New Bike: my $100* Jones LWB**! (2012 Specialized Expedition)

 * The frame was $100 on ebay. I probably could have found a complete bike locally for not much more if I wanted to be patient, but this came up at the right time when I was looking for a winter project.

** Not really a Jones of course. But after owning two Rivendell Clem Smiths and two Jones LWBs, I guess I felt like trying another long chainstay bike.

This frame as envisioned by Specialized is an old man's comfort bike:

In my version, it's now a middle aged man's all rounder. How and why to make that happen:

If you want a long chainstay bike, there only a few options beyond the Clem and Jones LWB:

- an early to mid 80s mountain bike

- some kind of cargo bike

- some weird old Trek touring bike (770? I don't know)

- custom

Or this Specialized Expedition from 2012, with chainstays stretching to 500mm (longer than the Jones or vintage bikes, shorter than most new Rivs). This frame had some good things and bad things going for it:

- it's very slack: 68.5* head angle and 67.5* seat angle as delivered. Slack head angles are cool right now for mountain bikes, but nobody is really looking at seat angles this slack for a bike that has performance aspirations.

- the aluminum frame is lighter than the other options above, seems well made, and has modern fittings. Even a kickstand plate!

- 26" wheels are strong, tough, and cheap, and I had a nice pair of tires ready to use for this build (Panaracer Gravel Kings 26 x 2.1")

- nice long 200mm head tube (in my size Large) to get the bars up without huge spacer stacks

Along with the tires, the build was mostly a parts bin build for me, aside from digging up some new/used (and mismatched) wheels off ebay.

My main concern was dealing with that slack seat tube angle. I initially built it up with a straight block Thomson post from my bin, but that was still a bit slack. I ended up ordering a cheapie seat post with a removable clamp head--that let me easily reverse the seat on the post, which I couldn't do with the Thomson. The seating position feels pretty normal now:

For the drivetrain, I ended up using an S Ride 8 speed setup I had picked up earlier in the winter when Soma was blowing them out for 65% off. I got the shifter, derailer, chain, and cassette for less than $10 each. And it shifts really well! It feels a lot like my Deore 10 speed drivetrains, noticeably smoother than the Advent budget stuff I've used on other builds.

It's nice to have a Jones bar laying already, already wrapped, to mount that S ride trigger shifter onto:

I tried two different forks for this, but ended up sticking with my initial build, an old Nashbar 700c cross fork. It's 420mm axle to crown, and while I can't use the brake posts, they do make a nice rack mounting location:

My other fork attempt was with a Salsa Fargo V2 29er fork off my shelf, at 465mm long:

Strangely, the Fargo fork got the angles close to nominal, but the handling felt a bit floppy. With the Nashbar fork, the angles are about two degrees steeper (maybe 71/70), and I like the handling better. Unfortunately, it drops the bottom bracket quite low, about 10.25". 

I looked at ordering a new fork for this project, with a length in between these two, but I've already spent about as much as I want to on this one.

Brake wise, I have a Shimano mechanical disc up front, and some more Soma bargain V brakes in the rear.  The rear runs full housing through the frame, which makes it feel pretty spongy, even with compressionless housing. But the power is good enough to easily skid the tire:

One downside of my bargain S basement S ride transmission is that the cassette is only 11-32. In a rare move for me, I dusted off my front derailer bin and turned it into a 2x8 machine, using my last Suntour XC Pro crankset, and 44/34 Salsa rings, and an XT front derailer:

Actually, "XC Pro Crankset" is a bit of an exaggeration, since I think the left arm is a mismatched XC Comp.

I'm pretty happy with the final result. It's a fun bike to ride around town and catch the mellow city park trails. The low bottom bracket will keep me from really using it as a mountain bike, but I have other bikes for that.

Typically for an around town bike, I've built up either a 700c road or cross frame, or an old mountain bike. I think the Expedition has some advantages over both of those:

- Compared to a cross bike, it has fatter tires, a better fit with Jones bars, better brakes, and much more standover--nice when I stop a lot while running errands

- Compared to an old mountain bike, it has a much greater stack and a lower bottom bracket, making it much more stable feeling. No more of that "halfway to an endo feeling" riding position of old NORBA racers!

It's not perfect of course. The low bottom bracket will give me pedal strikes off road, and that, combined with the long stays, makes it pretty hard to lift the front wheel. An XL might have fit me better. But it was a fun build when I needed a project!

(I am still eyeing the Jones bikes on sale, though)

New Bike: Brompton, and the Folding Bike Continuum

Round about four years ago, I stopped on the way home from Detroit to buy a Bike Friday I'd found on Craiglist. I was riding a Dahon, my first folder, and I was hoping the Silk I bought that day from Roger would be a nice upgrade. I didn't care for the Silk, and ended up driving to Indianapolis to meet a guy from Chicago and trade it for a Crusoe, which I still have and enjoy.

