Money, Keys, Comb, Wallet, Lighter, Hanky, Pen, Smokes, Rubber and Change. -- George Carlin

A George Carlin bit talks about people's stuff and the need to carry less stuff when traveling very light.  "Only the stuff you know you're gonna need ... Money, Keys, Comb, Wallet, Lighter, Hanky, Pen, Smokes, Rubber and Change."

Design of this bike centered around low maintenance and durability so it could reliably serve as car replacement, but it will take more than that to replace the utility of my car.  It needs the ability to haul stuff ... besides my keister.  Lunch, a gym bag and some roadside tools will be frequent hitchhikers on my commute and other errands, perhaps all at the same time,

With a car I occasionally stop at the store to pick up a few essentials on my way home from work, often without advanced notice, and will also want that ability once on two wheels.  I won't be doing the weekly grocery runs on a bike but the ability to stuff a couple filled plastic grocery bags in with whatever I'm already carrying would be a plus.

In short, the bag or bags I ultimately choose will need to meet all my hauling needs, like this ...

As mentioned previously, it doesn't rain often where I live but it does rain and I won't have the luxury of leaving the bike in the garage on those few wet days.  I have to prepare for the worst case scenario,  so at least one waterproof bag or one with a waterproof cover will be a requirement.

I'm leaning toward Vaude's Discover Pro front panniers (to mount on the rear rack) for commuting and errand running, and a smaller bag to carry my wallet, cell phone, glasses and a few roadside tools during recreational rides.  At 34L per pair the waterproof Vaude bags meet both the dryness and capacity needs of my commutes/errands, but trend a bit pricey despite BikeBagShop.com's current 30% off sale.

I prefer to use my rear rack to haul stuff as its purposed to do, but a seat bag or handlebar bag would meet the recreational ride storage needs as well.   I'll have to think more on that secondary smaller bag, but need to decide on the panniers before the sale ends.

Riding At Night

Went for an out and back ride at dusk last night to try out the B&M Luxos headlight, and by the turn-around point night had fully fallen.  It was completely dark along the path by the river and the Luxos supplied all the light available to me, and capably provided all I needed.

Firstly, the light starts shining immediately.  I'm talking as soon as you push off, it comes on brightly. Even moving the bike slightly getting ready to push off starts the light.  It uses whatever is left in the standlight capacitor for this initial light, as one foot of movement could not possibly generate that much power from the dynamo.  I know this because when I first unboxed the light and turned it on, the light came on briefly, with the dynamo still in Germany.

Light extended far enough forward to allow me to ride at normal speed for the most part.  Also, the path has some dangerous edges including  several sharp drop-offs, so the light needed to illuminate more than just the path itself.    Its light angled out wide enough to either side of the path, so I could see those dangerous areas, as well as see far enough around gentle curves in the path to maintain speed.

A few situations did require a slower than normal speed, but only a few times did I wonder which direction the path led.  On sharp corners (say, greater than 45 degrees) the path ahead could not be lit adequately until the bike started making the turn, The sharper the turn the slower the speed required, unless you just YOLO it and hope the path goes where you think it goes.  The other situation occurred going over small knoll type hills.  The light would shine up into the air near the top, leaving an unlit black hole on the downhill side of the knoll.

Overall, the light does everything it claims, making my early morning commutes a breeze, and besides the few exceptions, at  normal daytime speed. That's fairly impressive for a little bike light.  The light also has a high beam mode that provides even more light. I suspect it too uses energy from the standlight.  Although these aren't my pictures, they closely represent my experience.  First pic is with light in normal mode and the second on high beam, as I call it.

Consequences of My Decisions

A hindsight review of some of the build choices I made ...

Wippermann Chain - Too early to judge the chain itself but that connex master link is my new best friend.  Slid the pins into the chain ends, then while trying to figure out how it hooks together, the link just snapped into place, almost by itself.  I had to take it apart and reconnect to learn what had happened.  So easy, even a Mahogany head, like me, can do it.

