Help me spec my custom frame!
 

Hello Everyone,

1PM Saturday I'm going to get fitted for a custom frame. It'll be rigid steel, for touring and commuting, 26" with clearances for big tires (big apples) + fenders etc... Since I'm going custom, I'm thinking about what braze-ons/ features I want...

Here's my list so far:

rohloff sliding dropouts
front/rear rack braze ons
fender eyelets/mounts
disc brake mounts
3 water bottle braze ons
pump peg
chain hanger

is there anything else you think is valuable? I'm debating internal cable routing...

Thanks,
Richard

I like the brazeons for the der/rear brake cables on the top of the top tube, not the bottom, it makes it much more comfortable to carry the bike on your shoulder if you must.

Edit: Pump Peg - nice touch, I havent seen many of those in a while.

Definitely. Thanks for mentioning that. Most of my frames all route on the top and that's important to mention. I should probably see if the pump peg can be positioned on the rear wheel facing side of the seat tube as well, leaving the bottom of the top tube free of such things.

Make sure the fender mounts include a threaded fitting in the chainstay bridge, and another one going straight up into the seatstay bridge.

Internal cable routing looks nice, but but how many extra holes do you want in your frame? Extra holes strike me as a good way to introduce extra stress points and start the rusting process. How easy is it to replace internally routed cables?

What kind of lights are you using? I'm partial to hub generators, but if you're going to use a tire driven generator then a generator mount would be nice. The fork crown is a great place to mount a headlight, and if you want to mount a second headlight then a mounting point low on the fork is nice.

Yeah, are you getting a dyno hub? That'd be cool.

Oh, and the Long Haul Trucker has a spare spoke holder, apparently. I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to fashion something like that, perhaps on the seat stay.

YECH! I hate top tube cable routing. To me it's the hallmark of a cheaply designed bike. I figure I stand over the top tube at least 1000 times for every one time I carry my bike on my shoulder. I'm forever moving the little cable donuts around with my junk, and now I've got small surfaces scratches from cable rub. I've never once carried my commuter on my shoulder, and I don't really do that with my mtb either. Maybe if you're racing cx or mtb. You won't be with this bike.

Personally, I'd get 3 hydraulic guides brazed onto the underside of the top tube and run uninterrupted cable housing from lever to caliper for the rear disc brake. That's the way you must do it if you run hydraulic disc brakes anyway. Might as well leave the option open. This way, you can also lift the bike without moving the cable around. These braze ons are going to be standard on your seatstay for disc brakes. Internal cable routing is nice, but forget hydraulic brakes.

These are the stick-on guides for reference, but braze-on ones are avail too:

http://aebike.com/page.cfm?PageID=30...ils&sku=BR7847

The front der and rear der cables I'd run with standard cable stops on the downtube.

Good questions... Truthfully I don't know, that's why I'm still debating it... Can anyone chime in on the pros/cons of internal routing?

I will have a front generator hub (probably a schmidt dynohub) I was thinking to mount a headlight on the front fender or on the fork crown where a caliper brake would normally be...

I was thinking mechanical disc brakes for reliability and ease of maintenance... are hydraulic that much better? Seems unneccessarily complex to me. Do they make universal guides that can mount either hydraulic or mechanical, that way I can be flexible?

This bike will be equipped with a rohloff hub and yes, I'll be routing the cables on the bottom of the downtube...

Thanks,
Richard

Those guides are the same for hydraulic or cable actuated disc brakes. They're just standard cable housing holders.

Avid BB7 are the only cable actuated disc brakes that I would use, and I think many feel the same. They are very good and will serve you well. They are definitely easier to maintain and adjust. If you're going to be running road/drop bars and brifters, you must use cable disc brakes, and Avid makes the BB7 in a road version (different pull ratio than with mtb levers). Hydraulic is not an option yet for road bikes as far as I know.

Here are a few pics. First is rear cable actuated housing routing on my Jamis. It unfortunately has top tube interrupted routing which I will soon be modifying. Second and third are Stumpjumper hydraulic routing. Same guides, though I think some brands have a nice plastic clip and the ones on the Stumpjumper use standard cable ties which are obviously not as nice.

On today's full suspension bikes, there is no way to shoulder them. The front triangle is not really a triangle anymore. Some bikes don't even have enough room for a bottle cage!

Sorry for the poor quality. I had to dumb them down because I'm too lazy to put them on imageshack and can only load 100k of total image size. But you get the idea.

pro - aesthetics ... it makes the frame look cleaner, con - functional ... it's makes it a pain in the ass to replace your brake and derailleur cables. Granted, replacing cables isn't more than a once a year affair (if that) but you're already going to have a ton of stuff hanging off the bike (bottles, pump, racks) so you've already lost a lot of territory in the war for a 'clean look'

If you're getting a custom steel fork as well, ask for cable guides for the headlight to be added to the right side of the fork. It's a nice touch and saves you from having to secure the headlight cable with zip ties.

Good idea. The left side will require cable guides as well for the disc brakes. It would be very unique to have matching guides on both sides.

Consider S&S couplers,
if you plan to travel a lot with your bike ?