New Build Day! Two Speed Road Bike

[Bill Lindsay]

I pounced on a local 59cm Romulus.  That bike has long been on my list of "I'd ride THAT" bikes, but it wasn't a terribly high priority.  This opportunity presented itself and got to work.  

Cutting to the chase: here's the album  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45758191@N04/albums/72177720310604809

The bike was a mostly original Riv complete Rom build.  It had a mustache bar cockpit, and Silver bar con shifters, but otherwise was pretty much stock.  It's got nicks and scratches beau-sage but was in mechanically fine shape.  

This is going to be a versatile road platform upon which I could implement a number of different build concepts.  The one that had been sticking in my mind, though, was a front-derailleur only road two speed.  The forthcoming Roaduno is allegedly going to have both a rear der hanger as well as the braze on bits to do a FRONT shifter.  Some listers vocally proclaimed that "silly", but it seems pretty sensible to me.  I had not executed a build of that kind, and this was my shot.  

From "inventory" I pulled together a nice two speed road bike kit:

The wheelset was "inherited" from my Crust Florida Man., which lives in Michigan.  When I built that bike, I used stuff I had on-hand, including a pair of HED Belgium rims.  Those are almost impossible to get anymore, so I built a new set of wheels around cheaper and wider rims to bring that wheelset back to California.  I just grabbed them off the hook.  I put a pair of used Compass Steilacoom 700x38 knobbier on there (with latex tubes!) and grabbed a 16/18 DOS ENO freewheel.  The rear hub is Surly Ultra New.  The front is a Phil Track hub.  I tossed on a pair of Shimano "CLICKR" SPD pedals.  

The drivetrain centers on a Campy Centaur 172.5mm square taper cranks

Origin8 sealed BB (110.5)

blue chain guard

39T tripleizer ring

24T ring from the original Rom build

The front derailleur is a heavily modified FSA that I had from earlier experiments.  The shift lever is a Shimano Ultegra "triple-color" model from he 1990s with an awesome return spring inside to make it really light action.  The tensioner is a modified XT rapid rise.  There's no return spring inside, from a desmodromic exploration.  I was able to adjust one limit screw so it hits the 16T cog.  The other limit screw was too short, so I replaced it with a long socket head M4x0.7mm bolt.  I can turn that one with my fingers.  Dialed out the RD "falls" to the 18T cog.  Dialed in I can push it to the 16.  

The cockpit includes other parts box items.  I got the Salsa stem really cheap only to find it's like 25.8mm in clamp diameter.  I was waiting for a working-class build to force it to 26.0mm.  I spread it wide and got a 420mm Nitto Noodle in there.  I used the stock brake levers and some orange Newbaums.  I kept the original Nitto 65 seat post and installed the Brooks Pro saddle reclaimed from "Shawn's Hetchins".  

Now it's ready to ride (after the shellac dries).  Maybe this will inspire some of the Roaduno builds later this year.  Enjoy

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[JohnS]

Very cool build Bill, should be fun ride. I can see the value in a two speed, I think I'll do one sometime.

JohnS

[Michael Baquerizo]

where do you rank this era of rivendell in comparison to todays? i know they were offered as budget alternatives to the MUSA models but are they better (whatever this means) than MIT? 

I may even be wrong about what i mean about 'this era'. To me this bike, the redwood, and bleriot are all from the same time. 

The Bleriot has always intrigued me but ultimately i'd love a custom Riv built to some lighter specs. Or maybe I don't know what im talking about. 

Well done. 

[Berkeleyan]

Ah, so you shift the rear DOS ENO by turning the thumbscrew bolt, brilliant and simple. That gives you a low range two-speed for hills, and a high range two-speed for the flats. I have the hub on my QuickBeam, and I bet you're able to swap cogs faster than I can, since I have 17mm nuts to deal with.

- Andrew, still kicking in Berkeley

[Bill Lindsay]

Michael Baquerizo asked a couple questions

1. where do you rank this era of rivendell in comparison to todays? 

I don't rank the older era of Rivendell in comparison to todays.  The Romulus is a Romulus.  I was familiar with the geo chart and knew that I could do a build around a 59cm Romulus, and here it is.  You are correct that the Romulus was contemporary with the Bleriot.  The Redwood and Romulus are the same model.  The Redwood is just the bigger sizes of the Romulus.   

2. i know they were offered as budget alternatives to the MUSA models but are they better (whatever this means) than MIT? 

This is correct that they were lower priced than MUSA models at the same time.  I don't know what you mean by better either, but I don't rank Rivendells.  You decide what is desirable to you.  A 59cm Romulus was desirable to me and so I set one up when I got the chance.  Now I'll ride it some!  

Now that my stable is pretty large, I think of bikes like outfits.  What I decide to wear that day depends on what I'm doing that day, so I have a variety of outfits.  Most all my outfits are off the shelf.  Some are more expensive and fashionable than others.  Others are more comfortable, rugged and pedestrian in construction.  All are carefully curated by me and if I don't want to wear something, it doesn't live in my closet.  The only reason I'd add a truly bespoke custom outfit would be if I decided I needed something that can't be bought off the shelf.  There is definitely no such thing as a custom outfit that I'd wear every day for all activities.  I have no "best" outfit, and I don't rank my outfits.  I hope that perspective helps.

