I bought the Nashbar!
 

Ok, so I bought me a 56cm Nashbar frame yesterday, now I'm gonna need to load it up with stuff!

We're going for "cheap, but good" and I'll be using it for loaded touring (TransAm in 2012!) and probably for commuting (if I can get over my paranoia about having another bike stolen).

If you have any recommendations for components (especially if you've built one of these yourself) I'd love to hear 'em!

We've got a bunch of dead MTBs at my house, and I was thinking of just sticking an Alivio groupset I have on there, with some bar-end shifters. Will those index properly/is that a good idea to save cost?

I have Alivio derailleurs and hubs on my mtb as well. My experience with them is very good. I don't see a problem. I use top-mount indexed thumbies. They should be fine with bar-ends. If you have 'em—use 'em.

The rear should index fine. The front can come close, but works better in friction anyway. (I'm using brifters and may be switching the front der to work it out...but it works pretty OK as is now.)
I picked up the same frame and size a couple days ago in the returns area (with the extra 20% off it was a whole $50).

I Built up a 58 touring frame from them last year, and will be trying some new things with this one. If this one feels even better, I'll keep the 56 and sell the 58.

I just ordered the 54cm myself to replace a damaged Cross-Check frame, so I'm looking forward to building it up.

MTB components work great with 9sp barcons. I use them with an XT M760 low-normal RD and the indexing is flawless (and hopefully will continue to be so on the new frame).

I also run with drop bars and an Avid BB7 road disc brake on the front (via the Nashbar carbon cyclocross disc fork) and a canti brake on the back. The chunky black fork looks a little weird on a touring bike but the disc is awesome.

Any opinions on brakes? I was thinking of going with V brakes on this one because they're easier to adjust and I'm more familiar with repairing them (*cough* in 33 degree weather on the side of the Katy Trail in the pouring rain *cough*) and I've never used/repaired canti's before.

But if it's going to be too much of a PITA or too much dough to get them working with my drop bars then I guess I'll learn more about cantis! :)

Cool! I'll be using some 8 speed bar ends with the new build. If I like them better, I'll put them on whichever bike I'll keep. I always thought that the front shifter on bar ends was friction anyway...are some indexed? Indexing, even for the brifters, is flawless with the rear der on mine...but fiddly with the front.

There are aero levers for drop bars that are compatable with V-brakes.
If you are using normal road brake levers, you'll need some adapters (travel agents?) to give you the right range of cable travel.
V-brakes and cantis require different amounts of cable travel.

I've heard that the v-brakes afford more stopping power and are easier to set up.

I have two pairs of tektro rl520 levers that I use on a couple of bikes and they are really nice, though I've noticed they are a bit bigger than most levers, at least the ones I've used.

Tektro makes an inexpensive drop-bar V brake lever (RL520), which Cane Creek rebadges. Dia-Compe also makes drop-bar levers but these are kind of crappy IMHO (but until recently were the only option). Personally I'm not a huge fan of cantilevers, though they are necessary in many situations, especially with drop bars. Aside from easier set up, V brakes also have their own built-in cable stops, so no need to fuss with cable hangers, which often require tight bends in the housing. So with V's I find I often end up with better cable routing (especially if you get ones with reversible noodles).

BTW @foamy: I probably won't be able to use the hubs off of the Alivio bike, so I'll need a good recommendation for a 36 spoke wheelset, but it sounds like I'll be able to spend a little more on that if I'm going to get the groupset for cheap/free...

If the V-brake arms stick up too much, your rear rack supports can interfere with the V-brakes (as a friend of mine found out when he built up his Nashbar frame). If you don't have compatible brake levers, as Jtgyk says, you can make the conventional brake levers work using a QBP Travel Agent.

On the other side, the Nashbar touring frame doesn't have a rear brake hanger built in, so you must provide your own. Also the cut in the seat tube is on the front side, so if you're going to put a brake hanger on the seat post clamp, you must pick a seat post clamp with sufficient clearance to accommodate the hanger. I use a Surly stainless steel seatpost clamp and a Surly stainless steel hanger, which looks great but is a bit spendy. I use Avid Shorty 4s on my bike. They get the job done, but don't do it particularly quickly. (To be fair, they have a lot of weight to stop.)

The front facing slot doesn't make a difference. I just used a regular seatpost clamp (facing with the bolt in the rear as normal) with an add on hanger....works fine.

