Quote Originally Posted by DebW View Post
Now Peter is rethinking wheel size after I told him how close to toe clip overlap I am on my current bike. My shoes are 41 and I get overlap by moving my cleats back a few millimeters. He's also saying sub-73 seat angle but I don't have the full specs yet.
Aaah, I like the sub-73 STA, that is one terrific reason to go custom. I really have to struggle to find seat posts laid back enough to get set up properly even on my 73 STA bikes. From what you are saying lately, maybe having him favor a touring geometry is what you want, but to not use super heavy tubes like for camping style self supported loaded touring. I do think the long reach side pulls will be much easier to adjust with diff. sized wheelsets than cantis, but I still love the braking power of my cantis, and the ease of mounting a rear rack. Will you go 26" as in mountain bike size or 650B for your touring wheelset? I looked up his website, and saw he lists bikes as road and touring, at least in his 'stock' frames, but not in between, and his 'road' frames seem to be road racing, so maybe that was the source of the problem with the front rack. Another advantage of 650 wheels is that you will have more room for a carradice bag if you want. Mine just fits with the 700c wheel in back, but barely. Again, while I LOVE my travel, and LOVE what I paid for it, if I had it to do over (i.e. using what I learned from doing it, and of course weren't as concerned about educating 2 kids) I would do exactly what you are doing, gone custom, and tried for a sub73 STA and 650 wheels. But if you are going to have it accept 26" wheels, do you want the option of going wider than 32c or to use both wide tires and mud guards? If so you may need to rethink the brakes. I would get him to confirm that you can use BOTH mudguards and 32c tires with long reach side pulls. Maybe it depends on exactly where he puts your bridge. What fun you must be having designing this bike!