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Bill Lindsay]

Thanks Andrew

There are indeed two ranges, and the "spread" between the two front chainrings is pretty wide right now.  For the Gear Inch folks, what I have now is a 60 inch high and a 37 inch low in the 18T cog, and a 67 inch high and 41 inch low in the 16T cog.  When I think of "hills" gearing I'd want the higher high AND the lower low.  When I think of "flats" gearing then I'd want the two to be closer together, and indeed the flatter terrain is where a singlespeed makes a lot of sense.  

Looking at the numbers I'm finding some appeal in running a totally stock and totally unwanted 53/39 crankset, matched with my 20/22 DOS ENO.  The range of gears would be more in the 49 to 73 inch range, and bigger chainrings and cogs are known by the efficiency zealots to have less friction and lower chain tension.  

Plenty to play with, even on a two-speed...

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Bill Lindsay]

Three random events triggered a rebuild of my Romulus drivetrain:

1. Blue Lug instagram photo of Grant with his 3x1 Platypus

2. Joe Bernard desperately wanting to get rid of a Paul Melvin

3. George coming through with an 18T single White Industries Freewheel when I offered to raid your parts box

Because of the above, I decided to remove:

Campy Centaur crankset with 39/24 rings

White Dos Eno 16/18 FW

FSA front derailleur

Deore XT springless rear derailleur

What went on was/is:

Ritchey/Sugino 172.5 cranks with 46/36/24 rings

18T White Industries FW

Shimano Deerhead front derailleur

Paul Melvin

So now it's a three-speed road bike, with gears of 70, 55 and 37 inches.  The Paul Melvin documentation says it'll take up 20 teeth, but it seems fine here at 22 teeth.  I'll add photos to the album.  This is really close to what I would probably do on a Roaduno.  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[EGNolan]

Anxiously Awaiting photos for APPROVAL.

; )

Eric

Indpls

[Bill Lindsay]

I added a couple photos:

Drivetrain: https://www.flickr.com/photos/45758191@N04/53173631968/

Bike: https://www.flickr.com/photos/45758191@N04/53173144361/

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Guy LeVan]

On Sun, Sep 10, 2023 at 7:06 AM Guy LeVan <leva...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Bill,

Great looking Rom!  I am in the middle of designing my 3X1 drivetrain on either a Rambouillet frame (132.5 rear spacing), or on my Atlantis or Clem frame,  and thinking about using a 44/32/22 old Specialized MTB crankset, with a Paul WORD hub in the back, and either a Melvin or a cheap derailleur on the derailleur hanger for chain tension. I’m in the Salt Lake City area, so lots of hilly terrain, and I am 62 years old.  Thinking about a 18, 20 or 22 tooth cog in back.  I’m a competent bike mechanic, but this is a first dive into this configuration for me.  Some of my preliminary questions for you:

1) will a 22 tooth small front chainring function with a single cog of equal teeth?

2) Is 5he Paul WORD the correct single speed hub to use?

3) if it turns out that I would prefer a 3 X 2 cogs in back config, is that doable?

This will be an interesting journey, and thanks in advance.

Guy LeVan

Sandy, UT

[Bill Lindsay]

Guy asked a few questions

1) will a 22 tooth small front chainring function with a single cog of equal teeth?  Yes, absolutely yes.  Note that the documentation for a Paul Melvin states that it will only work with up to a 20T cog.  If you use a derailleur or somebody else's tensioner, keep track of that

2) Is 5he Paul WORD the correct single speed hub to use?  There are several choices and Paul is one of them.  I've been buying up a bunch of the Surly Ultra New, and I've been very pleased with it.  I like Paul, and I do send a fair bit of my money their way, so if you want to spend the money (or like the look of it), it's a fine choice.  

3) if it turns out that I would prefer a 3 X 2 cogs in back config, is that doable?  Sure. How exactly you decide to do it is up to you. Before moving to my configuration, I was using a "springless" rear derailleur, which I thought was a pretty slick solution.  The thing I always keep track of is chain line.  You are mostly stuck with whatever you get with the rear chain line, but you have flexibility to set the front chain line with a square taper BB.  Measure and decide.  All of this works because modern chains are quite flexible, but still you want things to be as straight and centered as is practical.  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA 

[Patrick Moore]

+ 1 for the Surly Ultra fixed/free hub. They're very good and very reasonably priced, and you can get it with a hollow axle to use with a QR for easy and fast non-derailleur shifting.

I'll be interested to see photos and descriptions of your "multispeed singlespeed." 

As to chainline and # of cogs and rings: modern derailleur chains let you can shift up to 12 in back!

Me, I use one of my hoard of Surly Dingle cogs for my Phil fixed/fixed wheel (QR attachment so it's very easy to shift, tho' of course you need horizontal dropouts), and White Industries still offers its DOS 2-cog freewheel.

And of course you can still occasionally find Sturmey Archer multispeed fixed hubs on eBay; I have a TF (direct and 75%; wonderful simple hub with very very little lash), TC (direct and 86.54%), ASC (direct, 90%, 75%); and a lackluster mofern and still on-market S3X 3 speed fixed hub (but threaded driver so it will accept single speed freewheels) is still available: direct, 75%, 62.5%).

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Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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