Originally Posted by
unterhausen
actually, I think John's suggestion may be best, unless you are going to go ahead and use a fatbike drivetrain and 170 or 190mm rear hub. Because otherwise the chainline is going to be a problem. I guess there is no reason not to use a fatbike drivetrain on a road bike, but I'm not sure it's worth the hassle. I know one thing for sure, before I built a bike like that I would make sure the resulting q factor works better for the rider.
you can get different spindle lengths for Speedplay pedals.
This is the main reasoning right here. If you want to avoid the pedal spindle issue, then take a fatbike and swap out the rims for smaller ones to make a road bike/hybrid/regular mtn bike, so that all the driveline components work properly. It's basically what the builder will end up doing anyway, except you may be able to avoid the cost of a custom build with non-standard components, and you know that you can buy replacement parts on the regular that will fit. The rider can also try the bike through rental before going ahead with a purchase/build.