time favorite bike even despite its cheap straight-tube frame which created a nearly 40 pound build. I love the vintage Sugino 94/58 BCD crank with its 20 tooth granny. It was a mistake for manufacturers to quit building 94/58 because with them you can run racing style compact cassettes yet still have low enough gears for steep hills. This frame has ultra slack 68ish tubes yet I've managed to put an aggressively aero setup on it which is comfortable for me and great for long ultra-steep climbs.

somethingclever

What kind of fenders are you running?

gif4445

What do you have for top tube bag? I have a setup like this, but used Revelate. I'm getting frustrated with my small Gas can bag. Yours looks pretty roomy.

unterhausen

the one that says "BBD" on it? That's a bike bag dude bag from Australia.

63rickert

There is even an extra layer of confusion because the old Schwalbe Marathon Supreme had a 5mm thick block of rubber between casing and tread - and was surprisingly light for that sort of tire - but still just slow. The all new Marathon Supreme is kinda nice, reasonably light, but still nowhere near as fast or light as a Compass. Definitely agree they would sell more and have more satisfied customers if the names were not a source of confusion..

63rickert

Referring back to top post. On a 50cm frame you may be right that 559 wheels are the way to go. However there is no reason at all for 584 or 622 wheeled frames to have toe overlap in a 50cm frame. That is just bad design. Too many examples of small frames that ride well and have no compromises to excuse anyone who still builds frames with the overlap problem. Small bikes have been built correctly for decades and decades.

esteward

Do you have any pics?

Tulok

You could consider buying a high end vintage mtb and having disc mounts put on it. They usually have rack mounts and are surprisingly lightweight.

ThermionicScott 

Since this thread has been bumped, I'm curious which direction you went, @twodownzero.

Forum member @Jmclay built a super-cool bike around the Compass/RH Rat Trap Pass tire while this thread was dormant: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...pass-tire.html

Jmclay

The RTP bike is stellar. Absolutely perfect. Handles everything like a dream. My rides from home necessarily involve at least meaningful amounts of sand, dirt, turf or gravel roads and paths. If I could have only one bike this would be it. The dimensionally/geometrically identical BSP bike is stellar too; if unpaved riding were, I don't know, less than 10% with the rest being paved road riding I might prefer the BSP though I'm not certain of it. In any event I could easily live with either one as my only bike. I wish I'd had one of these several decades ago. Both of them totally eclipse everything else I've ever ridden.

The electrical slipring was definitely worth the trouble to figure out and build on both bikes and has been refined in a detail or two. Operation has been flawless on the RTP. The headset I used on the BSP was in a rubber sheath and so I had problems with a poor ground to the main triangle. It's being replaced with the same type of conventional unit thats on the RTP bike after the repaint, mentioned below.

The Rustoleum paint experiment was a tremendous failure, or success, depending on how you look at it. Take home message being don't use it. Stick with automotive urethanes unless you're into powder coating (I am not). Both are up for a repaint; actually I'm headed out to the shop after I post this to strip the paint from the BSP frame. The hurricane has pulled some dry air down here for the next few days so I'm suddenly in a repaint thrash.

Flickr album for RTP here (I'll post some new photos shortly). Photos of some test rinko packing are near the end of the album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/216244...57671170583438

Album for the BSP is here and it will get the rest of it's rinko treatment (rear fender) soon: https://www.flickr.com/photos/216244...57674615273680

If liability exposure weren't a consideration I'd be building these for customers. They are very neat bicycles.

Tulok

That beautiful orange machine!

twodownzero

For better or worse, I'm still riding my disc trucker. Due to some job issues, I am not riding brevets anymore but I look forward to getting back into it. I've been doing a lot of mountain biking, and recently got into tandeming.

Now that gravel bikes have pretty much taken over this segment of the market, if I build another bike, I'm going to build a 650b bike. It annoys me that the market is allowing 559 to die, but dead it is, and 650b has so many new tires available that it's a no-brainer at this point.

I actually ordered a Boulder Bicycle frame at one point, but after we completed the drawing, the owner of Boulder Bicycle decided he didn't want my money and refunded it. That was probably for the best, since he's a bit of a retrogrouch. There are now a ton of people making allroad type bikes since I made this post, so fortunately, when it's time to pull the trigger on a new bike, it will be easy to find someone who wants to build what I want.