Bacciagalupe

Just did 100 miles on my new Allez yesterday....




NOT PICTURED: I used a Brooks B17, instead of the Toupe in the photo.

I may use it for the Montauk 145 in June, but haven't decided between this and the Cross Check.

Cadillac

To answer this question, I have to stretch my memory.
First was a 1950 CCM coaster bike (i.e., pedal backward to brake).
Next was a BRC (Boyes & Rosser) "department store" 10-speed.
Then a Gitane Tandem with Machka as stoker.
Then a Maruishi 12-speed road bike which I gave to my nephew.
Next a steel-frame Italian bike with Campy which I gave to my son and wouldn't mind having back again.
Then a Trek 2000 aluminum frame road bike which I still have and use most of the time.
Last, a 3-wheel Catrike on which I did both a 200 and 300 brevet.

digimarket

For some time I have been searching (and trying to build) the perfect long-distance bicycle. 20 years ago I rode several centuries, the Davis double century, and the Tour of the California Alps (AKA: Death Ride) all on an Eisentraut semi-production frame called a "Limited". I loved the bike, and it was great, but really very wrong for long rides. It had 74 degree angles, very little offset, and a high bottom bracket - really more of a criterium racing bike with Super Vitus steel tubing. It was very light and handled great in high speed descents, but I vowed to get a bike more like the Gitane Interclub that I toured thousands of miles on back in the 70's - Long wheelbase, 72 degree angles and small diameter (flexy) forks and stays. I put an Ideale 90 Daniel Rebour "hand broken" saddle on it. Then I took a ball peen hammer to the saddle and really worked it over. Of course the flimsy sew-up wheels it came with were replaced with the closest thing I could find to a 650B at the time - 26 x 1 3/8 three speed rims custom laced (myself) to a dynahub on the front and a "ten speed" hub on the back. I ran wide Michelin zig-zags on it and went on any kind of road - smooth, bumpy, gravel, path, cross-country...

Davesaction

100k on 50/16 gearing.

Sixty Fiver

I usually ride alone and have completed a few metrics this year and am looking forward to putting a few more big C's on my bikes... have been riding the P20 a lot and it is my preferred bike for my 100km return commute.



This year I built new wheels with Sun Rhynolites laced to Suzue cartridge bearing hubs and will be stripping and sandblasting the frame and doing a few more frame modifications and upgrades as well as building a new fork and stem before it's gets powdercoated.

This is the last stretch of my commute... was happy I replaced my Comets with Marathons as they handle the gravel and sand really well.

Six jours

We're still waiting for you to do the imperial century on that one, Sixty Fiver...

JunkYardBike

Rode my first and only century two summers ago. Swore I'd never do it again. But this bike is having me reconsider. Incredibly comfortable and....it planes! Well, at the very least, it feels livelier up hills than any other bike I've ridden.

Kogswell P/R 650B

Six jours

Great looking bike, Junkyard.

Homeyba

Did they stop using the carbon seat stays on the Allez?

jamesdak 

My last century was on this LeMond Zurich but with a Fizik Alliante saddle instead of the Brooks B17 Imperial in this shot. I just cannot get comfortable with that saddle on any of my road bikes. I'll try it on my mountain bike and then sell it if it does not work. Strange because I also have a standard B17 which is really comfortable and am breaking in a new Brooks Swift.

Running Conti GP4000 700 x 25 tires on this with a little lower than normal pressure for more comfort.

greaterbrown

Ain't they wunderful? Yours is a real beauty, JunkYard.

Done many 100+ rides on mine (see signature pic below). My August plan is to ride mine on D2R2 up in MA this August. I haven't decided on whether to run the Col de la Vies or buy some Hetres for that one.

JunkYardBike

Thanks for the kind words, all.

greaterbrown, can you spare a century, brother? Here's to hoping the P/R can ride one for me!

Bacciagalupe

Yes, even the top of the line Allez dropped the carbon seat stays. No more Zertz either, like they had a few years ago.

I may be wrong but I think carbon stays are less common than they were a few years ago. It could be that the alloy frames don't need it, or a cost-cutting measure.

tashi

I'd figure that it would be to differentiate them a bit more - full carbon is cheap enough now that a carbon/aluminum bike would probably end up at a very similar price point. Switching to full aluminum allows Specialized to offer a model that's appreciably cheaper than the full-carbon alternatives.

My guess anyway...

Homeyba

I have an older Allez Pro and it has the CF seat stays and Zertz inserts in the fork. It has a very good ride. It'd be fun to compare it to a newer one without the CF stuff. Personally, I think the CF seat stays are more of a gimmick than anything which is why you don't see them too much any more.

clasher

Here's the bike I used for my first (and hopefully many more) century:


Specialized Sirrus zombie by clasher, on Flickr

I've taken the mudflap off since summer is likely here by now, I ditched the rock-hard agda saddle and am on the hunt for something nicer, might go with a brooks flyer or anything more comfortable than that rock.

