DebW in the 21st century?

[Triskeliongirl]

SO, the plan is forming! You must be so excited. Listen to his advice, but you know a lot about this too so don't be afraid to trust your intuition. In the end, its your bike. That is great he thinks you can use 700c wheels, it will give you a lot more flexiblity. The only thing I think you might want to reconsider are the bar cons vs sti shifters. Sti is just so easy to shift since your hands are already on the hoods. I don't think I would like having to move to the drops everytime I wanted to make a shift. Maybe it would help if he had a bike in the shop you could test ride with sti. If you have small hands you may want the ones (ultegra level) with shims designed for smaller hands. I am also curious if he said you can fit fenders and 32c tires with the long reach side pull brakes. I think if its a sport frame its just easier to design it for long reach side pulls. When I had my frame retrofit, I noticed there wasn't a lot of room in there for cantis, so my frame builder had a special device he built to mount cantis inside a smaller than ideal space, although it its custom maybe they do have a lot of flexiblity. I had to either use cantis or move the bridge, and I worried moving the bridge would weaken the frame, and I already owned a set of cantis, so I went that route and have no regrets.

p.s. if you have any questions on the specs of the waterford my friend built he said you can send him an email (his address was in the email I sent you last night).

[Veronica]

The only thing I think you might want to reconsider are the bar cons vs sti shifters. Sti is just so easy to shift since your hands are already on the hoods. I don't think I would like having to move to the drops everytime I wanted to make a shift.

It just becomes automatic. I don't even really think about shifting. You just do it. It doesn't take that long either to move your hand.

V.

[Triskeliongirl]

I am also curious why you can't use front racks. I have no problem on my frame and it is sport not touring geometry with a longer wheelbase. All I am worried about is that you are being talked out of some of the great advice you gave me when I built my bike, such as having eyelets for a front rack and canti bosses installed. I am not saying to not trust your builder, but I am curiuos about the reasons behind some of his recomendations.

[DebW]

What I wrote in the first paragraph is what I'm getting even though it disagrees with his recommendation. I am getting a front rack. I'm hand-building my own wheels. I'm not getting STIs even though he prefers them. I'm not doing cantis partly because of his recommendation and partly because I don't like adjusting them (and I've adjusted thousands of center-pull brakes). I've heard conflicting things about them (much better than V-brakes, worse than V-brakes, best brakes for touring). If he had recommended them I would have gone for cantis, but it would have been on the basis of recommendations and not personal experience.

[emily_in_nc]

DebW,

I think you'll be fine with the things you've spec'd out. As I mentioned, I have bar-end shifters and love them. I too was used to STI before I tried bar-cons and initially resisted my salesperson at Bike Friday when he suggested them, since bar-cons were an unknown to me. But after just a couple of rides I loved them and agree with V that shifting with them becomes second nature. I especially love that they are friction in the front, unlike with STI. I can trim my front chainring so much more easily! I was always having trouble with that with STI. It's also much, much easer shifting to the big ring than with STI, which was always difficult for my left hand to do (hand strength issue) when it got tired -- that was the same for STI or Campy shifting.

I have V-brakes on my Friday and also have a front rack, and my bike is not long wheelbase (to the contrary!) nor does it have hardly any fork rake (the fork is small and straight), but it works, somehow -- I'm not as knowledgeable as you and Triskeliongirl on the technical reasons, I just know what works for me.

I also have a mix of mountain (XT in back) and road (Ultegra in front) components, which also works great.

The color you picked also sounds wonderful. Exciting!

Emily

[DeniseGoldberg]

What I wrote in the first paragraph is what I'm getting even though it disagrees with his recommendation. I am getting a front rack.

What I find really interesting is that I don't remember Peter recommending not getting a front rack when he built my bike. I wonder if his view of racks has changed, or if it's because I was configuring a bike for loaded touring as opposed to his recommendation to you of "sport" touring (whatever that is).

Congrats on the bike order - I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

--- Denise

[Triskeliongirl]

... or if it's because I was configuring a bike for loaded touring as opposed to his recommendation to you of "sport" touring (whatever that is)....

Loaded touring means a bike optimized for self-supported touring, including camping gear, etc. Sport touring means you can still tour, but with lighter loads, i.e. no camping gear. The reason to go sport tour rather than loaded tour is if you want to use the bike to do both fast road rides and light touring. A loaded tourer will be very stable with a heavy load, but then it will feel sluggish on a fast road ride. A sport tourer is a good all around bike, but will be less stable if very heavily loaded down, although I like this style bike and find that as long as I pay attention to balance my load it is just fine.

I AGREE DEB IS GOING TO HAVE ONE SWEET BIKE!!!

[Triskeliongirl]

I just had another thought. Maybe he didn't want to configure it with front racks, cuz then he thought you would try to carry too much weight if you filled both front and rear bags to max capacity. But, I remember you advised me to get a front rack so I could better balance my load, but not necessearially make it very heavy.

[DebW]

Peter and I talked about that at length. In his experience, front panniers make the bike less stable and make cornering more awkward. In my experience, they make it more stable and improve cornering (vs a load on the rear only). And since I stated that I'd pull a trailer for loads more than 20-25 lb, he found it odd that I might put 5 lb in each of 4 pannier bags. With a trailer, we could stick to a more sport geometry and not have to extend the wheelbase, making the bike more suitable for fast rides. Peter said that he will have to change the geometry to accommodate a front rack. I don't understand if foot clearance is the problem or just stability. I've only used high-mounted front racks, and now only low-rider racks are available.

Now that I know my current bike fits me quite well, and that the new bike will be very similar in terms of fit, I'm even more inclined to have the new bike lean towards the touring side. The current bike has a fairly short wheelbase and is more suited to agressive riding, so as long as I can keep it going, the new bike doesn't have to do everything.

[Triskeliongirl]

What I wrote in the first paragraph is what I'm getting even though it disagrees with his recommendation. ....

Ahh, thanks for the clarification! It sounds like you will have a wonderful bike! Yeh I do see the advantages of side pull brakes, I was torn myself. I also really see the advantage of going custom, which I think is the most important decision you made. If I had it to do over I would probably have done that too, but we all learn about this stuff as we go.