Salsa Casseroll - Rohloff Build
 

Bicycling has been my primary mode of transportation for the past decade. My Cannondale T2000 has been the main workhorse during this time, and it has served me well. Nonetheless, I'm always thinking of the next bike. There are things that are imperfect or inconvenient about even the most reliable machine, besides which I enjoy tinkering and I'm a bit of a sucker for cool new stuff. As I fine-tuned my requirements and desires for The Next Bike, a few things took priority:

- Internally geared hub. I find the cleaning, adjusting, and maintaining of derailleurs on an all-weather, all-purpose bike to be among the most tedious things about bicycling.

- Dynamo front hub. I ride quite a bit at night, and worrying about the charge state of my batteries was something I wanted to eliminate.

- Front disc brake. Again, an advantage for all-weather riding. Lack of responsiveness of my cantis in wet weather has been pretty scary at times, and keeping them in adjustment has been frustrating.

- Frame. I wanted steel with classic geometry. Also, I didn't want a chain tensioner with the IGH, partly for the minor efficiency difference, but mostly because I wanted a clean-looking drivetrain. Thus, the need for a horizontal dropout.

- Saddle. I started using a Brooks fairly recently and it's been a revelation. Had to go on the new bike.

Thus, the basis of this build was:

Salsa Casseroll frame - fit the frame criteria, and it looks cool.

Avid BB7 Road disc brake - the standard for disc with road levers.

Shimano dynohub - the Schmidt's small advantage in efficiency wasn't worth the 3x cost.

Rohloff IGH - Huge gear range; small, even gear increments; bombproof and nearly maintenance-free. Here's where only the best would do. I expect this hub to outlive me.

Brooks B17 Saddle

My LBS, Freeze Thaw Cycles, was great about talking me through various options, ordering and/or scrounging the somewhat obscure parts, and building the wheels. I fumbled through the rest of the build myself over the past three weekends.

OK, enough blah blah blah. On to the pictures.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3048/...4ff55385_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3111/...415d0d70_o.jpg


Here's a shot of the Rohloff, non-drive side, showing the torque arm that keeps the axle fixed while the epicyclic gear train does its thing.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3062/...65422f2b_o.jpg


Rohloff driveside:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/...5326ec3d_o.jpg


The Rohloff shifter is designed to be mounted on flat bars, so getting it to work with drop bars requires some sort of kludge; either a prefab thing like the HubBub, or some homebrew creativity. I fabricated my own mount, based on a suggestion from the LBS. I cut the end off an old flat bar, filed a curve in it, and cut some slots for a hose clamp. Here it is in its ugly, naked state:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3141/...195f968b_o.jpg


And here it is wrapped in the bar tape:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3082/...98a3566a_o.jpg


A couple closeups of the drive train:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3188/...87b37ecc_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3129/...cd23d230_o.jpg


And last but not least, regardless of what you think of my bike, you have to concede that I have a pretty cool wife, who presented me with this Master's graduation present, before I got started on this project:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3240/...c9b9424e_o.jpg

Specs:

Frame - Salsa Casseroll 2008 53 cm
Fork - Nashbar carbon cyclocross
Rims - Salsa Delgado
Front hub - Shimano DH-3D71 dynamo
Rear hub - Rohloff CC, 16t cog
Tires - Panaracer Pasela Tourgard 32-622
Headset - Cane Creek S3
Stem - Ritchey Comp
Handlebars - Ritchey Biomax II
Bar tape - Salsa gel/cork
Seatpost - Kalloy Uno
Saddle - Brooks B17
Brake levers - Cane Creek SCR-5
Front brake - Avid BB7 Road with DT Swiss centerlock adapter
Rear brake - Tektro R538
Bottom bracket - Campagnolo square taper
Crankset - Campagnolo Mirage triple (used), 42t
Pedals - Nashbar Tourmalet
Chain - SRAM PC-1
Rack - Axiom Streamliner
Fenders - Velo Orange aluminum
Lights - Busch & Muller Lumotec IQ Fly N Plus front, B&M D'Toplight XS Plus rear

I'm drooling!!

BTW - how do you like the el Diente? I ride a Dean Animas CTI mostly.

Nice

Should you wish to change your shifter placement Noell Fahrradbau make a two piece drop bar that you can put a rohloff shifter on.

