Custom Ti Fat...

[Giel]

...with beltdrive and Rohloff

Can't post pics or links, 3 more posts needed

[Giel]

2

[Giel]

1

[alexkraemer]

Where's the blastoff? :-)

[nvphatty]

Where's the blastoff? :-)

wait it's coming by Jan 2014. after all it has taken nearly 2yrs for 10 posts you see.

[Giel]

Go!

It's time for somethign new and after having taken a short spin on this bike Reader’s Ride(s) ~ Jeroen’s Custom FatTi BR | FAT-BIKE.COM I asked the owner to help design one and have it built in the Far East. As luck would have it he was about to kick off with his own company to supply bike design services and help with the outsourcing of actually getting it build Ti22 Bike Design I had the pleasure of tbeing the first customer of sorts

The design brief calls for fat bike, suitable for multi-day bike-packing tours in remote areas. Having power on-board to keep the GPS charged and run a light is for me a necessity. The thought of being independent of battery run times is very appealing, but solar panels don't quite cut it for me and the areas I ride in. At around this time Son (the German dynamo hub builders) came out with a 15mm thru-axle disc-compatible version http://www.nabendynamo.de/produkte/s...rodukte SON 28 An order was soon placed. A nice detail is that the Son hubs are color-matched with Rohloff

Teh choice for drivetrain is Rohloff. It does impose a limit on tire-width (a 3.8" Larry fits and I hope a 3.8" Knard will too), but the pro's of low maintenance and reliability for me outweigh the tire limitations.



A Gates centre track belt will be used to drive the thing forward on a 39*24 ratio. Tensioning will done with a EBB by Idworx. I have used the same in my regular 26" MTB and the quality of that EBB and the bracket itself is very good.

A rear rack is required to keep 8-10kg of camping gear in a dry bag. I am not yet sold on the framebags that seem so popular on your side of the pond. One of the be4st designs that I know of is by a local builder, the well-used item looks like this:



Using this as inspiration, Jeroen came up with a new design in Ti and with a few small additional touches.

Front suspension is on order with German A, they'll hopefully deliver a Flame in January.

Quite a story, alltogether (but without the rack) it should look something like this:


5 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr]

Fast forward 6 weeks after submitting the final drawings to the factory in China and 圣诞老人 was early this year and delivered a nice package , the contents of which actually resembles what was commissioned


IMG_2674 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr

Double hoseguides in case I decide to mount a dropper post


IMG_2675 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr

Rear rack, a piece of art if you ask me


IMG_2676 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr


IMG_2677 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr


IMG_2680 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr

Nooit meer een ketting smeren (op deze fiets dan)!


IMG_2681 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr

Enough clearance for a 3.8" and still Rohloff compatible


IMG_2682 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr


IMG_2683 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr


IMG_2684 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr


IMG_2686 by Michiel Kuit, on Flickr

Wheels are not yet done, the wheelsmith (sp?) is taking his time, and the German-A fork will only be delivered in January. Then we still have the 100mm Son dynamo with 15mm akle to a 110mm fork with 20mm axle, but that should be doable

Big compliments to Jeroen for his design work and his communication with the builders in China to ensure they delivered what was expected. Thumbs up!

Ride-report in a month or so

[AC/BC]

RAD!

[DasWax]

Nice

[Giel]

Thanks

While waiting for the German A fork and fat wheel set I did a quick mock up yesterday with a 29-er wheel set and DT XMM fork. One of the design aspects was 29-er compatibility, and hey, it works

[ozzybmx]

Very Nice !!!!! 3.8 fat, 29+, 29er with 73mm BB ???

[Giel]

Very Nice !!!!! 3.8 fat, 29+, 29er with 73mm BB ???

68mm BB Not sure if 29+ will fit. The design brief specified 29 with 2.4" tires. I'll give it a try with the 3.0" Knard when I can get my hands on one. The 3.9" Knard on 26" fits beautifully

[Stevob]

Very interested in the EBB set-up you've got there. More pics and descriptions of that please. Nice bike!

