Hartley Cycles endurance road bike

The time has come for me to graduate from using my Cross Check for absolutely everything and I have decided to go custom, and having known Caren (the eponymous Hartley of Hartley cycles) for a while and really liking her stuff (especially the porkeur and her own 650c road bike) I have decided to go with her.
She convinced me away from my slightly Luddite tendencies when it comes to bicycle components (my previous attitude being fixed gear or 8spd only, and that brifters were the work of the devil), and towards a modern groupset, which makes sense since this will be my road bike and what I do ultra races on (signed up for Transatlantic Way this year and hoping for The Transcontinental next year).
I wanted it to be a road bike, with endurance road geo but tailored towards being a bit fun and suited to the lackadaisical approach to road maintenance we have in the uk. In my own verbiage, a “Gravel Dabbler”. Something I can ride hard on roads but also put some gravel tyres on and ride bridleways without any trouble.
I also love dynamo lighting and on long distance stuff I find the convenience of USB charging and not worrying about light charge hugely outweighs the power lost to the dynamo.
The bike is due at the beginning of March and I'm super excited.
The build info and bikecad drawing are as follows:
Frame: 953 stainless downtube and chainstays with 853 pro team for the rest and 44mm head tube.
Headset: Chris King inset 7
Fork: Kinesis tracer 1.5 tapered disc fork
Rear wheel: 32h Velocity A23 off centre rim to Hope Pro 2 evo hub
Front wheel: 32h Velocity A23 to SP Dynamo PD-8 hub.
Groupset: SRAM force 22 with WiFli mech and 11-32 cassette.
Brakes: TRP Spyre mechanical road disc brakes
Seatpost and Stem: Thomson Elite/Thomson X4
Bars: Deda Zero100 drop bars with Profile T5 clip on aerobars
Tyres: Schwalbe S-One 30mm tubeless road tyres (set up with Stan's rim strips etc)
Saddle: Brooks C13
Lighting: B+M IQ2 front light with USB charger and SON rear light mounted on seat stay

Bikecad (paint just a placeholder, I am leaving aesthetics wholly in Caren's hands)

Obligatory pile of components:

Sounds good.
Why Kinesis Tracer?

Awesome. Glad to see a proper-sized head tube being employed on this build :-)

Now the CrossCheck can become a dedicated off-road bike...

@amey chosen for the good price, disc mounts with quick release, clearance for my chosen tyres and mudguard mounts! It's a nice shape for aesthetic purposes too.

@BareNecessities the head tube is so long! 64cm effective seat tube with 59cm effective top tube too. Proper t-rex feels.
And cross check is going to be dedicated off road bike until I build up a budget hardtail with the new SRAM NX 1x11 group!

You're not really only 185.5cm like it says on the blueprint?

Look forward to seeing how this turns out and how you find the Transatlantic Way!

Is your saddle-BB height really only 5mm less than mine?

@Tychom and @BareNecessities I am long of leg and short of torso
and @BareNecessities your saddle to BB will be less due to being for MTB right? And what's your inside leg?

My saddle to BB height is the same on all of my bikes. Saying that, my legs ( can't remember my inside leg measurement ) are relatively short for my height, I drop my heels when pedalling, and my left hip bothers me with sciatic pain when I sit too high.

All these things add up. It's just odd seeing such a small difference on the Bikecad :-)

Whereas I am long of leg, and pretty flexible! Funny how these things add up in a custom frame, out of interest how tall are you overall?

6'7"

It's an interesting one- I am taller than you but this bike would be too large for me.

'Gravel Dabbler' is a wonderful idea! This looks great.

Looking forward to seeing you and your bike in Ireland

Interested in that SP Dynamo PD-8 hub with USB charging possibilities.
I am looking to go the same way, and I've heard good things about the SP (cheaper and at least as good as the Schmidt Son?), but I have no clue how exactly things get mounted on the bike and I'm no electronic wizard. Where does the USB connection go?
Do you consider the access to electrical power important enough to spend the extra $$ and fiddling with cables etc...? Again, no experience on the matter here but I am looking to build a proper tourer, so looking for opinions here!
Feel free to drop me a pm, or discuss here @xkittyx

So I'm not enough of a wizard to do my own electronics set up, but this light: https://www.rosebikes.com/article/b--m-lumotec-iq2-luxos-u-senso-plus--front-headlamp-with-usb-connection/aid:620049 is a forum favourite and super easy to use. It has all of the USB stuff attached and you just plug n play with the dynamo basically. I had this light with a shimano alfine dynamo hub running for thousands of happy miles, going with SP on this new build cause it's lighter and prettier but they have the same output so all will run fine!
On my cycle tours, bike packing trips and audaxes I have found the USB charging super worthwhile, after a while you don't even notice it's there. #dynamosupremacy.

Edit: the light itself is also boss and has guided me off road at night on more than one occasion with no probs.

Thanks, that looks very interesting, if expensive. But probably still relatively good value for a complete and compact package.
I’ll definitely look into it.

Looking forward to seeing the finished article. Love the idea of a gravel dabbler.

Caren's attention to detail looked amazing on the one bike I saw at the Design Museum. I'd love to have her make me something. Looking forward to seeing this progress.

So there was a small delay due to my headtube being so long and struggling to find a place to get one, but it's come from America and Caren is all ready to get started on the build!

Having ordered pretty much everything I have left two things without decisions and ask the forum hivemind - what bar tape? (I usually ride inner tube as bar tape or cinelli but am open to suggestions) and what quick release skewers? Tempted by the Superstar components ones but the couple of bad reviews scare me a wee bit. Need something that doesn't break the bank due to the rest of this build thoroughly breaking the bank.

Pic of the long bit of head tube mine is to be cut from from Caren's Instagram

what bar tape?

Lizard skins of course!

Shimano QR. Internal cam is way more reliable and they're cheap.

Agree about the Shimano QRs, rock solid. Lizard Skins is nice, the thicker stuff is comfy and durable. I also rate the Arundel Gecko Grip tape.

Out of interest, I know the Tracer is good with mudguards and a decent size tyre, how much clearance do you have between the rear tyre and the back of the seat tube?

I'd be looking at through axel not qr.

Also consider the pacenti rims.

Fizik do some good rubbery bar tape similar to lizard skinz.

Don't mess around with mechanical discs, full hydro are in a different league.