TiHabanero

After sitting in the house for a number of years, I finally put a new rear end on frame No.1. Hit it with the car and bent the chain stays about 5 or 6 years ago. All tubes are 531 with exception of the chain stays. They are TT RC2. Designed with 71mm trail, it is a straight-line runner. Good news is no pull left or right! No need for snappy handling out on country roads. Had a ton of fun fixing the old boy, and am looking forward to spring!

On to the next build. Full load touring rig. Just deciding between 26" or 700c. Never have done a 26" wheeled frame.

Andrew R Stewart 

After 3 700c touring bikes I made one with 26" wheels. I like it much better when fully loaded then the 700c versions. But I'm only 5'6" so the easier straddle clearance was nice. Andy

TiHabanero

Andy, since you have gone down the 26" road, I'd like your input on frame design. Using steel tubing, my initial thought is to use standard 73 seat and 71 head angles. I like a stable ride and know that mountain bikes are stable so I figure a design much like an ATB will work. May have a for raked to give trail closer to 70mm, but that is it. Thoughts?

Andrew R Stewart 

I didn't drift much from my 700c head and seat angles. The seat one is about seat set back and nothing else so why would that one change? I only did a .5* less to better center the seat clamp on the rails, kept the set back as usual otherwise. The head angle remained the same (71*) but the rake changed to maintain the aprox 63mm trail I find works well for me. What did change a bunch was the tubing diameters. I went from classic road/steel ones to what many call OS1. 28.6 TT, 31.8 DT and 28.6 steerer. I used a wide and large cross section box crown with somewhat thicker blades and stays. The results were very stable, no speedman's wobble regardless of the load. I ran 37/38 wide Panaracers and was happy with the roll and pace. That things were a tad more surefooted was nice compared to the 32+ wide 700c rubber I ran previously. When I swapped out to 1.25 tires(actually closer to 30mm wide) the reaction picked up and the bike didn't feel land yacht slow. BB drop was about 55mm, CS was 460mm. I couldn't tell you the wheelbase since that's a resultant and doesn't mater much anyway.

I carried close to 80lbs in the most remote areas and the bike was solid and handled well during it's madden tour across much of the US. The same bike and tires carried about 30lbs on a motel tour out of Grand Junction last year. Was very comfy and confident feeling. I can climb at around 3mph and descend at well over 40 with equal stability.

Most important was I had a classy paint job done for it. Andy