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Has anyone ever set up an All City Nature Boy as a commuter?

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Has anyone ever set up an All City Nature Boy as a commuter?

Old 12-03-14, 08:42 AM
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Has anyone ever set up an All City Nature Boy as a commuter?

Thinking about doing this with the disc version if I can get the funds together, but I'm curious as to whether anyone else has had success doing something similar to what I have in mind. Fenders, rear rack, and 700Cx35 Schwalbe Marathons (which have that printed on them, but also have 37-622 molded into the sidewall), and Marathon Winters in the same size in the winter.

I know the AC website says it'll fit 38mm tires, presumably without fenders, so how does this work out with the Marathons and tires (probably PDW Full Metal Fenders in the 45mm "city" width).
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Old 12-03-14, 11:11 AM
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That is such a cool bike. Usual advice is 10mm clearance between fender and tire, so if the bike can only handle 38mm tires you're probably stuck with 35mm fenders and 25mm tires
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Old 12-03-14, 01:33 PM
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I don't have a Nature Boy, but I have used 45mm fenders (PB Cascadia) with 700x35 Schwalbe Marathon Supremes (also labeled as 37-622) on my Kona Jake.



The fenders are plenty wide for the tires. As you can see, the tightest spot is where the rear tire approaches the seat tube. This leaves me less than the recommended 10mm clearance between the front half of the rear tire and the fender, but that's probably OK in the rear. The 10mm thing is a safety issue in the front, but if the rear wheel gets locked up it's less of an issue.

A couple of very important caveats are in order, however. First, the Nature Boy chainstays are 5mm shorter than than those on the Jake and in the smaller sizes at least the Nature Boy has a slightly slacker seat tube angle, so I would say that the clearance between the rear tire and the seat tube would be a bit tighter with the Nature Boy. Second, the Marathon profile is slightly more square than the Marathon Supreme, so there's a chance that you'd get some rub against the sides of the fender in the rear if the fender got out of alignment or wobbled during the ride.

I think you'd probably be better off with 700x32 Marathons. I just replaced my 700x35 Marathon Supremes with 700x32 Marathon Supremes and they feel quicker without any loss of comfort, so it's not a bad trade-off even apart from fit issues IMO.
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Old 12-03-14, 01:57 PM
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Nature Boy | All-City Cycles
another SS cross Bike .. doesn't Look like they put eyelets to make MudGuards simple to fit ..

Bodging to fit them has been covered . I could sort it out If it were in the Shop.
Generally a piece with 2 holes in it 1 for the axle the other for the Mudguard strut . 2 per wheel

tire ? How about 28's?
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Old 12-03-14, 03:01 PM
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There are fender eyelets, but they're "hidden". On the canti version, the rear eyelets are inside the stays, same as in the pictures of the disc version on the site. I've seen both in person, though, and the real-life disc model has them on the outside.

32 is my usual preference, but I'd like to be able to run the studded tires in the winter, and nobody makes one smaller than 35 (other than the Nokian/Suomi A10, which doesn't look to be sufficient for my purposes). I've currently got one of the Marathon 35s (non studded) on my Panasonic, under a Blackburn Cloudburst 45mm fender...it's workable, if you bend the stays outward a bit, but the clearances are really tight.

I have WTB All-Terrain tires in 32 under the same fenders on my Volpe and they work pretty well, although running the 35mm Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106s last winter was a little tight on that bike.
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Old 12-03-14, 04:49 PM
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Have you considered the All City "Macho Man" disc. Those are dreamy. They have all the frame bits and clearance you need to make it an urban assault commuter. I'd buy one if I didn't already have 2 CX bikes.
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Old 12-03-14, 06:12 PM
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Originally Posted by modernjess
Have you considered the All City "Macho Man" disc. Those are dreamy. They have all the frame bits and clearance you need to make it an urban assault commuter. I'd buy one if I didn't already have 2 CX bikes.
Vertical dropouts are a dealbreaker. I'm specifically after a single-speed, without doing a conversion.
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Old 12-04-14, 08:50 AM
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I have a Fantom Cross Uno, which is sort of a super-ghetto half-price Nature Boy, and I have it set up for commuting.

