I finally finished the build of my SimpleOne after the frameset sat in the repair stand for the last two weeks at my work. I was waiting on wheels and then got busy so when I had a chance to build it up, I may have skipped a few step that I really wanted to do. But, ..I am planning a minor rebuild next week and am happy to have finally gotten the bike on the road. I didn't framesaver it, which I'm not too worried about now and I also built it up without adjusters in either the front or rear brake cable hangers.
I am planning on remedying both soon. I've only put a couple of hours in the saddle on this bike and it's been amazing. It's very different from my Hillborne in that it feels so fast and zippy but so comfortable. I have the bars pretty high up and they may actually go down a bit. I'm hoping to get at least a half day of riding in today and feel that I will be comfortable the whole time. I've done a few 60-80 mile rides on my Hillborne and it's been great as far as comfort. That bike is now set up in camper mode and the SimpleOne is my commuter and light/fast ride. I had the frameset shipped with the "Quickbeam" Sugino crankset with the 40t/32t double. I also purchased a beautiful single speed wheelset from Anthony at Longleaf. Other than that I had all the various parts needed to finish the build. (except adjustable cable hangers..which are in the mail) The wheels are built with the Paul high-flange hubs which have funny chainline values, 44mm for fixed side and 47mm for freewheel side. I added two bottom bracket spacers to get the 40t chainring on the crankset out to ~ 47mm from the center of the seat tube... so with the White Industries 16t freewheel it's a pretty perfect chainline. I think that 16t might be the lowest one can go with this frameset and still use the 40t/32t upfront because when I'm in the 32t chainring the hub is right at the opening of the dropout and when I'm in the 40t chainring the hub is at the opposite end of the dropout. It seems fine but I wasn't expecting such an extreme in wheelbase when switching between high and low. I'll mostly be in the 40t (67.8 gear inches) since I'm in New York City which is somewhat hilly but certainly nothing extreme. I do want to be able to take the bike out of the city and having the ability to shift down on longer climbs would be totally necessary for say, riding in the Palisades along the Hudson...something I've done quite often on the Hillborne. The brakes are beautiful and shinny Bruce Gorrdon cantilever's. I've set the up well without any adjusters but feel like they could be fine tuned further. I've never ridden a bike with a linkwire system. They feel strong and snappy but ultimately not that different from my Tektro 720's on the Hillborne which use a straddle cable. I am also planning on installing fenders and have both the VO 48 flutted aluminum and the SKS longboard's...unsure which to use. I am waiting until the drivetrain is totally dialed in to put fenders on as I know the fender line is hard to maintain with the wheelbase shrinking and growing. For now it's hot and sunny here so I'll go fenderless. I will take some photos today and report back with more assessments of the ride. For now, I have this poor, blurry iPhone photo: *http://tinyurl.com/4xsahdd* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/TH-IAyIR78oJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
