cycledude61

I am building a commuter/touring bike. I have worked on my bikes for several years, but this is my first build. I have been looking at steel frames (Soma, Fixation Quiver, and a Traitor Reuben). Traitor has apparently gone out of business and is selling their remaining frames through Evo.

Anyway, they have a great price on the Ruben. However, the specs have the following notation.

*The Ruben is not a traditional road bike and due to the 135mm rear spacing and added tire clearance in the chainstays, traditional road style cranksets (ie Shimano Ultegra) designed for 43.5mm chainlines are too narrow and you can get crankarm interference with the chainstays. The Ruben requires a wider spacing for the crank arm q-factor. A 47.5-50mm chainline is ideal. Square taper bottom bracket widths of 114-116mm are perfect for clearance. Also most styles of road 1 x 11 cranksets, track/singlespeed cranksets or MTB Double cranksets will work.

I am looking to install a Shimano 105 triple with a 10 speed 12-30 cassette (5703). The Shimano 5703 has a chainline of 45.

Is this a doable setup?

Also, any other steel frames I might consider?

Thanks.

Link to frame specs.

https://www.traitorcycles.com/2015/Bikes_RubenDrop.cfm?Token={ts_2017-03-06_18:26:14**-75a61acd85b19d95-4CC4FF1D-91A6-4851-5A94FCCEE4329B73

FBinNY 

I can't speak for the specifics without having them in my hands.

But you might look for a crankset/BB system that uses 2 spacers. That gives you the option of moving both to the right, to push the crank outward.

One (of many) of my objections to modern crank/BB systems is that the spindle and right crank are married, greatly limiting mix/match options to get the crank of choice to work on one's frame.

I suspect that you may have to shop mtb or tandem components to get a crank with adequately outboard chainline.

cycledude61

Thanks. Would the 5703 105 triple likely work better with a more conventional frame with either a 130 or 135 rear spacing?

FBinNY 

It's hard to say. It's also a question of whether the issue is crank arm or chainring clearance at the chainstay. I've seen either become a problem in wide rear road frames.

Companies rarely offer detail spec showing offset for chainstays, and cranks at these critical places. Also, there are some combinations that work with smaller rings, but larger ones meet the stay farther out and touch.

BTW - I don't track components year to year, so cannot ever answer about any specific crank, except if they offer detailed specs. However, while there's no real clearance standard, there are rules of thumb, so I'd expect a crankset to work well with a frame of it's era.

cycledude61

I guess I will email the companies and ask specifically if the 5703 crank will work. However, I can't email Traitor because they are out of business. Good price on the frame, but I do have my concerns. Thanks for the feedback.

FBinNY 

Normally, I'd say to roll the dice and go for it. But if they put out a specific warning, there was probably a good reason.

Phil_gretz

Why be set on the 5703? It's a tourer, right? Why not use a MTB double, as the manufacturer recommended. I would venture that a 42/30 double might be just fine for touring on that rig. Don't let the crankset drive the frame choice. There are many crank choices out there. Other way around is best... frame first, and then design the drivetrain to be compatible.

PatrickGSR94

yeah I was going to say, why be set on the 105 triple? Do you really need a triple crankset? MTB's are mostly moving to 1x these days, but I'm sure there are plenty of MTB double cranks out there for a good price, something like a Shimano XT M785 would probably work nicely with a 10-sp cassette.

Shimano XT M785 10 Speed Double Chainset Black | Chain Reaction Cycles

Bike Gremlin

Why sacrifice versatility of a triple crankset on a commugint/touring bicycle?!
I'd go with a MTB triple - 28-38-48, or even a 22-32-44 if some heavily loaded touring through mountainous terrain is planned.

HardyWeinberg

Do you already have the 105 triple? I would use a sugino xd crankset and square taper BB for that frame.

Bummer if Traitor has folded. I ride an exile. I dropped in at their office one time, was pretty cool. At the time I dropped by, Traitor was pretty much offloaded to a sales rep in Seattle and the old office was taken over by Transition mtn bikes that still also owned Traitor (or both were owned by the same entity, whatever...)

one last edit: the disclaimer is not rock-solid, the problem could be a 53t big ring whacking the chainstay, rather than the crankarm. Could potentially put smaller rings onto the 105 crankset?

fietsbob

Generically; Chain line is parallel to bike center line ,

... on the back it's the middle cog of an odd numbered cluster, or the gap between the 2 central cogs, of an even numbered cassette 'speeds'

in the front its the middle of a triple, or a one-by, and the gap between a double's 2 chainrings. they should fall on that parallel line.




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