Robin Mather

beautiful! might be a stupid question but what is the coupler on the stay for?

Belt drive compatible.

Never knew you had a Mather. Pure beauty. That stem, wow.

Someone should report this velocity fella for spam.

The chainstay and seatstay end finishing is pure Robin. Subtle but distinctive – I think the guy is an artist!

Hey Velocio, you've probably seen these shifters, but just incase you missed them. Not cheap though.

More rohloff shifter positions:
http://cyclingabout.com/rohloff-hubs-with-drop-handlebars/

And another (custom made) split handlebar split-endz by m-gineering:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanecycles/5113376835/

Some really interesting solutions!

I really would like to see how it look right now.

"Not cheap though" = the definition of that bike

Cinq 5 looks like the best solution yet.

Very tempted.

For people with a Rohloff, I don't think the price is unreasonable. After all we've already put a set of requirements (quality, widest gear range, consistent gear steps, longevity, etc) above cost.

If we're willing to pay for that level of engineering I doubt any Rohloff owner would hesitate to complete the experience with a decent road bar solution.

The only catch: There hasn't been a decent road bar solution.

I've personally ruled out all split bar solutions, and dislike the GB and Co-Motion shifter on the bar solution (unconvinced by the long-term operation of it, it's been hit by an ugly stick, etc).

May get the Cinq 5 next spring.

That the Tout Terrain people make them is a good thing. Those bikes are damn nice too (from a purely functional perspective, with a little aesthetic thrown in).

I have to say, I think the flats on your Mather are rather brilliant.

It's as if your bike is way ahead of its time, and we'll all be rocking flats soon.

Hasn't changed at all for years.

A couple more dings to the paint, but it's the same bike.

The only difference from the original photos have been:

• On the first day: I de-stickered the rims to make it less of a thief magnet (dropped the perceived value of it enough that only those in the know look twice)
  
• After 1 year: I changed the cranks from the carbon ones to Specialities TA Carmina ( http://www.specialites-ta.com/gb/manivelle-carmina.html ), and I changed the bottom bracket to SKF one ( http://www.compasscycle.com/bb_SKFBRC_iso.html )
  
  

Nothing else has changed at all.

I'm glad I changed the BB and cranks... it made it noticeably smoother and nicer. Plus these look better on this bike.

Still curious about adding the carbon belt, but until I can just buy the bits online I can't be arsed trying to order it on the phone and via emails.

I would like to go back to drop bars, but I want to solve both the Rohloff shifter and the hydraulic brakes in a way that I'm really happy with before I do that.

Don't get me wrong, I love them.

But... numb hands on long rides. Need to mix it up a bit, have a few different positions.

I have thought about keeping flats, but just going for something that curves to help prevent the numb hands.

My only criticism of the bike is that the Rohloff shifter has made it hard to have that choice to use a drop bar when I know I'm doing a weekend camping and several days of long rides. It's possible, but it's fugly and messy to change back and forth.

My remit to Robin was "the bike should change from touring mode to city mode in 15 minutes"... most Rohloff shifter solutions take a lot more mucking around than that.

You could get some short bar ends to change the angle of your wrist.
Makes a massive difference uphill too.

Hills are irrelevant with a Rohloff, that low gear is very low.

With a Rohloff, you pick your preferred gear inches for your average cadence cruising gear. That becomes the direct drive gear 11. You then have 3 steps up, and 10 steps down. You get to go reasonably fast (as fast as you need to), but have this huge array of gears for any terrain that you could ever face. The gearing is ridiculous, gear 4 is a comfortable spin up Highgate Hill West (not fast admittedly, but it won't knacker you at all... you could do it for a hell of a lot longer).

So the position changes I'd want are for 10 miles here, 20 miles there. It's for the numb wrists that come from spending hours in one position.

Bar ends don't work well here, but with drop bars you'd spend time on the hoods, time on the flats, and small bits of time in the drops.

I have got the ergo grips on it, and they help. But drop bars would be better.

The bar ends would give you a similar position for your hands like on the hoods. It's
just a bit wider than a drop bar.
Even something like that will change where the pressure is on your hand

Those are what I have.

The bar-ends are largely useless (I removed them), the shaped ergo grips are pretty damn good and help stop the carpal tunnel trapped nerve thing.

I thought about this kind of thing:

But sanity prevailed.

One thing I found about belt drive is that the belt do need replacing every once in a while.

Friend of mine is a huge belt advocate, he wear his out once a year, which is mainly due to riding a fixed wheel bicycle (the teeth on the belt break off after it start to wear).

I wouldn't be fixed with the Rohloff, a belt should last a long while.

I've not felt the need to try it though. The chain is still doing great even with over 10k miles in it.

I estimate that I've done about 11,000 miles on the Mather in 6 years. For a while it was the daily commute bike, then I stopped for a bit due to sciatica and recovering from that.

I'm really pleased that aside from tyres and tubes, nothing has needed changing or replacing, and that everything is still great. The chain is probably good for another year, and yes... it's the expensive and over-engineered Rohloff chain.

Belt drive is appealing, but when everything is working so well already it's hard to justify the hassle of buying it.

Enter your text here... Bars, have you tried the SJS touring bar? I have a pair and they are much more comfortable than flat straight bars. Though flat & straight are possibly the better choice for city riding...

have you tried the SJS touring bar?

Nope.

What do they look like?

And do they solve the Rohloff shifter problem somehow? I've no lack of choice on bars once that problem is elegantly solved.

Fuck me, it's a whole rainbow of ugly!

Needs electronic shifting

Well SJS say they do!

They are the standard bars they use on their Rohloff equiped bikes.
Have a mooch on the Thorn website

Dat whole biek: liquid sex.