[nvphatty]

Worth the wait

[Giel]

Very interested in the EBB set-up you've got there. More pics and descriptions of that please. Nice bike!

The EBB is made by these chaps: http://www.idworx-bikes.de/images/parts/big/ebb.jpg

Basically a machined alu unit with press fit bearings. The bearing on the drive-side is wider. Their USP (according to them) is longevity. I must agree with that, I have an identical EBB on my 26er and it still going strong after >2 years, often rifing in wet and muddy conditions.

[Giel]

Done, finally















Most fun ride in a long time

[Rabies010]

Looking good !

Nice cable routing for the Rohloff as well !
But why didn't you place it under the seatstay ?

[roobydoo]

looking good, but your are missing a pic.
Would like to see chainline/tire clearance on rear - how did it work out?

The double cable design of the Rohloff hub was really taken care of nicely. I also am a big fan of running a geared hub.

[db4]

Nice , job

[Velobike]

Nice detail with the Rohloff cable mounts (amongst several other nice detail).

Where did the belt drive cog for the Rohloff come from?

[patineto]

Congratulations, beautiful machine, very elegant and clean..

[autodoctor911]

Can you post a good pic of the frame coupling for the belt drive?
I can kinda see part of it in one drawing. Was the frame tested for belt drive use per Rholoff/Gates test specs?

[Giel]

Thanks for the nice words everyone. Took it for a proper spin on fat wheels for the first time yesterday and all the say about fat is true, yes it is slower, but the amount of fun that comes with having what seems to be unlimited grip is terrific! During the design phase I thought I would mostly ride it with 29-er wheels, now I am not so sure anymore Bitten by the fat bug, definitely!

Looking good !

Nice cable routing for the Rohloff as well !
But why didn't you place it under the seatstay ?

Thanks By putting the routing a bit to the side the cables completely clear the arch of the chainstay --> no tire rubbing the cables, ever.

Would like to see chainline/tire clearance on rear - how did it work out?

Sorry no pic just yet, but measured it to be 2-3mm. Not a lot, but still need to adjust the chainline outwards by 1.5mm or so, just waiting for the spacers to show up. I am not a heavy rider (150lb or so), so flex doesn't seem to be a problem. For the heavier/stronger types this could be a problem. I could still gain a few mm more by switching to chain.

Nice detail with the Rohloff cable mounts (amongst several other nice detail).

Where did the belt drive cog for the Rohloff come from?

A local shop in the Netherlands stocks them and a friend has got a link to a German framebuilder who sells them. Getting the cogs is easy, getting the adapter that is needed to marry the cog with the hub is the more tricky bit. Only Rohloff and their distributors sell them and a few odd framebuilders. I got mine under the counter, so to speak.

Can you post a good pic of the frame coupling for the belt drive?
I can kinda see part of it in one drawing. Was the frame tested for belt drive use per Rohloff/Gates test specs?

5th pic from above in 3rd or 4th post shows it very well. The frame is not tested for belt drive. But we over-sized the chainstays to minimise flex. Have done a few hunderd km on it, most of it in 29-er set up and a bit on Nates since a few days, no problems to report.

Cheers, Giel

[Rabies010]

Thanks By putting the routing a bit to the side the cables completely clear the arch of the chainstay --> no tire rubbing the cables, ever.

This is something i could see already.
But what i meant was : why did you put them underneath the chainstay ?
This way things like sticks can still get caught in there.
If you would run them under the seatstays you would have a smaller risk of that happening.

[Giel]

Ah, misunderstood you there.

3 reasons for taking the downtube-chainstay route:
1. Crowded toptube, already 1 brake hose and will also have cable for dropper post soonish. Adding the Rohloff cables there makes it too crowded
2. I find the downtube route aesthetically more pleasing
3. During the design I was also looking sideways at my Idworx bike which uses the same routing, without problems so far.

[Rabies010]

No problem.
I understand what you mean with a crowded TT.
I personally like to have the cables routed as high as possible to prevent them from getting caught on something.