Originally Posted by Syscrush

Well, on Saturday I finished the Toronto-Montreal ride with my brother and brother-in-law.



The extra range (low and high) made a big difference. I did spend a bit of time at 55-65kph (aka 5H gear) until we were past Kingston and the terrain flattened out, and I definitely used 2L and 1L for some of the climbs in Scarborough, Port Hope, and most notably Mount Royal. I was especially glad for that range as we rode ~130km to the base of Mount Royal, before going up. I also learned to stop worrying and love 2H, which is basically the same ratio as 4L, but is easier to use with 3H for short, moderate climbs.

As well as it performed on this 650k trip, I do think that the 2x5 setup with a bar-end twist shifter is better-suited to city riding than fitness or touring rides. Having to move my hand for shifting the hub is a bit much to do all day, and results in a bit of lost momentum on each shift, and doing a shift that involves both ends of the drivetrain (e.g. 4L to 3H) even more so.

I have a Jamis Sputnik that I haven't ridden since having this bike built, and I think I'll have the 2x5 drivetrain swapped over to it, and use that as my city bike (set up with riser bars instead of the current bullhorn).

The Gios will then get either an Alfine 11 Di2 setup, a Campy Centaur or SRAM Rival groupset, or a new owner. We'll see. The Norco Indie Drop Di2 is a very good fit for me on paper, but I really hate how it looks. Still, it would be the smart purchase for another trip like this one - and smarter still for anything longer and/or self-supported.

If the Gios is spared daily rider duty, then it would make sense for me to have it seriously cleaned up and repainted/restored, and fit with a new groupset. Campy makes sense in terms of heritage, but on the other hand I love mechanical oddities which makes the SRAM double-tap shifter very appealing.

I think that 5.5 years without ever dropping a chain (except on a rental Di2 Ultegra bike) may have completely spoiled me, though. Both of my tripmates on the Toronto-MTL ride dropped their chains at the same time - they were both on the middle chainring of their triples, and small cog, so the chains were sloppy when we hit some very rough pavement at the low point between 2 hills. It reminded me that that's something that I just never, ever have to think about. It also made me reflect on how a good friend of mine dropped his chain when pushing at full force at ~50kph and the resulting spill took months of recovery time. Those things add up to a very compelling argument for sticking with IGH, and only the A11 has workable options that work with integrated shifters. There's the ShiftEZY setup for the Rohloff, but it's unbearably ugly - I can't put that on this bike.

What's certain at this point is that the bike has done everything I've wanted/needed it to do, and then some - and it's been a great experience. I have all of the time I need to decide how to change things up next.

Originally Posted by rudypyatt

I know this is an old thread, but I'm finally going to convert my Windsor TimeLine into an IGH road bike. I'm talking it to the shop tomorrow.

I want to know how reliable the SA 5 speed has been. I have an S-RF 3 on my Linus and love it. I want to add a little more range to the Windsor.

Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by DQRider

It's a bit of a teaser, but I was trying to see how high I could safely mount the Lauterwasser bars on that Nitto stem. This one's gonna be purty!

Originally Posted by Syscrush

Here's a mini-update.

Dan had a booth at the Toronto spring bike show, and he featured my bike there - it was a showcase for his IGH conversions and Schlumpf installations. He gave it a super spiff-up and detailing, and also replaced the dying twist shifter with a shiny new bar-end shifter.

I went to the show with my good camera hoping to get some glamor shots of the nicely detailed bike, but forgot my memory card!

It's collecting dust now while I wait for nicer weather and a chance to ride. I'll try to spiff it back up and get some good shots (including the new much-improved shifter) to share here soon.

Originally Posted by Syscrush

Do you have a build thread?

Originally Posted by DQRider

Unfortunately no. This was just after I joined the forums, and I never took "before" photos, so I can't put one together now. I assume you have seen the finished bike, as I've scattered images over several different threads. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of your build.

Originally Posted by Syscrush

Thanks for all the input, folks.

Fenders: I would like some, but it's not the highest priority. Once I get the bike rideable and put some miles on it, I'll decide then what (if anything) to do about fitting some kind of fender. Probably raceblades or nothing.

The dropouts are adjustable with 8mm fore-aft movement. Should work just fine for this setup.

IGH: I bought the wrong one, although in my defense the right one won't be available from anyplace until late spring or early summer. I got so excited to find an X-RF5 in stock somewhere that I didn't realize that it's not the X-RF5(W) that I want until it was pointed out by member Dan Burkhart when he saw the pic in this thread. The plan was to use the Sturmey Archer bar-end shifter, which requires the (W) hub. Ugh. I feel a bit sick. Seems like the wait for (W) hubs is months long at this point, so I'm going to use the hub that I have in hand and use the twist grip shifter via a hubbub adapter, even though it's ugly.

I've test fit the Velocity Deep V's from my other bike, and I like the look, and there's definitely room for a 25 on there, which is what I plan to use (probably Schwalbe Marathons). I suspect that even a 28 would work just fine. I have put thousands of city and touring miles on 23's and have no concerns about the comfort factor of 23-25's.

As far as the spacing is concerned, right now it's at 125mm, and the hub is very close to 115mm wide. I'm going to leave it up to my builder to decide whether to use spacers, cold set the frame, or both.

Originally Posted by Syscrush

I looked around and found your bike. It looks really wonderful:

Originally Posted by DQRider

Is the orange bike in Dan's post yours? If it is, I have a great suggestion for fenders:

Originally Posted by Syscrush

I'm keeping this bike, but from now on it'll be my fitness/touring bike. Dan built a very nice "old fat dad" bike for me to use for commuting, running errands, and riding around with the baby. I'm happy with my new city bike and will make a thread for it soon.

Originally Posted by Syscrush

I have a Jamis Sputnik that I haven't ridden since having this bike built, and I think I'll have the 2x5 drivetrain swapped over to it, and use that as my city bike (set up with riser bars instead of the current bullhorn).

The Gios will then get either an Alfine 11 Di2 setup, a Campy Centaur or SRAM Rival groupset, or a new owner.