Varonha Frameworks winter bike / FW Evans 650b conversion rat bike fun

Yeah that's the plan... two wheelsets, two rear racks, one front rack, mudguards... he's gonna love me, isn't he?!

Amazing, thanks : )

The hubs have both arrived so I unbuilt my track wheels to free-up the rims, gave them a quick clean and de-stickered the rims. Will hopefully get them built in the next few days.

According to claimed weights online, these wheels should be one whole kilo lighter than the Beast Wheels: result!

From:
Deore LX front / Marathon Plus / 105 10 speed rear >> A319

to:
SP SV-8 front / GP 4 Seasons / 105 10-11 speed rear >> Open Pro

I liked the idea of being able to upgrade to 11 speed at some point so I could also use them as a spare set for my road bike.

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he did a 650b rim brake'd bike when mine was in there and was very happy that the customer provided wheels with tyres and mudguards and brakes

Yeah I think it's standard practice to make sure it all fits while you can still tweek it. Much more of a pain once it's been painted.

I might even ask him to customise the new rack to make the attachment struts the same as the current one. Not sure how much I trust the single strut idea on the Tubus Fly, and if I'm having rack bosses for the bigger rack anyway then I might as well use them.

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Not sure how much I trust the single strut idea on the Tubus Fly

it works fine; there is an uglier solution if you dont want to bend tubes; its on my genesis:
https://www.pedalroom.com/bike/genesis-flyer-41959#photo351042

Same brakes and tyres btw, Kinlin ADHN rims

Ha ha!
Thanks for posting, it's great to able to visualise it all.
Amazing little run-around you have there!

Guessing that's one of these?

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yep

Cheers.

Might ask him if he'd cut off the single strut attachment and stick on a slotted strip so I can do this:

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probably overkill tbh... but like I said, looking for a way round having to attach everything to the rear brake, and might as well use the rack bosses seeing as they're there.

So I decided to take your advice in the end : )

This morning's rainy ride in the lanes felt kind of sketchy on the 25mm GP 5000s and lead to a pinch flat on a massive pothole.
Then I discovered a little gravel lane when i was looking for somewhere to take a 'comfort break' (as Carlton Kirby would say) and thought it might have been fun to follow it further and see where it ended up. But couldn't because I was on the wrong tyres.

So I got back and ordered a pair of 28mm GP 4 Seasons and some TRP RG957's.
I'll make the clearances big enough to take 30s without mudguards.

Also had some fun on photoshop thinking about colours; I was pretty much settled on a practical-but-boring metallic grey, but then got it into my head it would look a lot better the same colour as my current road bike.

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Sounds good! I don't think you'll regret it.

Lunch break mini-project today... the new brakes arrived and now have Koolstop pads.
So these should take 28mm tyres with mudguards, and prevent me from riding into things when it's raining.

The calipers are surprisingly well-finished and lightweight.

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Hey!! The Front brake pads are facing the wrong way...

Dammit! And I've completely forgotten to screw a bike onto them.

....btw, your friend picked up that rusty old frame today btw - thanks for helping sort that out : )

I've been thinking about gearing options for this... I've never been a huge fan of the Q factor on triple chainsets and was wondering if this might be a good opportunity to mix things up (and maybe even shave off some weight whilst I'm at it).

Currently I have:
50 / 40 / 30 chainrings
12-32 cassette

How can I acheive a similar range with a double whilst still retaining the relatively close changes in the middle of the cassette? I do use the granny gear a fair bit when I'm carting stuff around town. I use the fastest gear much less, although that might change if I'm using it as a winter training bike as well. Mainly I find myself on the middle ring, in the middle 4 or 5 sprockets of the cassette.

I'd like to stick with 110 / 74 bcd so I can continue using the excellent TA Zephyr chainrings that I currently use.

The dream would be a lightweight double chainset with 110 bcd outer and 74 inner, but they all seem to be redesigned / bastardised triples with wide Q factors.

Any ideas?

.

I'm a huge fan of sub compacts; 46/30. You lose a little on top range, but retain the 30t chainring. Coupled with a cassette that starts at 11t, 46x11 is plenty fast for me. Nice brakes!

@Tijs
Sounds sensible, what are the chainset options for 46/ 30 ?

Thanks about the brakes : )

There are more and more options these days. For modern black options you can look into Praxis, Easton, Shimano GRX.

I really like my more classic looking IRD Defiants, but they're too expensive if you ask me. Velo Orange has a TA copy for a better price.

Sugino OX901D (or whatever the code is). Using them at the moment, just got to remember the outer ring needs to be a middle chainring for it to work. Using TA Zephyr too.

These Suginos (cheaper 601 as opposed to 901) seem ideal... especially if you're using Zephyr. Still very pricey for a pub bike but maybe I can find a used set. At least they don't look particularly conspicuous.

What's the Q factor like in comparison with a triple?
(it looks like the outer ring is set inside the spider arms which makes me think it might be a triple in disguise - or does the BB sort that out?)

Cheers man.

Those IRDs look awesome (especially for the frame style I have in mind) but probably too expensive for a pub bike.

I was looking at the Praxis ones (they seem to go for cheap on ebay) but would like to avoid proprietary systems if I can.

Are the Easton ones the EC90?

I'll probably start off with the Deore triple from the touring bike and see what ratios I end up using the most in different situations before I commit, but this is all good learning.

The world of sub compacts and super compacts and gravel stuff is exactly what I think this needs : )

Ox901d are 145mm q factor.
And quite nice.
They are hard to find and rather expensive.
Dolan has them. I bought them as I didn't want the inner rings on a triple look. Ox601d which aren't 11 speed and look almost classic in silver also were made.
Tried square taper xt 737 with only the outer rings but couldnt get them to shift with Shimano 11 speed brifters.
Which might be because 48-30 is too ambitious, because double shifters don't go outside enough, or the levers lack the pull for triple front derailleurs.