Chapter Two – Almost Finished

Almost complete.

This is the third installment of posts about putting together a touring bike starting with a bare frame. The others can be found under “Rivendell Bicycles”

The new 127 mm spindle length bottom bracket from IRD works perfectly with the IRD crankset, and the rest of the build went smoothly.
Here’s a short rundown of the parts we used:
Wheelset; Shimano LX hubs laced with 32 spokes to Velocity Dyad 650b rims. (Velocity and Mavic are the only two brands to consider for rims when buying or building wheels)

Tires; Panaracer Nifty Swifty 650b

Shifters and Derailleurs; Shimano 8 speed bar end shifters operating Shimano Tiagra derailleurs. I really like the Tiagra level derailleurs. Even though they are not on the high end of the Shimano line, they work well and look good and they are made without a lot of plastic pieces.

Drivetrain; IRD Defiant triple crankset with 48, 36 and 24 tooth rings. Sram 8 speed cassette 11,12,14,16,18,21,24 and 28 tooth cogs. Sram 8 speed chain. Shimano PD-A530 dual sided pedals.

Cockpit; Nitto Grand Randonneur handlebars, Nitto Technomic Deluxe stem with shim, Tektro/Soma short reach brake levers, Shimano Ultegra seat post with the Gilles Berthoud Aspin/Marie Blanc saddle

Brakes; IRD Cafam cantilevers with Yokozuna Scott/Matthauser pads.

The IRD Cafam brake calipers

Drivetrain

I used grey housing on all the cables to give a little bit of a custom look. I will wrap the handlebars after Karen has had a chance to ride the bike a few times and decides if the brake lever and handle bar positions are OK. Stainless steel water bottle cages by King Cage, fenders (probably SKS) will finish the bike, except for whatever racks and bags she uses for touring.