* 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)
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