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A new Shimano Deore LX HB-T670 32h Silver Front Hub which has never even been built into a wheel. I have the outer box only, which is in a rather battered state, but the hub is unmarked just as it left the factory. (I changed my mind before building the wheel and fitted a dynohub instead)

£13 inc 2nd class post, they are generally £18+ on line

Building an old early 90s Specialized Hardrock up with a Sturmey 3 speed hub, have one of the budget Stronglight ST55 chain sets to fit. BB shell is 73mm wide. I first tried a 107mm UN55 BB but the chainring (38t) was touching the chainstay. I have just tried a 113mm UN55 and the chainring now has decent clearance, but the left crank just bottomed out on the left cup when tightened down. I looked for a 115mm UN55 for 73mm shell but can't find one, only 118mm which seems a bit of a jump and anyway not sure if it will actually give any more width on the left. The UN55s have an outer lip on the left cup but some other BB designs don't have this so wondered if e.g. a Tange 73/113mm I have seen for sensible cost might work and if so is it of similar quality? One good thing about the SA 3 speed hub is the wide range of chainlines that can be accommodated....

EDIT: SA chainline range 36-48mm. Chainline of ST55 with 113mm BB 44.5mm

Cable shift Alfine 8 is the sensible price option IMO unless you need the range of the Alfine 11.

With the Alfine 8 you can use a Nexus 8 revoshifter which is surprisingly good compared to the usual twist shifters, light and precise changes and you can go straight from 8th to 1st or vice versa in one quick movement or any position between. (But check which way the hub and shifter work, originally 1st gear was at max cable length, 8th with it fully tightened, but some of the Nexus 8 hubs now do the opposite, the original design had the cable running below the chainstay, the new version has it above like the Alfine 11 does.)

If I was considering spending as much as the Di2 options I would go straight to the Rohloff instead TBH...

Depends on what gear range you require, how deep your pockets are, what type of shifter you want:

Alfine 8: affordable and tough, grease lubed. You can use a J-Tek bar end shifter (£80), or now available Microshift bar end shifter BS-N08 for £50 from SJS Cycles. However no brifter/sti option now that Versa shifters are no longer available. Gear range 307%

Alfine 11: reasonably affordable, possibly not quite as robust as the 8, oil lubed, can use J-Tek bar end shifter (£100) or Microshift now are making a brifter/sti pair of levers for £200 (SJS Cycles sell these). Gear range 409% and weighs almost exactly the same as the 8 speed.

Shimano also make a Di2 version of the 11 speed, with STI lever option, but once you have bought all the bits and bobs it adds up to quite a lot and the hub is different so you cannot retro fit to a hub that was originally cable shift.

Rohloff Speedhub: oil lubed, bomb proof with excellent support from the manufacturer, 14 gears, 526% range but very expensive and no easy options for shifters with drops- various lash ups but nearly all based around a rotary shifter.

Avoid the Sturmey Archer 8 speed, they have never got this one to work reliably despite redesigns and it is very tall geared requiring a tiny chainring for a sensible gear range. However if you only need a limited range of gears their 5 and particularly their 3 speed hubs are much better and now available with disc compatibility for reasonable prices, bar end shifters available for both.

Did a 50 mile ride on Sunday with local club 'Intermediate' group: hilly but not too fast. The bike is a lovely comfy ride with the Voyager Hyper 32mm tyres and the shifting was fine except when I forgot and tried to shift with load on the pedals- it really does not like any load at all at least not yet, maybe it will get better when run in a bit.

Shifting up is great from the hoods but not easy in the drops- I have to lift my hand up to hit the short lever with my index finger; shifting down is OK from either but takes a bit of forward planning as it is a relatively slow process due to the long lever throw- should get better with practice. Mind you if you stop suddenly on a hill or at a junction it is no drama to shift down as much as you want whilst stationary.

I was very pleasantly surprised with the efficiency of the hub, nothing like the drag of my old Nexus 8spd.

The rear brake is rather fierce and I locked the back wheel a couple of times on wet tarmac, but the shorter Tektro mini v arrived yesterday, which I hope will help.