Six jours

For several years I've been toying with the idea of a lightweight randoneusse built for the Rohloff speedhub. It seems like most of the bikes made for use with this hub are real monsters, meant for six months in the Amazon and what have you, but more "sporting" bikes are pretty rare - I've seen a few nice examples on Flickr, and that's about it. So...





Tubing is standard diameter Deda .8/.5/.8, forks are made with the Imperial oval crown and blades Jan Heine/Compass Bicycles is selling (turns out I really don't like them and will be replacing the fork with standard Continental oval blades) and the rear dropouts are Paragon sliders. (I've reinforced them with a couple of extra tubes, visible at the bottoms of the seatstays, as the plain connections looked badly stressed to me.)

Gearing is 46x16, which (with 42 mm 650b Grand Boise Hetres) works out to a 21 inch low and a 110 inch high, or the equivalent of about a 30 ring with a 38 cog on the low end and a 53x13 on top. So it's great for really steep hills and off-road. It's also kind of heavy, even considering all the stuff it replaces, and noisy in certain gears. The aluminum fender acts as a resonator, so there are a few gears that are actually kind of embarrassing. All told, though, I think the bike is going to meet my expectations for it.

fenderbender

Noel, that is an incredibly beautiful and practical bike you've made! I've read BQ and Henie's views on the design of forks so I'm interested in hearing why you prefer modern tubing?

pwdeegan

Six jours: so glad to have one more Rohloff in the LD fold! I saw a guy just last week with a Rohloff (the only other one in town I've ever seen). We exchanged greetings and then he asked: How do you like your Rohloff? The only response I could give him was: "I'll never go back." Then traffic separated us.

You're also right that it has not been an easy task finding non-standard Rohloff builds. Probably because they're non-standard. There are several sites with good pictures dedicated to IGHs, including the Yahoo! IGH group (at https://groups.yahoo.com/group/Geared_hub_bikes/ ). For my part, I've posted bunches of photos of my specific CX-bike Rohloff build at: https://picasaweb.google.com/pwdeegan/TwoWheelsGood

The noise is largely a non-issue. On my build the bike runs silent except for the classic 7th gear hum; but I'm rarely in 7th gear unless I'm gearing down for a hill, or up for more speed—it's a purely transitional gear for me. I've had many people in my cycle club actually comment on how quiet the Rohloff is (compared to various "angry bee" freewheel hubs). The gear range is also pure joy.

I'm curious though, are you using the OEM2 axle plate for the anti-torque? Did you get a Rohloff-specific dropout for that?

FreddyV

With me on it, at the Theo de Rooij Classic, here in the Netherlands.

Six jours

Thanks! I think the trouble with the forks is that they are simply too flexible. Vertical flex is great, although not perfectly necessary with such wide tires. The horizontal flex makes the whole front end of the bike kind of whippy, though, and I don't care for that at all. I suspect the reason Jan and I differ on the subject is that I'm 40 pounds heavier than he is...

Six jours

Thanks for the links; I'll look through them.

I'm a stickler for quiet bikes, so the noise bugs me a little. Not a big deal, but I'd prefer it wasn't there. And if you haven't heard one with a big aluminum fender, well, trust me when I tell you it's a very effective resonator! I'm also a bit annoyed with the freewheel sound in the top seven gears, to the point that when I'm going to do some extended coasting, I'll shift into one of the lower seven. C'est la vie.

The dropouts are OEM Paragon sliders - you can see my thread on the framebuilding forum titled something like "Is this dropout joint going to fail?" for close-up views. I'm satisfied with them, but if I'd designed them I would have considered locating the seatstay tabs at the rear of the sliding portion rather than the front. But I'm comfortable with their strength after having added the little support tubes at the back.

fenderbender

Thank's for pointing that out! I have long thought that Heine's articles is written with to much emphasis on his own preferences with out to much consideration for the need of the "average" cyclist. But I guess this personal tone is also one of the greatest strength of the mag. Would it be possible to dampen the resonance in the mudguards with some leather washers?

Six jours

Jan/BQ is a great resource, but yes, he does sometimes form opinions that are perfectly valid for him and not necessarily anyone else!

And of course I am using leather washers between frame and fender - wouldn't want Jan to catch me without them. The hub just produces so much more vibration than a typical derailleur setup; I don't think there's anything to be done. Oh well...

fenderbender

True, cant wait for the next issue! If it's any consolation a club mate's Rohloff equiped Thorn has become a lot better with time. If your not heading over here for PBP, how about loading it up and do some touring this summer!
Just got me a cheapo RB-T frame for the holidays that I'm probably dressing up with some good 'ol Campa MTB gears and cantis so have to run! ; )