Which is a long intro to leading up to another CL search, another meeting with Roger on the way back from another trip to Detroit, and another new folding bike. This time, a Brompton:

I've never ridden a Brompton, and I was curious to compare it to my other folders. Roger is shorter than me, so I ended up making my own telescoping seat post out of some cheap Amazon parts:

The lower post (31.8mm? I need to check) is a regular seat post with the head cut off, a 27.2 seat post with a clamp inserted above that, and a beer can shim to make it work. It's not super slick, but it works well enough. I also had to add taller handlebars:

Which gave me a reasonably comfortable riding position for my 6'3" self:

I also added some folding pedals:

The Brompton fold is very, very refined. For instance, the frame clamps have a small indent on the fatter end. This is a place to insert your finger and allow you to spin the clamps more easily. Smart!

The result is a super compact fold that is stable and easy to carry as a package:

My taller bars do slightly impact the fold: the lower grip hits the ground, causing the folded bike to sit not-quite-squarely. I think Brompton offers a taller stem mast, but the taller bar was a cheaper option for me, and like my telescoping post, it works well enough.

The Brompton has a few other neat features: a wide range three speed rear hub, and front and rear dyno lights. The front light had a short in it, but luckily I had a Herrmans light sitting on the shelf that plugged right in, and has a lovely beam pattern.

So, a super slick fold, simple gears, always available lights... it's easy to see the appeal of the Brompton as a multi modal commuter machine. What doesn't quite work so well for me is the actual ride itself. It's not a bad riding bike--almost every bike is fun to ride in some respect--but compared to my Crusoe, it feels slow yet with twitchy handling. There's only one hand position, and not much flexibility here due to the constraints of the fold. It's not a bike that's my first pick when I go out to the garage and look over my little fleet of seven bikes. 

I'm not saying the Brompton is a bad bike. It's just not a great bike for how I use a folding bike. If I flew with a bike, or took a train to work, a Brompton would be ideal. For a ride leaving right from my garage, not so much.

So in my folder experience, I started with a Dahon Speed. It's a typical 20" wheeled bi folder. Not a super compact fold, but also not painful to ride:

(I'm not sure why I didn't drop the seat post in the picture of my folded Dahon, but it's the only folded picture I had handy)

Then my BF Crusoe, which rides like a good bike but has a messy fold:

In the defense of the BF, it's sold as a "packable" bike, not a folder. The concept is a bike you would carefully pack in a plastic Samsonite case that is airline checkable, then unpack when you arrive at your vacation destination and ride from your new base.

The three bikes plot a pretty linear curve between ride quality and folded size. This is my Folding Bike Continuum:

The Brompton has the best fold, but is the least fun to ride for me. If I were to fold the bike as part of every ride, it would be the clear choice.

The Bike Friday has the best ride, but the biggest and messiest fold. The less I fold it, the more I like it. For quite a while, it was my #1 choice of bikes to grab from the garage and roll out into Dublin.

The Dahon is somewhere in between: a reasonable fold, and OK to ride.

For my use, the Dahon style is probably the best folding bike. This would allow me to throw it in my car's trunk for the occasional use during a business trip or local trip, while still being a fun alternate bike to ride around the neighborhood.

There's a reasonable chance I'll sell both my Brompton and my BF to go full circle and return to a Dahon style. The churn is relentless.

New Bike: 1982 Specialized Sequoia

I've had my '84 Trek 610 for about two years now. It's set up as a geared/fendered/650B bike right now, which had me missing a nice 700c fixed gear. I put up a wanted post on the iBOB list and ended up meeting Andrew to buy this old Specialized Sequoia frameset. I quickly got to building and set it up in an image of what my Trek used to be, a 700c Albastache-barred fixed gear:

A 44t crank drives my 17/20 Surly dingle cog, and a 22t freewheel on the flip side, giving me three gears:

In theory, this gives me a normal fixed gear, an easier fixed gear if I'm tired, and an off road gear.

In practice, I have yet to change gears and probably never will, but it's fun to set this kind of thing up.

The Sequoia, at 66cm, is about a half size bigger than my litany of 25.5"/65cm vintage Treks. I like the taller head tube, but the reduced standover isn't so exciting.

These frames seem to have a better reputation than old Treks, but so far, it rides pretty much the same. The lugs are slightly thinned, but I've had that on some of my older Treks as well. They're both fine riding machines.

Here's my latest setup, really just moving the bag up front:

I'm playing around with making PVC pipe stand offs to hold the bag slightly off the bars. I need to refine the cuts on these somewhat to make them more stable, but they're not bad now.

The tire clearance seems about the same as the Treks as well, though right now that's limited by my Tektro R539 brakes, not the frame. Here's a Soma SV tire, claimed at 33mm, but actually more like 30mm:

Andrew said he could fit 700x38mm (35mm actual) Gravel Kings on the bike, so now I'm trying to hunt up some brakes with better clearance... though that will exacerbate the standover issue. But perhaps I could fit the current tires with fenders. 

I like this bike, but at seven right now, I'm getting the down sizing itch. I think I'll only end up with this or the Trek, but not both. Stay tuned for the churn!