Pinned pedals - Two scratches the first day ... one on each lower leg ... some blood ... no stitches.   After learning that lesson, I've come to like the pins, as they provide a very secure footing that pinless platform pedals can't.  When taking off, the pins provide security even with the foot partially on the pedal.

32 mm Tires - Mixed review.  Some of the bike lanes and streets in my town have a very grainy surface that vibrates through the tires all the way to my teeth.  Fortunately, I don't use those lanes/streets often or for only short stretches.  On smoother surfaces, probably 80% of where I ride, the slender (not skinny) 32 mm tires feel as quick and nimble as hoped.  If I needed new tires today, I'd probably go with the 35 mm size just to hedge my bets, but I'm generally happy with the 32's.

Ergon Grips - Perfect.  Nothing else needs saying.

Orange/Black Coloring - Absolutely love the way the bike looks, even more than anticipated.  I've picked out a few places in my area to hold a quick photo shoot but haven't had a camera with me.  Will post some whole bike pics soon.

Soma Wolverine frame - Not regretting the choice one bit, and no disrespect to eccentric bottom brackets, but sliding drop outs rule the IGH universe, or at least my IGH universe.

Shimano disk brakes - I pull the lever, the bike stops ... any speed, any grade, any moisture (yup, rained in the desert the day I completed the build).  With my only previous experience being cantilever brakes, these disk brakes are worlds better ... many worlds better ... entire galaxies better.

Busch and Muller lights - They work, but I haven't ridden after dark yet so I don't know how well.  Maybe tonight, who knows?

Gearing choice -  The bike's fairly low 17.9 to 94.1 gear inch range, seems to do as designed.  My goal was to use gears eight through 14 most of the time and only drop to the lower seven gears to tackle hills.  The 38t chainring and 16t rear sprocket have done the trick.  Gear nine serves as my take-off gear (gear eight on a hill).  Gear 11 has become my go-to run flat gear, and I've only cranked up to high gear once (just cuz).  I doubt I will ever yearn for gearing above that.

Rohloff - I've already learned to let off the pedals when shifting.  The hesitation only needs to be blink-of-the-eye quick, except between gears seven and eight, which takes maybe two blinks.  Shifting while stopped and the ability to shift several gears at once is the cat's ass.  You derailleur guys can suck it!

Rohloff Twist Shifter Install

The video below shows exactly how to install a twist shifter onto a Rohloff external mesh shifter box.  Though the video demonstrates a Co-Motion drop bar shifter, the process is exactly the same for the stock Rohloff supplied shifter.

The video, easily the best how-to video I used during the build, shows and explains every step of the process, except how to cut the cable housing to the right length.  In the video they state they cut the housing, but don't show how to measure the length.

So, here's what I did ... At the hub end of things, the external mesh attaches to the hub and there are two barrel adjusters that get inserted into that external mesh box.  If you take the cover off the box, slide the box onto the hub and insert the adjusters, you can see where the housings need to end.  The housings need to be inserted all the way into the adjuster, so measure and cut them at that point.

The other thing the video does not emphasize is the need to use a sharp cable cutting tool purposed for bike cables, not electrical pliers, tin snips, or side cutters, as those tools will crush the cable as it cuts and fray the end.  The holes in the mesh box's cam are only a few tenths of  a mm larger than the cable and won't cooperate with frayed cables.  I learned the hard way.  Anybody want to buy a nearly new side cutter?  Its great for cutting bike cables snipping zip ties.

Bonehead Awards

Up until Thursday evening, this build had gone far smoother than expected and I hadn't struggled with any component.  Up until Thursday evening.  That's when my occasional bonehead mechanic capabilities decided to kick in and I got a whole build's worth in one night.

Bonehead award candidate number one:  After installing the front wheel it was time to adjust and finalize the front brake install.  Nailed the adjustment, first time.  The rotor would spin without any rubbing against the pads at all.  Later that evening, heard a faint rub while test riding.  Another test ride specifically to determine which wheel rubbed, and nothing. The rub was gone.  It turns out I had taken one of the caliper bolts out to bring to Lowes to match when buying rear caliper bolts.  The front wheel would rub off an on because I had one of the caliper bolts still in my pocket.

