Elephant NFE (a pointless extravagance)

Living in the middle of a city surrounded by city in a place that is a city state my work place day-dreams are often punctuated by images of mountains, gravel tracks and sweeping costal roads.

Considering that it is impossible for me to currently ride the roads of my dreams it is of utmost importance that I build a bike perfect for the conditions I yearn for so that it can sit unused taunting me.

Some how I managed to get shunted to the front of the list for one of these:

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Excellent! Going for a similar build to the photo?

It was only on a whim that I put my name down for an XL. The first email I got back was to tell me that they would not be doing any more stock XLs but if anyone dropped out they'd let me know. It was pretty easy to write that little dream off. I wasn't going to go custom so no elephant for me.

Then, about a month later another email from one Mr John Speare... They have one XL, the cable routing is under the top tube rather than over but do I want it? Shit, 12 hours to make a decision and find $500... Do they take PayPal? Yes! Decision made... I'm in!

ooooo nice! always been very intrigued by those Gevenalle drop lever/thumbies...

Build will be similar to above... In that I'm leaning towards black components, but with a new baby in the house I'm going to try and keep this one quiet from the wife, that means I'll be raiding the parts bin.

I dunno about those thumbies, fine for cross when you're on the hoods the whole time, but how do you change from the drops?

I'm going with bar end shifters

This is what I have so far:

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totally i bet they are pretty awkward, just think they look cool. not a fan of bar end shifters, i know brifters are ugly but at least im in control when using them! :)

regardless, im sub'd

Cute rack.
Looking forward to this. Will you put mudguards on?
And don't think this is only for wilderness adventure. Big ass slicks are awesome for urban exploring by bike.

Rack is a Haulin Colin, designed specifically to fit the swift industries XL Ozette... A total extravagance but I'm gonna give it to my self for Xmas.

In the post is a dynamo hub, rear xt deore hub and a credit card bill.

To come are some big ass black guards... I want the hammered ones but I also want to be able to run 48mm so probs have to go with the VO Zeppelins.

Rack will be rattled fluorescent red and lacquered. Full length cables will also be red... Bar tape red. Dunno whether to go leather or not.

Ultimately I'd like to have all components black... It'll be a slow process.

Tyres... Drink the cool aid and go baby shoe pass or go for something a bit more reasonable.... Paging @edscoble (who inspired this build).

Fuck babyshoe pass, go for the newer 48mm model, you got the clearance for it.

In fact, I actually found the 42mm Hetres fairly decent on the gravel, as the width make up for the lack of tread.

It's only when it's wet and slippery is where it get a little harder to control.

How will those 48mm bad ladz do under 52mm mudguards, roomy enough?

Got this booked in for Chinese New Year... Margaret River down in Western Australia... Can. Not. Wait:

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Switchback Hill on the NFE;

Basically you have more vertical room for the 52mm if it doesn't quite fit.

This is the important part as a lots of bicycles tend not to be made for mudguard (Cannondale, Specialized, Trek etc.) simply provided the mount, meaning there's very little vertical room to clear even the skinnest of tyres (Ribble Audax, I'm looking at you).

I reckon you can fit those 52mm mudguard, either way I'm gonna get the black Velo orange one as well, and the Switchback Hill.

Honjo does a 650b 62mm mudguard.

Thanks info, Honjo $$$. I really like the look of the hammered ones, shame the Zeppelins are smooth.

One other question... 48mm on SL23... Doable?

As long it's no less than 17mm, perfectly fine.

With those tyres size, it's harder to tell the difference says between 17mm and 21mm.

Bit hard to explain but the gist is this, the pressure will be a lots lower than you think, and thus be able to ride without feeling too squirmy*, big tyres and very skinny rims (like 13mm with 32mm tyres) are very noticable due to the smaller volume resulting in a noticable squrimy feel.

*42mm at 40psi feel just as good as 32mm at 65psi, the biggest difference is the severe lack of road vibration.

Fwiw I still consider schwalbe the world champ of balloon tyres aka big ass slicks.

I did too, especially the 60mm one.

However after using the Compass/Grand Bois tyres, the Schwalbe feel stiff and harsh.

Nice parts bin

Interesting - thanks vm. I'm probably going to go for it but I need to psych myself up.. a lot to out lay on rubber..

Making most of paternity leave (all 2 days of it...) and doing some priming and painting... Pre-prep:

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