What a great range with this setup! When my triple crankset is worn I'm hoping to replace it with a similar setup to yours (though in 2x9) with a Sugino or Silver double in front and probably with 34-46 because I'm a heavy fellow surrounded by mountains that need the easier gearing. I'll probably stick to a Shimano XT front deraileur too. But this was super helpful info, thanks a million!
Separately: what is that front rack? I'm looking for an odd size (about 8"x8" +/- 1") platform top for under $100 to fit a one-off ILE "demi" porteur bag and that looks like a good fit. The only good options I've found are: Blackburn Bootlegger $60 <https://www.backcountry.com/blackburn-bootlegger-front-rack#> SimWorks Obento $160 <https://www.sim.works/products/obento-rack?variant=12537904791653> VERY handsome ride, only downside seems to be it's so well appointed and suited that maybe you won't need another bike after that! Abe On Friday, November 8, 2019 at 5:31:39 AM UTC-8, John McBurney wrote: > > I want to share my latest build with the group to show what I’ve done with > the drivetrain. When I was thinking about this I read as much as I could in > different forums, but at the end there was a certain amount of a leap of > faith involved. I want to share with this group as others may have a > similar inclination. > > First about the bike, it’s a custom Carver low trail rando Ti frame with a > Soma low trail caliper brake fork recently acquired from list member Luke > Heller. > > Now about the drivetrain, in summary it’s a wide range 2x8 with Dura Ace 9 > speed bar cons. The crankset is the heart of the system: Shimano CX 50. > This is a great sifting crank, 46/36. The smallest ring it can take is 34 > with the 110 mm bcd. The rear derailleur is a 9 speed Shimano XT long cage. > > I wanted to run a lower than 1:1 low final drive. I found the new wide > range cassettes offered by manufacturers such as Sun Race, Box and > Microshift really interesting. I chose an 8 speed Sun Race 11-40. It is an > all steel unit. Nicer designs with alloy spiders start at 9 speed. I wanted > 8 speed in order to have non fiddly friction shifting. I heard that wear > may be an issue with the lower end 8 speed cassette and if that’s true I > may try to convert to 9 speed indexing, although that may mean sourcing a > long cage road derailleur. > > The RD will shift a 36 cog so in order to shit the 40 requires an > extension link which lowers the top jockey wheel. Wolf Tooth makes these > (Road Link and Goat Link) but so does Sunrace. I bought the Sunrace as it > is cheaper and I was more confident it would work with the Sunrace > cassette. The gear capacity of the RD is 41 teeth. With this setup the gear > range is 39 so no problem. Cross chain 46-40 causes rub on the foo of the > FD and of course should be avoided anyway. I haven’t found the lack of a > clutch to be an issue, but I did source a Microshift Advent clutch long > cage RD if I change my mind. The XT is much prettier IMO. > > The resultant gear range is below with a nice high of 113 and a low of 24 > with nice steps in between. > > So far I’d say it works great! 8 speed is the sweet spot for friction. > I’ve had no problem with ghost shifts under power. There is excellent > tactile feedback when shifting. > > So in summary, this works extremely well. The parts are available an > affordable. Highly recommended! > > > > 113.688.9 > 96.175.2 > 83.365.2 > 69.454.3 > 56.844.5 > 44.634.9 > 36.828.8 > 31.224.5 > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/39f293fb-3513-4c3a-8743-b872d2420166%40googlegroups.com.