...except when it does. I know for a fact that not every seatpost clamp/hanger combination out there works, and that not having the extra clearance that a slot would provide can make a difference.

I tried this: the clamp I was using didn't allow either of the hangers I had to be positioned freely. I ended up cutting an additional slot on the back of the seat tube using my Dremel...

I used this hanger

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=140457

fits in the middle of the clamp with the bolt running through.

Doesn't matter to the clamp which position the seat tube slot is located.
the gap only serves to allow the tube to be tightened around the post.
Clamp bolt can be in the rear.

Agreed, it doesn't matter to the clamp where the slot is located. The issue is that there's 2 or 3 mm of metal around the hole in the hangar (the hole that your clamp's bolt goes through), and the clamp must provide at least that much space between the bolt and the seat post, or the hanger won't fit. Preferably, you want more clearance so that the hanger's not rubbing against the seat tube. If the seat tube slot were at the back of the seat tube, that would have given you about 2mm of extra clearance, which makes a difference. I'm glad for you that your clamp and hangar worked and you didn't have to think about this, but I assure you that not everybody is as fortunate as you.

I have the same hanger. With my clamp, it simply will not fit unless there's a slot in the back of the seat tube. Perhaps you should let everyone know which clamp you're using? Sounds like it allows more space between the clamp bolt and seat tube than many of the standard low-end clamps...

Don't know the brands, just got a generic clamp and the hanger from my LBS.
Perhaps my clamp is the key factor...looks like it may extend back a bit more than yours maybe?
I was operating under the presumption that they were all pretty much the same.
Here's pix of what I have:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_hjk-KjFgGfk/S5...%20hanger1.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_hjk-KjFgGfk/S5...hanger%202.jpg

Moves freely and everything.
YMMV

...sorry...didn't know there was that much difference in spec. Come to think of it I DID tell the guy at the LBS about the forward facing slot and he just gave me the clamp & said not to worry about it. Maybe he just knew of one that he knew from experience would work.

My apologies.

Here's a clamp with an integrated cable hanger. I have not tried it but it looks like a great idea.

Looks like it. I originally had a Kalloy SC-201 clamp on the seatpost. It has the bolt 1-2mm from the seat tube and it didn't work with either of the two hangers I had. Managed to snap the bolt and ended up replacing it with a Forte clamp which has a little bit more space between the bolt and the seat tube. By that time I'd already slotted the seat tube in the back, so I didn't bother to check whether it worked any better than the original clamp.

Yours looks like a pretty nice design. More substantial than most and it appears to position the bolt further from the seat tube, which allows the hanger to fit with ease.

No problem, Jtgyk, just wanted to get my point across.

The Kalloy SC-201 clamp was the culprit in my case too. And I agree, you would think that any clamp would work, but that's not the case, unfortunately.

Dang...I wish I'd paid attention to what brand the clamp was now.
I have another one of these showing up sometime next week to start building on.
Maybe I'll give the clamp with the integrated cable stop above.....

The clamp in your photo looks almost exactly like the M Part clamp I just put on my frame (except mine is black). I'm putting V-brakes on mine, but I do have one of those Surly hangers so I'll give it a try. It does look like there's a fair amount of room behind the bolt though.

I bought mine a while ago from Probikekit. Here's the link if anyone's interested:
http://www.probikekit.com/display.php?code=NP09506

EDIT: I tried my Surly hanger on this clamp, and it works great with plenty of room in both dimensions (i.e. front to back and side-to-side).

FD Clamp issue
 

Okay, I've run into an issue with the FD mounting on this frame.

I'm using a Deore LX M581 trekking crank with a 48T big ring. When I try to position my LX M570 FD on the seat tube, the lower bottle cage bolt is right where the clamp band needs to be to have the proper spacing on the big ring. One of the user reviews on the Nashbar site makes mention of this problem but the guy was using a tiny large chainring (42T, IIRC) so I didn't think the problem would apply to me.

So I have a couple of other FD's laying aroudn that I plan to try, but I'm also thinking of getting a "top swing"-style FD like this, or possibly an e-clamp type that attaches to the bottom bracket like this. The e-type looks interesting but I suspect it has a fixed height so you can only use it with a 44T max chainring.

Anyway, I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has run into this problem and how they solved it.