Old 01-04-11, 12:51 PM
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Abneycat
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Base of the Rocky Mountains, Canada. Wonderous things!
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Bikes: 2010 Cannondale Hooligan 3

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Well, i'm really appreciating all of the information!

Peterpan1, thank you for your input on all of this, that plumb bob idea is something to do for sure. I'm not asking for fit advice, no, but what you are giving is much more valuable. I'm sure that when I get there UBI will look over all the designs, measure me up, and then tell me how it should be! But the whole process of designing frames is such an enjoyable learning experience right now that i'm trying to pick up some basic skills and try it all out beforehand as well. Knowing tricks like this is really useful. I've got some books arriving shortly that should help learn even more

Time is a concern from the aspect that i'd ideally like to focus on getting the most rounded help from UBI possible in the 2 week timeframe. Not finishing the bike 100% would be alright so long as I had the direction to finish off in the end. There's a local builder who had made an offer of providing some help with this in exchange for some machining assistance, so there may be a bit more help post-class.

As for just buying one like the Rock & Road, I'm not really trying to go just to UBI to build up one dream bike for myself and then drop the whole thing. To attend the 2 week session as an international student, it will be almost $4,000. That could buy quite a nice dream bike from a good custom builder on its own. Actually, even the Surly Troll is 95% of what I really would absolutely love in a bike. I'm really really not rich. I'm a self supported full time student, and have no family to go scrap money from (have been saving for this course for months now). Were it just about a bike, i'd buy a Troll. It's the craft that draws me in.

Sixty Fiver, I have always personally used 26" wheels as well. I think that the availability on 29" components is getting better, although one shouldn't hope on getting much in the way of tires for that size in a lot of places in this world. I was tempted by the 29" component due to the fact that it could play well with switching over the front wheel to a Pugsley, and that i'm neither heavy, a dead weight rider on bike, or a big packrat.

After thinking about it though, i'm starting to think there's too much trade off to using the 29" wheel. Using a 26" wheel does get a lot of extra availability, provide that extra strength, and to me it also allows for the design of a bike that can eliminate the toe striking the tire, which I can't seem to do on a 29" bicycle without other geometry compromises. It would be easier to design a lower trail bicycle using these wheels, it seems. It also allows internal gear hubs to have lower effective gear ranges without exceeding their optimal sprocket ratios..

The 26" option also opens up forks like the Troll fork, which have disc mounts *and* special rack mounts, opening more cargo options.

There's a lot of downside to the 29" format for this purpose in the end, I guess. Dropping it wouldn't be too disappointing to me, in the end. I wanted to pick it up for the Pugsley wheel switch.

Perhaps I should just go back to the drawing board on this one. In a perfect world it would be sweet to learn how to nicely bend tubing and make designs incorporating exotic and jaunty looking rides, install exotic frame components, and use fun ideas right out of the gate - but for now, perhaps the focus should be on just building something that focuses on developing the skills to springboard into those things later.
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