Custom steel road bike (Rychtarski !)

ORLY?

I picked up some 30mm pdw's yesterday, spent hours last night trying to persuade them over wide rims and 25mm tyres and past my front mech adaptor... eventually got the wheels spinning freely but on the ride into work this morning realise that there is not enough clearance - I don't really want to go down to 23mm tyres, nor do I want to butcher the guards with a dremel (yet) so just wondering...

I think he solved it but its also the wide rims I think .. well there are always chromoplastics ..

Gotcha. Well, I'm on the fence for now as to whether I bother with eyelets. Still thinking of clearance for 28s.

Shut the fuck up amey. I meant that descending in the wet is hairy. Cycle training won't make roads dry nor will it make my long drop brakes perform better.

and should maybe have mudguard eyes, but let's not forget I already have a tourer.

If i t was me (base on what you've said) I would have hidden mounts on the inside of the rear stays and on the brake and chainstay bridges.

I wouldn't build it up with mudgaurds either. IMO unlike racks, and other gubbings having the option of properly fitting mudgaurds is a nice one in England, even if you're not always using them. . What if you want to go for a fast ride between March and August?

You could use Poly drops:

Which would mean that you can swap dropout between those shown above and some with eyelets:

If you live in England, eyelets is a must.

Otherwise you'll be kicking yourself when you want to ride that bike all the time regardless of the weather, it paid.

If you ride it in the winter regardless of weather then get eyelets.
If you only sneak it out on dry sunny winter days, why bother?

But get the clearance for 28s, thats where the market is heading with increased offerings of good wide tires, and brakes/rims that can accomodate them. (Hint: Shimano brakes. Clearance and stopping powah!)

I'm definitely getting the clearance for 28s, assuming they will in fact fit under the calipers (I think that's a "yes")

I've been thinking a bit more about colours. For a while now I've been intrigued by the idea of a black bike with some orange highlights - kind of Rapha Continental, only not pink. Some inspiration (albeit MTB):

Yay/ nay?

Hmm, I guess that idea no longer seems tempting.

Sweet fixy, tho, is it custom?

mockup in bikeCAD yo

how long do they normally take to reply at rychtarksi's? This thread and @psee 's made me write an email to them just after finishing going through these awesome builds.

cheers from frankfurt

They've taken a few days for me. I get the impression they want to focus on one build at a time, I could be wrong tho. I am expecting to discuss details this week and the building to start fairly soon, which suggests they're not too busy at present. What are your ideas for the build?

Thanks for the insight! I'll be eagerly waiting then. As for the idea of an allroader I would probably go for road calipers and a clearance of 28-30mm for tires. I write the cx bike around town at the moment and I really love the comfort of wider tires hopping on and of curbs and hitting gravel sections here and there during the commute. The part about guards is tricky though. I would/will go without I guess and just through on some plastic sks guards when it gets really wet. I am also planning on racing this bike a little bit so there shouldn't be an awful lot of wheelbase. Geometry wise I root for psees version 3. OOVERSIZED steel and straight carbon forks with a slightly sloping tt. Awesome. There is a black cx bike on cycle exif that could appeal to you. I'll try to dig it out later. Cheers

Initial ideas of how to communicate my requirements clearly. I just pulled this together quickly so it's a bit messy.

Frame colour isn't right but I am thinking black, still, and with a black frame it's harder to see the details on bikeCAD.

I'm on the fence about the integrated 44mm headtube idea. Might be overkill.

PDF is a better resolution than the JPG.

2 Attachments

• Rychtarksi v1.pdf
• 

found it
http://www.cycleexif.com/symond-cycles-cx

Out of interest what kind of ballpark does Rychtarski charge for a steel frame?

Aha this is what you spoke about earlier, looks bloody awesome. Can't beat custom!

So 23mm tyres for winter, 28mm for summer? I guess the narrower tyre will cut through the snow better.

I'd rather not get into it on here, not least because my order isn't finalised but also I don't know that it's right to discuss, because every order will be different.

Kuba is a nice guy, give them an email for a better idea in relation to what you're after.

I think I know where you're coming from :)

I want to run a 25mm tyre (I'm thinking 700x25 open pave for the brutal cobbles of Kent). It would be good to go up to 28 if I want a bit more squish.

The comment "23 w/ mudguard" is very much a work-in-progress. As I said up-thread, if 25+PDW will fit under a shallow drop caliper (e.g. sram force) then I'm sorted. And if not then I am only 50% sure I'll bother with the eyelets.

Will a hidden eyelet work on the front of the fork so low? I'd have thought you need it about ⅓ up the leg of the fork.

If it was me, I would also have a numbered list to go along side it as a check list so noting is forgotten.

Good points both, thanks.

I'm going to go through this again tomorrow before I send it across to Rychtarski - it's not the final document though, more something to start the dialogue about details.

I am still particularly interested to hear their ideas on an appropriate tubeset for my wight and intended use.