See the "SKLight" bike for an example (the shifter is mounted on the top, right hand side).

http://www.noell-fahrradbau.de/

http://www.rohloff.de/no_cache/de/in...r/0/index.html

http://www.rohloff.de/typo3temp/pics/3d12d18bb3.jpg

How did you mount 6 bolt disc on center lock? Close up pictures would be nice. :)

This was another one I built up myself when I was living in Boulder, CO. Dean is a few miles outside Boulder and they were offering the frame at half price because of an insignificant ding on the downtube. I used Ultegra parts, mainly. I love it - fast, light, comfortable. Dean was starting to build some frames with carbon seatstays at the time, but I think the all-TI is great. I do have a carbon fork, which softens the ride just enough.

Thanks for the tip; this is probably something that I'll change eventually. It works reasonably well but I do have to be careful not to hit my knee when I'm standing on the pedals.

Congratulations! That is a brilliant build. I wish you many happy miles. I've been thinking along the same lines almost exactly for my fantasy bike. Congrats on super supportive wife!

At any point did you think about a polycog or maybe a fully enclosed chain-guard? Cosmetically speaking, though, I recommend honey brooks leather wrap or at least a shade of cork that either matches the saddle or the frame.

I used this adapter. I'll try to get more pics and specs up in the next couple days.

Nice! You'll love that dynohub. I'm loving mine. :)

Damn! That is the best solution yet!
Although I am still fantasizing about Rohloff brifters.
(And my fantasy also includes a custom Ti frame.)

Thanks for the compliments!

Belt drive is definitely something I have my eye on, but at this point it seemed like too much work. The bike is already getting a little heavy and the chainguard seems like overkill. I guess I'm resigned to chain maintenance; I don't find it too much trouble.

After shelling out for the essentials on this bike, my cheap side started asserting itself. I considered the Brooks bar wrap for about 10 seconds before deciding that the Salsa Natural was in the same color family as the frame and saddle, and that would do for now. ;)

There was a prototype rohloff speedhub trigger shifter at Eurobike '08.

See a thread at the popular but advert, spam and cookie infested MTBR forum:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=449589

I saw that but it still isn't a brifter.:mad:

It is just not acceptable that after paying the big bucks for the state-of-the-art geared hub, users of drop bars are forced to hack something together for mounting the shifter. The real solution is brifters. And if they could be brifters with optional cable pull-rates to handle caliper brakes or canti/linear brakes, I would *really* be tickled.

I've wondered if anyone has tried mounting the Rohloff twist-grip at the end of a drop bar. Would it work with the cables coming out at that right angle to the bar?

There's at least one bike exactly like that in one of these two threads (sorry, can't be more specific)

clydesdale bikes: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...150310&page=55
;commuter bikes: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...49471&page=123

twinquad, was that bike built up on their floor? They had one that looked a lot like it last time I was in there. In fact, I was going to talk to them about one of the dynamo hubs today, but I didn't make it.

No, I took it home in pieces. I did notice a couple other Casserolls in there, and I think one was a single speed, so it had that same derailleur-free look. I need to stop by so they can see the finished product; maybe I'll let them show/ride it for a couple days.

Super slick. I'm definitely a fan of your shifter solution. If the knee interference becomes too much you could flip the shifter to the other side of the bar. But then it'd be further. And you probably already figured that out.
That's an awesome gift certificate too.

Beautiful build.

Nice bike, priceless wife :)

Nice bike. But how do I get one of those certificates?!

Awesome build! I want a rohloff eventually. How do you like the torque arm? Do you have to remove it when you change a flat? I had a nexus with a roller brake once, and I hated having to remove the brake arm from the frame when changing a flat.

Thanks! I have the "CC" version of the Rohloff, which has a hollow axle for a QR skewer. This version also comes with a quick-release attachment for the torque arm, so removal is pretty simple. However, it looks a little clunky, so I actually chose to bolt it on with a coaster brake chainstay clamp. Still doesn't take too much effort to unbolt it if necessary. I guess my area doesn't have too much road debris; I only get flats two or three times a year. Which is to say, I haven't had one yet with this bike. Maybe after I do I'll change my mind.

I have to ask:

How much did that that certificate set your wife back, Mr. Dunkin? :)

Edit: drool

Beautiful bike! Dare I ask how much it weighs? And any guess what it might weigh with standard front hub and no racks or fenders (i.e. "daytime california weather mode")?

You might be able to talk my wife into sending you one. She doesn't share a bank account with you!:)

About 14 kg (31 lbs). Stripping it down might save 1-1/2 or 2 kg, not sure. Salsa claims that their complete Casseroll Triple weighs 23.5 lbs.