Saffron Travel/everything bike project

Hi all,

As some of you know I work with Matthew at Saffron Frameworks now. It's about time I was riding a Saffron so I've been working on the designs for my new bike, which is due to be finished in the next few months.

A little background - I hate riding my winter bike, the geo is too slack and wheelbase too long, BUT I'm a total mudguard man during the winter. The Plan for the bike is to max out a standard set of Dura Ace brakes (25c plus guards, or 28c without) to allow me to ride it all year round.
Secondly I find it hard to travel with my bike (and I plan to do this a lot more) as my frame is so large, too large for most bike boxes. For this frame I have decided to have S and S couplers to allow me to pack the bike into a 700x700 flight case with room to spare. Further to this I don't like the ideas of cable splitters so I've decided to go for Etap - meaning I'll just have to pop the rear brake off the frame to split/pack

Specs:

1. Columbus Life tube set (Short taper oval chain stays, road S bend seat stays)
   
2. Columbus FEL fork with mudguard eyelets added
   
3. 44mm head tube
   
4. Chris King HS (Inset 7)
   
5. Rotor Inpower cranks with praxis chainrings
   
6. Etap group
   
7. Dura ace brakes
   
8. Zipp SL88 bars
   
9. 3t stem, painted in with frame
   
10. ENVE post
    
11. Zipp service course 30 wheels, tubeless
    
12. Ti Flite saddle, obvs
    

Sounds rad. Paint plans?

Cannondale track

Sounds great - I look forward to the future updates.

Matthew Sowter builds beautiful bikes.

This is perfect .. @Shroom got 30c tyres under Red brakes ..

Some of the CADs

2 Attachments

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sounds shit

Might be an idea to check with AndyP on whether eTap will work with those cranks, iirc he had issues with clearance.

Ooof. Thanks for the heads up

http://www.saffronframeworks.com/build/alexis-ss-travel-bike/
Also has eTap (now)- and its fantastic! Good sounding build this!
Also- S&S couplers are just fucking fantastic.
So much fun to play with.

Whats the seat tube length? I've got a really large S&S frame, I think larger than this and its quite tricky getting it to fit in the box, I have to take off cranks and forks. Once you get the hang of it it's amazing though.

I'm going to get etap soon for mine, its definitely the way forward for bikes with S&S couplings.

What's the measurements/geo on that?

Yours,

Another ( far less flexible ) giant

Sub'd

About 645 to top or so. I'm having a box made with internal dims 700x700 so I can pack it easily with the cranks on, and have room for kit - still seems well within plane luggage allowance

I'm about 940 saddle height, about 220mm drop and 61cm tt with a 140mm stem generally. The drop may seem insane but with the length the angle made at the bar is not THAT extreme. It's just all scaled up!

I don't like the ideas of cable splitters so I've decided to go for Etap

Best reason I've heard yet for eTap. Bike sounds awesome. Not tempted to go cable discs and 28c+guards?

Sub'd

Discs. Blergh

Trying to get a 25mm tire and guards under a DA brake is incredibly limiting.

I'd strongly urge you to reconsider it.

Mr friend has a Feather that did this and it's really not good. He can't use certain tires, the ones he can use rub when he's out the saddle and when using wide rims the brake pad misses the brake track by about 10% so your brake pads wear weirdly.

Subbed! Looking forward to seeing matchy matchy bikes..

All to do with rim/tyre combos I understand.

I will be 25c Pave in the winter which I know come up bang on 25 on my wheels. It's limiting for sure but I hate long drops/discs. Check out the Enigma etape, built around this very principal.

I've tested the forks and all is well, with the pads around 75% of the way to their "max" drop. The rear will be built around approx the same limits, to not pushing it too much. Currently the fork/brake on the front will take a 30c pro one which comes up at about 31.5mm no fuss.

I absolutely can not get a 30mm tire under a DA9000 brake.

Just depends on where you put the boss...

Fair enough but my point is that if you have it low enough to get a big tire and a mudguard in then you force yourself in to few tire choices. It's compromising for the sake of compromising.

It's your build so whatevs.