Gus Boots Willsen Build

[lconley]

Here is my Gus Boots Willsen build. Only have a few details left (water bottles cages, bar tape on, remove the brake cable hanger - installed to preserve space in case I want cantilevers), final trim of cable housing and soldering cable ends

Frame - Large Gus Boots Willsen with IRD roller bearing headset

Wheels - built by me - 700C

  Front - 40 spoke, bolt-on Phil Wood Hub, Velocity Cliffhanger rim - black with machined sidewalls, Sapim double butted spokes - 4-cross

  Rear - 48 spoke, bolt-on Phil Wood Touring Hub - 9 speed, Velocity Cliffhanger rim - black with machined sidewalls, Sapim double butted spokes - 4-cross

Tires - Surly Extra-Terrestrial 29x2.5

Drivetrain - 1x11

  Crank - White Industries M30 crank and bottom bracket, 32 tooth chainring

  Cassette - 11 speed Shimano XT 12-46 (12 tooth first position cog substituted for 11)

  Chain - Wipperman Connex 11 speed

  Rear Derailleur - SRAM GX 11 speed with SRAM trigger shifter

Pedals - Speedplay Drillium

Brakes - Shimano Deore V-brake

Brake Levers - Shimano DXR MX70

Brake Cables - Jaguar ultra-slick with Jaguar housings

Seat post - Nitto S-83, 26.8

Saddle - NOS Brooks B-68

Stem - Crust Ti LD

Handlebars - Jones Ti 660

Grips - Jones

Pump - Zefal HPX-3

Kickstand - Pletscher

Weight as pictured - 35.0 lbs

Laing

Delray Beach FL

[Jesse Stoddard]

Man that is a seriously premium build. Regarding fit, are you pretty upright on this? 

[lconley]

I am still bent forward a little, I may install narrower spacers and cut down the steering tube a little more (already cut about 3" off). I am not comfortable too upright - been riding drops for over 50 years. I have a long torso and short legs so I am still leaning over with bars considerably above the saddle - I like a long effective top tube. My Riv Custom is something like 54.5 ST, 63 TT with a 6 degree TT. Note that the majority of the grips are forward of the headtube. I am not comfortable on Boscos and Albatrosses.

I already had many of the parts except for the rims, spokes and tires from an abandoned Crust ScapeGoat fatbike build from a few years ago. The rear hub came from a set of Peter White wheels that were on my original Blue headtube Sam from 8 years ago.

Laing

[Ed Fausto]

Hi Laing,

That is definitely a very premium build.

How do you find the Crust Ti LD stem? is this the raw finish?

I am looking for ways to have my handlebar higher than my seat on my 51 Gus.

Right now my steering tube is still uncut and using a 70m Nitto UI-21 stem with Nitto Choco norm handlebar.

The uncut steerer tube with lots of headset spaces does not look nice which is why I am considering a similar stem as an alternative.

Ed Fausto

[lconley]

The stem is too tall, and I believe that it is the raw finish - bought it a couple of years ago. It turns out that I had the seat adjusted for the bike stand clamp and not for me and once the seat was lowered properly, the handlebars are way up there - I am changing to a 6 degree 100mm stem - the large Gus has a tall headtube and I do not need the tall stem. I was at the top of the medium frame range and bottom of the large frame range so I went with the large so I could use 700C wheels and have the longer effective top tube because of my long torso.

I have several bikes with VO Cigne (LD) stems, basically on every 1-1/8" threadless headset bike that I have, except the Hubbuhubbuh, and yes the Hubbuhubbuh looks weird with that many spacers. I love the LD stems because I usually need the extra height on non-Riv frames and the LD stem is easier on my oversized belly when I am standing on the ground, off the seat and rubbing up against the stem when I start off. I bought the Crust Ti stem in a moment of weakness because it was in stock and I could. It will get swapped out for one of my others, probably on my Trek District. I will probably eventually put an LD stem on the Hubbuhubbuh, but I really like the threadless style Nitto Bullmoose that is on it. Probably end up with Jones bars or Nitto Wavies when I do. I am not a fan of bars with mostly parallel grip areas - Bosco, Albatross, etc.

[Jason Fuller]

Those stems look pretty neat (especially in Ti!) but are definitely massively tall.  I have a 90mm Cigne that I'm only keeping in case I build a VO Neutrino in the future, because it has a pretty low stack height. That build is spectacular.  It would look super nice with a Simworks cromo stem also!