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Sig_Arlecchino
Good to see some love for Elder. You don't see me rocking any other bandpatches ;)
Now about the clearance on the Stav. I'm rather obsessed with tyre diameters, specifically effective outer diameters rim+tyre. I knew that something in the range of 622x45-50 worked best for me with the bb-drop of 70mm. Needless to say switching to 584-wheels with a tyre like a WTB Horizon was out the question as it would lower the bb way too much. I had such good experiences of 3" tyres and drop bars on my Monster Marin I decided I'd do the same with the Stav. More flexibility with two wheelsets for different purposes.
I was on the fence if I would build a 559 or 584 wheelset but chose the new industry standard because of more options in the rim and tyre department. The 2.6" Mezcal is pretty bang on 66,6mm and is close enough to a 622x45 tyre depending on tyre sag. Perfect.
I was going the make the front fork myself but couldn't pass on a killer deal for the one I have now. Konga made, Pacenti MTB crown, Reynolds 631 blades and all the braze-on's I wanted.
The rear triangle though I made myself. Twice actually...
First try which you can see pics of a bit further up was too hastily done. I brazed the chainstays centered on the Konga yoke but that resulted in horrific q-factor. Going from a 109mm UN91 and the Spesh cranks I had to widen the bb axle to 122mm and switch to low profile Ritchey Logic Compacts and it just felt so wrong. I like a pretty narrow q-factor, feels better in the knees.
So with 5 days left before leaving for a 1000km tour I couldn't help but to start from scratch. Luckily I had some Zona chainstays left over and Konga mailed me some new seatstays. You know that saying, measure twice, cut once? I didn't even measure the theoretical q-factor once :D
Anyway second times a charm and everything worked out great. I could even go back to the 109mm bb and Spesh cranks.
The bike worked great on both tours last summer with 622 and 584 tyres.