Here are a few more photos of Lorna's new mixte. It still needs a generator, but the build is very nice. Check out the internally expanding seatpost and very cool chain guard.
The color is a very close match to the blue used by Rene Herse. Interestingly, Neil (who ordered the frame as a present for his wife) didn't like the color at first, but now says it's probably better than what he had envisioned. I'm still trying to talk him into center pull brakes ;<)
centrepulls would be awkward for the rear brake, wouldn't it? With the solid housing going all the way down to the brake, it would force some inelegant solution to allow centrepulls--or at least some torch work and a re-spray.
ReplyDeleteM Burdge
Beautiful bike, beautiful build. I love the color (at least how it shows up on my screen).
ReplyDeleteBurdge, Chris was probably referring to the Paul centerpulls that take a single center bolt.
Neil, did you consider internal cable routing, or did you want to go for the classic full housing look?
M, You might be able to simply use an adjuster/housing stop on the last guide. But I wrote that half in jest since Neil is not a fan of centerpulls.
ReplyDeleteI have had center pull brakes on other bikes. I just thought it was nice that someone was making a standard reach sidepulls again. They probably will change. There are a few other things that need to be worked on - fender line, chainguard clearance, etc. We probably should have been more aware of toe lap, but that's water over the bridge (or under the dam?).
ReplyDeleteI really didn't consider internal routing.
Beautiful colour scheme.
ReplyDeleteAs Neil and I discussed, it looks like there's a huge amount of toe clip overlap on this bike. Why is the front wheel so close to the downtube? The clearance looks almost like my old basher city bike when I bent the frame on a giant pothole.
Also I humbly suggest that the shifter/grip may want to be re-thought -- the Jitensha bars don't have a very long straight section, but it's tiring to the hand to ride with a very short grip. I faced the exact same thing on my beateur merdeaux Fuji city bike, and I worked out a mount for the grip shift on the stem, so that the grips themselves wouldn't be compromised.
Just my $.02.
What type of fork crown is that? I've seen that one a few bikes now and really it
ReplyDeleteClassy looking scooter.
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ReplyDeleteNeil.
ReplyDeleteI assume there are no problems with a sidepull brake in that location? Good. I am working on making my wife's town bike a 650B conversion and hope to
david_nj.
That grip/shifter combo might work for the rider's hands. I managed to make it work for me with a set of Nitto Promenade bars. See: http://tinyurl.com/23sc4p for a kind of unclear picture of the set up. Not ideal, but it did work for the winter. I'm back to drop bars now.
The toe clip overlap issue has been on my mind. This is a very small and very short frame. This size frame is a bit of a compromise. The dimensions were based on Lorna's previous bike. We should have changed the geometry by using a steeper seat tube and perhaps recommending a longer, virtual, top tube. Some toe clip overlap might be okay, but this frame has too much. We will build a new frame at no charge.
ReplyDeleteAre those trimlines? They really fill up the fenders nicely.
ReplyDeleteThe centerpulls in question would have a straddle cable, right? On my fiancee's Peugeot mixte, the rear brake cable runs in in its housing down between the lateral stays to the last bridge, just ahead of the seat post, where the housing terminates in an adjuster. The cable emerges from that and immediately connects to the straddle cable, *ahead* of the seat tube, so the straddle cable is pretty long. But it seems to work well (well enough for a rear brake, anyway) and I kinda like the funky set-up (so I preserved it when I revamped the bike for her).
ReplyDeleteIt might be heresy to suggest this here, but are those 650b/584 wheels, and if so, would the toe-clip-overlap issue be alleviated by going down to 559 (on either this frame or the replacement)?
ReplyDeleteThis is just magic. A very beautiful bike.
ReplyDeleteNeil, David:
ReplyDeleteI have the Rohloff internal hub on my camper. Originally it had Jonesbike HBars. The shifter set up is a lot like what you did here. Ultimately I could not get used to the set up.
So I got in touch with Jon, Ahren's shop mate. Jon is making me a stem with the shifter holder on the right side, similar to what some German company is doing.
I think this may be the best solution for my camper. You might want to consider for this little beaut.
One thing I've been meaning to do is to see if the Shimano Nexus trigger shifter can be hacked off of the brifter and used much the same way as a rapid fire+ pod shifter. I love my gripshifter but it does interfere with the brake levers on my DiaCompe reverse pull levers.
ReplyDeleteGuys, if you want to mount your grip shifter next to the stem, so as to preserve space on the bars, there's certainly no need to have any fancy custom machining done, by Jon or anyone else. Just use a bar-end from a mountain bike. That will clamp right onto your stem quill, and your grip shifter will clamp right onto the bar-end. Just cut it down to the length desired.
ReplyDeleteIf I knew how to post a picture here, I would. It's very simple and very clean.
David:
ReplyDeleteI have seen that, and you are right, it works fine.
But my camper is a custom made lugged beauty (Hand made, literally, by Tom Oswald in Mansfield, PA). I wanted it to have a stem to match.
Jon is a real artist with the stems (and with his frames to, even if they are not quite Velo style). I am very pleased to be a patron.
Greg:
ReplyDeleteNo need to hack up a Shimano brifter. Shimano makes a trigger shifter for the Nexus/Alfine hub, the Alfine Rapidfire Plus (SL-S500):
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2dr972
It is available in Europe now and should be released in the USA soon. My wife's VO mixte will have one.
-- David G.
where did you get those handlebars? I just can't find any good handlebars here in the states.
ReplyDeletelovely chainguard, any leads on where to obtain one?
ReplyDelete