Since I run with either 32s or 37s on it, I have 45mm fenders and a Racktime rack.
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Old 12-04-14, 09:15 AM
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Ive used fenders on mine with 32s and commured some with that, but the only way youre going to get a rack on it is one that only attaches to the seatpost
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Old 12-04-14, 09:15 AM
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My bike shop is an All City dealer, and several of their workers own Nature Boys. Shoot them an email and I'm sure they could answer your question. They cater to commuter/touring cyclists and set up a lot of bikes with fenders and racks.

squirrely@oakcitycycling.com

Also, one of my friends has an All City Space Horse that he uses for commuting, touring and riding on trails. He had trouble fitting Clement LAS 33s (which are really more like 35-36s) with fenders but eventually made it work by switching to a different fenders (SKS P50s). I might be wrong, but I think the Space Horse has more clearance for tires/fenders than the Nature Boy.
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Old 12-04-14, 09:29 AM
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Originally Posted by agmetal
Vertical dropouts are a dealbreaker. I'm specifically after a single-speed, without doing a conversion.
Ah yes, ok. Missed that part. A surly straggler might be another option, discs, plenty of clearance, drop outs work for SS. Just a thought, although you probably already considered it. The nice thing about that drop out set up is you aren't limited to SS in the future if you decide to add gears.
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Old 12-04-14, 11:32 AM
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Originally Posted by Hendricks97
Ive used fenders on mine with 32s and commured some with that, but the only way youre going to get a rack on it is one that only attaches to the seatpost
What about mounting the rack to the fender eyelets, and using p-clamps for the top stays?

Originally Posted by modernjess
Ah yes, ok. Missed that part. A surly straggler might be another option, discs, plenty of clearance, drop outs work for SS. Just a thought, although you probably already considered it. The nice thing about that drop out set up is you aren't limited to SS in the future if you decide to add gears.
I've considered the Straggler, but it ends up being significantly more expensive, because it has to start as a frameset-up build. I also don't like the look of it quite as much.
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Old 12-04-14, 03:32 PM
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I love All-City bikes and the first question that came to mind after reading a little of the thread was "why would you want to ugly up such a gorgeous bike with fenders?"
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Old 12-04-14, 11:14 PM
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What's with all the silly names for bikes these days?
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Old 12-04-14, 11:35 PM
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Originally Posted by the sci guy
I love All-City bikes and the first question that came to mind after reading a little of the thread was "why would you want to ugly up such a gorgeous bike with fenders?"
Practicality, plus I feel that most bikes look better with fenders? These are the ones I want to use: https://www.ridepdw.com/goods/fender...l-fenders-city
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Old 12-05-14, 05:33 AM
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Originally Posted by matimeo
What's with all the silly names for bikes these days?
You should try starting a band these days.
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Old 12-05-14, 07:25 AM
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I applaud All City for their creativity. On the other hand, it would be kind of awkward if somebody asked you what kind of bike you rode, and you had to answer Space Horse or Nature Boy.
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Old 12-05-14, 12:32 PM
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Originally Posted by tarwheel
I applaud All City for their creativity. On the other hand, it would be kind of awkward if somebody asked you what kind of bike you rode, and you had to answer Space Horse or Nature Boy.
Or explain why it's called a Mr. Pink. Why do I have to be Mr. Pink?
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Old 12-09-14, 01:32 PM
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I have the space horse set up for commuting. I've got 32mm gatorskins with fenders, but could easily fit 35s under them. I highly recommend you look into the space horse, as the drop-outs enable you to set up as a fixed gear.
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Old 12-09-14, 03:14 PM
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Originally Posted by matimeo
What's with all the silly names for bikes these days?
Originally Posted by Saving Hawaii
You should try starting a band these days.
Part of it is just marketing, but I'm convinced it's also because most of the obvious names have been taken already. Try to come up with a name for your product, band, new business, domain name, or whatever else you want to trademark, then google your ideas and see how many already exist. After a few days of that, you might start choosing weird names yourself, just to prevent further frustration. (Although you may find that even your goofy name ideas are already taken.)
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Old 12-09-14, 11:32 PM
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*edited*

Hi OP, I currently use my Nature Boy as a commuter. I had it set up with racks for a short time and didn't like it. It's possible but you have to run the mounting hardware through the decorative dropouts and use some extra hardware to fasten the rack the seatstays. See below



I ended up taking both racks off and now it looks like this.


Last edited by TheDavid; 12-11-14 at 12:54 AM.
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Old 12-10-14, 11:16 PM
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Originally Posted by Matt144
I have the space horse set up for commuting. I've got 32mm gatorskins with fenders, but could easily fit 35s under them. I highly recommend you look into the space horse, as the drop-outs enable you to set up as a fixed gear.
$$$ (would have to be done as a frame-up build, or sell off the entire drivetrain), plus canti brakes, which I have on my Bianchi and don't particularly want for this.

Originally Posted by TheDavid
Hi OP, I currently use my Nature Boy as a commuter. I had it set up with fenders for a short time and didn't like it. It's possible but you have to run the mounting hardware through the decorative dropouts and use some extra hardware to fasten the rack the seatstays. See below



I ended up taking both racks off and now it looks like this.

Thanks for that! I know that the canti-equipped Nature Boy has the fender mounts inside the stays, but aside from that, is there any reason that the rack couldn't have been mounted to them? The disc version has them outside the stays. You can see them in this picture from a local shop's blog, and I saw this same bike in person at that shop a while ago.

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