I am in two/three minds about the stem length- at 90mm it seemed fine to start with, but by the time of the cafe stop I was thinking maybe 80mm would be best, and then near home maybe 70mm after all. However I am a bit down on fitness this month having not done much but commute since November, so that may be part of the issue. The new 70mm will be with me today but I think possibly I should send it back to exchange for an 80mm???

After a bit more riding around I have concluded that I do need a 2cm shorter stem so have ordered a nice silver 70mm Ritchey Classic from Acycles. I was glad of the excuse to get rid of the ugly On One Hotbox TBH (so a barely used 90mm On One Hotbox will be available shortly).
I have also ordered a Tektro 926AL 80mm mini v brake for the rear so I can put the Tiagra one back on my tourer.

Yes probably the mudguard more than the tyre, exacerbated further by the way the stay wraps round the back of the guard- it is the stay that I caught my toe on. OTOH this is with 165mm cranks and size 7 shoes. It does of course only affect very low speed sharp turns.

Well I am quite light and not particularly powerful, the loading on the rack will be fairly minimal and the bike is to be used on road exclusively, so I think the risk is low. Anyway the frame cost me <£85 brand new even when you factor in touch up paint, so I am not going to lose any sleep over it...

Meanwhile just some further details on mods to the orignal build plan:

Brakes: front just as planned and is excellent, powerful, but firm at the lever. However, as I said the rear canti brake would not fit, the slots in the canti would not allow the blocks to go low enough (no matter I will just fit it to the back end of my touring bike so at least my efforts in servicing it were not wasted). Instead I have fitted the 90mm Shimano Tiagra v-brake from the front of the tourer on the back of the Pomp: it works but with the pads so low in the arms, that there is too much mech advantage resulting in a squishy lever and snatchiness, plus very limited rim clearance. This just underlines how many variables there are in brake performance: the front brake is a Shimano Sora 90mm v-brake, identical to the Tiagra apart from colour, but the blocks are ~15mm higher up the slots. My plan now is to try a Tektro 926AL mini v at the rear, this has 80mm arms which will reduce the mechanical advantage, but will also lower the straddle cable. There is over 10mm clearance over the rear mudguard with the 90mm brake so I anticipate no problem fitting an 80mm one.

Also I had to put a link back in the chain as there is not enough clearance between rear tyre and mudguard with the axle in the middle of the track ends. This gives me a lack of adjustment for taking up chain wear so a half link may be required at some point soon.

I was rather disappointed with the very short stays supplied with the Dia Compe ENE Mudguards, so short that at the rear they were nowhere near reaching the frame eyelets and I had to use an ugly lash-up with p-clips on the rack legs, as you can see.

I am happy with the gear cable run and used some nice stainless cable clamps by Jtek on the top tube (those plus the crank bolts and chainring bolts are all Jtek stainless abd came from SJS cycles and seem like really good kit, as does the Surly stainless chairing). At the back the cable runs away from the seat stay to curve into the cable clamp arm and along the length of this I have put an inline cable adjuster which is a very convenient location suggested by a Cycling UK forum member: with the cable at this angle the yellow adjuster marks on the hub are at the rear so you just need to look from the back of the bike and twiddle the easily reached adjuster at the same time: much easier than reaching forward to the shifter as per the OEM flat bar shifter and how the Versa came, with an adjuster at the shifter end of the cable.

The Jtek cable clamps have a little gap at the bottom where they bolt up, through which I was able to thread the wiring for the rear dynamo light.

On a test ride last night the hub shifted superbly and I was pleased by the lack of perceptible drag compared to the Nexus 8 I have experienced previously. The Hermann H One S dynamo headlight is also excellent: bright, nice beam pattern and a warmer colour than most LED lights.

I was worried that my small hands would find the Versa/Microshift levers a stretch, I am OK with Campag Ergos but struggle a bit with Shimano STIs even with the reach adjusted to the closest, but the Versas were fine, plenty of braking from the hoods and drops and the shifting was easy enough, even the long down shift lever which does have a long throw. The main issue was getting my brain and hands to do the new shifting method, but this will no doubt come with time.

