Jambon's Bikes

Thumbs up from me for 1 x 11. Just bought a CX bike with SRAM single ring and loving it. I do plod about slowly however. If you love to spin smoothly at an exact cadence some of the cassette gaps may be a little big. Lovely looking frame BTW. Good luck with the build.

Loved?! Is there something you're not telling us?

As @spotter says swept back bars can be great with ergos and at the right height. The position on the walvale is (was?) pretty aggressive. I did 2 tours this year and I reckon swept back bars and ergo were definitely more comfortable in the long run than drops.

@TM There was a brief sale thread but quickly got snapped up. Sad to see the Walvale go but the lack of disc provision and clearence kind of made up my mind whilst influencing what I wanted to build next. But yeah, if not the prettiest bike I've owned. You're right about the low front end on it though, probably didn't help with wrist pain.

@spotter I do like the look of a Jones H bar, but can't quite imagine climbing in anger on a relaxed swept back affair like you do with drops. Maybe I'm going wrong thinking it has to be in anger, but would like the bike to resemble a rannondeur in appearance at least.

@MisterMikkel found it interesting reading about the constructeur philosophy in Bicycle Quarterly with the rebirth of the Concours De Machines (technical trials) and seeing all manner of quirky details.

@AndyMedic glad to read more praise for 1x and really looking forward to making my own conclusions when it's finished. In terms of plodding along that sounds about right, hoping to build an all day mile-wafter whilst being able to rummage for flapjacks etc in the rando bag so good to hear.

Climbing with Jones bars (or any flat bar really) is fine, I've got them on my ssmtb and on the mess that is my straggler. Rode a handful of grimpeur and super-grimpeur audax events on it through the summer with 700s but otherwise a similar set up.

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I'd say you were right to think climbing would be hard with actual portuer bars, but I had two days of 5,000 ft of climbing on this summer in France with no issues. I take your point about wanting it to look like a rando bike though.

They are indeed very interesting! Kind of like Peacock Groove in going full custom, but not quite that "out there" aesthetics-wise.

I feel obliged to mention that your Walvale was a thing of beauty, and I have no doubt, this will be a classy ride as well.

Very kind, this will hopefully be what I wanted the Walvale to be, and in almost exactly the same colours too!

Nitto M18 front rack now installed although the bracket that bolts through the brake hole needs modifying. Going to wait for the mudguards to arrive before modifying as hoping to secure guards to the rack for stability.

The bag is really wobbly so thinking a sheet of Perspex under the padded base with bolted brackets clamping the rack, maybe. Don't think a decaleur will work with the bag unfortunately.

Someone on another thread used an insert made from an estate agent's sign to hold their bag's shape. Rack thread maybe? Drawing a blank now. I'm sure someone else will remember it.

Rack thread maybe?

Yup: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/13321750/

@jambon great project, going to look (and hopefully feel) awesome!

Re bigxtop bag not working with a decaleur - I just fitted one, of sorts. See CP thread here. My bag has a sheet of plastic between the bag and the liner because I told Jordan I wanted to fit the support there, you might be able to put something there yourself?

@Aroogah @russmeyer

Thanks for the heads up on this, having modded one of Jordan's bags makes it a lot easier for me to visualize how it could work. Think I'll go down the route of plastic board on the inside for strength, then with another thicker board under the padded base securing the bag to the rack via brackets.

Nice build, I second the knurled spacers, they look great.

Putting my guard up. The front I received was the short version (not recommended with front racks) so the seller is kindly going to exchange this for the longer version. First impressions are encouraging, never really got on with cheaper mudguards and these do feel solid and being stainless steel they should stay shiny too.

Also Nitto M18 rack turned up although not fitted properly, need to modify the supplied support bracket a bit and how the bag attaches but think this might be a running project.

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I've got the GB mudguards on my touring bike and they are rock solid. I had to indent them for the brake bridge and fabricate mounts for the chainstay bridge and fork but they look like they fit your frame a lot better.

This is looking promising

@SupremeSausageChampion I'm impressed with the aluminium stays, they're pretty beefy and I think do a lot for making it feel solid. Just roughly fitting them as still need to secure at the brake bridge but looking like I won't have to cut/bend anything.

@alialias cheers, it's starting to look how I imagined it.

Looks very promising! I've installed a bunch of GB guards and it's a good idea to bend the stays halfway between the dropout and the guard, so it's straight when it enters the plastic clamp at the dropout. A vice is best but a table + book or cutting board on top works too.

This bike looks like it's going to be good! I need steel, fat tyre functional bike. But my commutes are no longer than 5 miles so the single speed will do

@russmeyer thanks for the tip, yeah you can feel slight tension bending the stays to meet the eyelets but I thought this might help with strength. Pos not eh! Thanks very much

@Josh my commute is a 30 min walk, this is for the weekend.

Shifters and rear derailleur now sourced just waiting for the front mudguard to be delivered and that should be it for a while. The rear derailleur was caked in what looked like a kind of sticky tar around the jockey wheels and lower cage but half an hour of scrubbing and some lighter fluid proved it was actually worth the money.

Parts still to source:

• Shimano 5800 cranks
  
• Race Face narrow wide chainring
  
• KMC X10-73 10sp chain
  
• TRP Spyre disc brakes
  
• Shimano PD-A530 pedals
  
• Zefal HPX pump
  
  

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HPX

Dont tell @Hulsroy he'll never shut up about how good it is.

Also Spyre or Spyre SLC?

Remember @edscoble saying somewhere on here they're good - also makes sense having a pump on the bike if I'm going to subscribe to Jan Heine's calculus about lower pressures and the benefits. Want to mount it on the non-drive-side seat stay although not sure if it'll be possible with the caliper.

I'm not sure if the SLC is worth the extra money over the standard Spyre, but probably will go that way if I buy 2nd hand as it'll just be a few quid more. Hopefully with compressionless housing it'll be a decent cable disc setup.

They Zefal HPX are excellent for the money, very light (for the sizes), cheap and work well, it just take a little longer with huge volume tyres.

Standard Spyre will be fine, if they're decent, you should be able to feel it bite sharply, if it doesn't, the mount either need facing or the calipers doesn't allow the pads to sit straightly.

Bear in mind that the old 105 levers have a rather short cable pull, so it'll feel long with the cable pull disc brakes, the latest 105 (and the Tiagra, old and new) have a longer cable pull that work better with disc brakes.

...and there I was thinking I'd chosen good components for a decent cable disc brake setup. Didn't know that about the 5700's cable pull. Originally I was planning on running Shimano 5800, but the rear hub isn't wide enough to take an 11sp road cassette hence going for a 10sp MTB cassette with road 10sp shifters.

Annoyingly not silver, but Tiagra 4700 shifters seem like the best choice for compatibility? (Shimano XT M772 9 sp derailleur / Shimano XT CS-M771-10 11-34t cassette)

Thanks for the info!

Tiagra 4700 AFAIK have different cable pull to the older 10 speed shifters, however the new derailleur are designed to work with a 11-34 cassette, meaning with some tweaking, 11-36 within the realm of possibility.

It's not that you can't ride with the 5700 shifters, you still can get decent braking performance, but with slightly more levers throw than you think.