Well Vaya build back on hold for a couple of days, thought I'd been really whizzy when I stripped the Pompetamine. Kept bars, stem cables and disc brake calipers all hooked up together. Yes it slotted on to the Vaya very neatly but...there's always a but....the Goodridge cable outers were trimmed to fit the Pomp and the Vaya is a rather larger frame. It's close, could set it up and ride it as long as I didn't turn any corners
so just ordered some more Goodridge outer.
Pete, the tyre clearances, yeah I've had a bit of an overall change in my intended use/design for the Ti frame, signed off on it today. I'd gotten too hooked up on versatility and multiple use, same as with the Crosscheck, hence why that's being sold off. I've reverted back to the original setup of the Dawes as a pub/shop/backup commuter and put some better parts on it. That had been the intended role for the Surly but it's a bit expensive to just leave anywhere. But I loved the ride and clearances on the Surly and the Vaya ticked the boxes as a replacement. It differs in longer chainstays, compact geometry, longer head tube, vertical dropouts hence the EBB and disc mounts. The rear disc mount is chainstay orientated so no interference with rack/guards. But Salsa and Surly are both owned by QBP the huge bike company, so same frame material, build, etc. So the Vaya is good as a commuter but it also has touring pedigree as well with front rack mounts etc, I've gained in that respect if I ever want to tour. Both the Vaya and the Dawes can take my Winter studded tyres and both have rack, guards etc.
Originally I'd been thinking of the Ti frame as a commuter/backup weekend bike and looking towards a new disc brake weekend bike in carbon, like the Volagi. But a bit of common sense struck and I realised I was going to end up with more bikes than my stable required, I still believe in 3 being a good number, with 4 only happening if I want to do proper MTBing. A leave anywhere bike that can cope with backup commuting duties, a dedicated commuter that could cope with weekend duties and a weekend that could cope with commuting. If I'd ploughed ahead I would have ended up with the Surly as the leave anywhere(I don't think so somehow), the Vaya as a sort of floater, the Ti as a commuter and the Volagi as a weekend. I admit I was drawn to the idea of a Ti commuter, ie weather proof. But some further thought led me to recognise that it was overkill for purpose and a steel frame commuter would see out my working life no problem.
That's a long way to say the design concept of the Ti changed to more road/audax but still with some of my little quirks. The 44mm tyre clearance was just to match the Windwood Muddy Cross disc forks, I have an orderly mind. Now we've agreed that 44mm isn't a must have and tyre clearance will be maximised but without resorting to S bend chainstays. This will mean that I'll certainly get clearance up to 35mm, so can run studded tyres if desired, and that's good enough. I also decided to go with dropout/seatstay disc tabs rather than chainstay, if I have to use a rack then I'll get a disc specific one. For the sort of rides this will be for then the most I'd take would be a rackpack, I have an Arkel Tailrider. Coincidentally Arkel have brought out a new 'Randonneur' rack which is seatpost/saddle rail mounted:-
http://www.arkel-od.com/us/arkel-randonneur-rack.html
I'm rather taken with this as an idea, QR mounting, quick and easy and allegedly very stable due to the 3 supporting points, or certainly in comparison to other beam racks. I'll know better after the night rides get going again as TimO has bought one and I'll get to see it in action.
The final design of the Ti frame bears a remarkable resemblance to a Spesh Roubaix, a bike I've both admired and test ridden, and comes in between their 56 and 58 sizing. Similar geometry, I'm sticking with a 200mm head tube, I've lengthened the chainstays to 435mm but the overall wheelbase is only about 1027mm and the trail comes in at 61mm with 32mm tyres. This is 4-5mm less trail than all my other bikes have been so should give me a more agile ride without getting into twitchy country. The effective TT is 570mm and, coupled with a 120mm stem, should give me a saddle nose to bars reach of about 550mm(with saddle in centre of rails and an inline seatpost), which is spot on compared to all my other setups. The saddle setback from BB is bang in the middle of my setback range at 74.5mm so this allows for a bit of tweaking with the saddle being in the middle of the rails. Compact geometry as well but not crazy sloping, just midrange.
I've paid the deposit so it's all systems go(Justin at Burls has been very patient with me), can you tell I'm excited? Jane and the boys have no interest in any of this, their eyes just glaze over if I start talking about it
But you can expect further lengthy deliberations and procrastination as I try to decide on the precise build spec for the Ti frame. The only definites so far are the frame, forks and a Thomson Elite inline seatpost, you can imagine how bad I'm going to get choosing the rest