Shift/brake levers: used Versa 11 from Fleabay

In other words the Versa VRS11 brake/shifter for use with the Alfine 11 and drop bars, a modified Microshift brifter now discontinued, but Microshift have picked up the torch and produced their own version now: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-shifters/11-speed-microshift-inter11-sti-levers-for-shimano-internal-gear-hubs/

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Pics of finished build, a few deviations from the plan were required, notable the rear brake, the canti bosses are so high at the back (unlike the front ones which are quite low) that the slots in the LX canti brake that I planned to use were no good:

Just built, for comparison:

EDIT: should have said medium frame for a 165cm tall bloke, 90mm stem (which might actually be OK. Mind you still have toe overlap...

I had a Kaffenback in small previously and regretted not getting a medium due to the severe toe overlap even with a 165 crankset. This time I did my sums and worked out that a medium pomp should be fine with the right stem and bars. There is only 1.8cm more standover height and the medium's effective top tube length is less than my touring bike. I am about 165cm tall. I may need a shorter stem than the one I have at the moment- current one is 90mm, possibly I need a 70 or 80, which is no big deal.

Forgot to say don't use washing up liquid if you can help it, but KY Jelly would be ideal if you have any 'to hand' ;-)

Apparently mudguards are waiting at home for me now, so no more excuses.

Meanwhile trying to resist buying a Pomp frame in Raw and building up some sort of straight bar cross bike/hybrid with a SRAM Spectro P5 5-speed hub I have lying around spare. Currently built into 26" rim as I tried it with an Inbred SS frame last year- love the hub but not the frame and wheel size, too harsh/stiff for an old bloke bimbling about on the trails...

Bumpy tyre fixed yet?

If not try lubing it- take tyre off and rub something soap based around the tyre beads, something that will not harm the tyre and will dry off in a day or two, even plain water can help but not anything oil or grease based. Liquid hand soap is good.

Then pump up to max pressure, and if that does not work you can safely go up to +50% of max pressure temporarily.

Also the kevlar bead on folding tyres will stretch out a bit over a couple of removal/refit cycles which will help.

OK well have a look here before you fit the new one: http://bike.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/SI/Alfine/FC-S500/SI_1HD0A_En_v1_m56577569830604038.pdf

So that is no spacers with single chainguard version (chain line 42.7mm), one spacer, presumably supplied with crankset, fitted on non drive side with double chainguard version (chain line 49.2mm)...

Anyway now you know and good luck with the BB bearings, Ultegra/Dura Ace ones were the best IME, and not much more £s than the lower spec ones.

The only Hollowtech 2 crank I have had was a road triple, which was fine apart from a voracious appetite for BB bearings- life span of those was around 3000 miles hence I went back to square taper. Anyway I cannot see how that left crank could have done anything else but strip if it was only pushed that far on to the splines, the one I had went fully home, a bit of preload set with the threaded endcap, then there was the little metal stopper plate that that clipped around the crank clamping bolts and into the concentric groove in the splines of the axle before you torque the bolts. Why was your LH crank that far outboard? I am guessing to get the chainline correct with spacers between RH crank and BB, but this was always a disaster waiting to happen: seems like something wrong between BB shell width, axle length and spacing etc...

Well I have no real complaints with PX, I think one slow delivery a while back, but have sent stuff back I changed my mind about with no problem and the chip on the Pomp fork leg was dealt with appropriately- offered discount or to exchange whole frameset.

I would give up and go square taper, only a matter of time before your BB wears out anyway...

Did you order the spokes? If not ACI Alpinas 21p each here: https://www.cyclebasket.com/m9b0s454p0/Components_/Spokes_-_Stainless_Steel_Double_Butted_-_Silver_ (minimum order £10, P+P £6)

EDIT: includes 12mm nipples

(How's the Mercian too small, not obvious from that picture?)

Just what I was thinking: there does not seem an excess of seat post or quill stem showing vertically, so surely that just leaves top tube length as a possible issue, how long is the stem?

Cross Check was another frame I considered but the Pomp frame was sooo cheap. Also the seat tube angles on Cross Check are a bit steep in smaller sizes, whereas Pomp is relatively slack in all sizes, but OTOH Cross Check more tyre clearance.