Bonehead award candidate number two:  Installing the rear wheel of a Rohloff can be a bit tricky.  The rotor has to slide between the pads, the axle plate has to slide into the brake adapter's notch, and the hub has to slide into the dropouts ... all at the same time.  After a half dozen swear-filled attempts, I realized something was amiss.  I'm quick like that.  Let's just say that the Monkeybone brake adapter can be bolted on several ways, but only one way is correct.   Did I mention I watched a video and made note of the adapter's position just 2 minutes before screwing it up?  Monkeybonehead.

BTW, it takes about 4 seconds to mount a Rohloff wheel with the brake adapter facing the right way.

Bonehead award candidate number three:  Bought and installed some bar tape, but it proved to be just too thick, as all I wanted to do is hide and secure the wires along a few inches of handlebar.  Pulled the bar tape off, drove to sporting goods store and bought baseball bat tape ... much thinner ... should work better ... if I had bought the right color.  I swear it looked black in the package.  Well, it looks damned grey on the bike.  Third times the charm ... right?

Bonehead award candidate number four:  Bike is complete ... ready for the first real ride.  Took off down the street doing 85mph!  At least that's what my brand new O-Synce Macro High X rc computer said.  It may have been a tad off so I stopped to ensure the right wheel size had been specified.  It had.  Went back in the house and Googled typical tire sizes and manually entered the tire circumference ... 2174 mm.  I then pushed the bike out of the garage at 30+ mph.  Ugh.  Went for the first ride with the speedo and odometer totally screwed up.  Ya know, those Garmin magnetless speed sensors tend to go haywire when placed next to magnets and electrical current ... like maybe a dynamo hub!  Moved the sensor to the rear hub and my performance dropped to a mere mortal level.

Fasten Your Chin Straps

One of those boxes from Europe contained a Limar 535 helmet not mentioned in the previous posts.  Why Limar?  It was offered at a reduced price, reviewed well, is very light weight, fits, has a comfortable lining, and has more holes than Victoria Secret lingerie.  Perfect.

So why mention it now?  Because it's finally time to jam it atop my noggin, strap it under my chin and ride this bike!

Took an inaugural ride of about ten miles.

First impression wasn't as favorable as hoped.  The steering seemed touchy, as in almost hard to control at lower speeds.  That impression proved to be short lived, as I quickly adapted.  Guess I was used to relatively wide and heavy tires that took more effort to turn.  Now,  the responsiveness plays a huge part in making the bike fun to ride.

I'm glad I went with the 54cm frame size as the top tube feels somewhat high.  While the official stand over height gets measured at the center of the top tube, the actual stand over height is a bit further forward. Though 5'10", I have a shorter than normal inseam, and standing over this bike puts certain body parts as close to the top tube as those parts need to get.  The 56cm might have been too close for comfort ... literally.

The other sizing choices have worked out too.  I didn't even have to adjust the saddle height, though I admit measuring when the height was initially set.  The reach feels good, though I might experiment with different stem angles tomorrow, and the bar width works well too.

The Brooks saddle is hard, bone ass hard, but surprisingly comfortable right out of the box.  If this thing gets more comfortable as it breaks in, it will have a long happy relationship with my bottom.

Semi-Final Assembly

As expected the front wheel arrived yesterday morning and it got mounted complete with rim strip, tube, tire and rotor during my lunch hour ... okay ... lunch hour and a half ... shhhhh.  Unexpectedly, Radsport Erdmann included a lollipop in the box.  Nice touch.

Also took a quick peek at the rear "Monkeybone" brake adapter, which surprisingly came with Rohloff labeling (not Cycle Monkey).  Looks like Cycle Monkey and Rohloff have partnered (or there's some patent infringement going on).   I had to remove a couple rear rack bolts to gain access to the brake mount bolt holes.  Got the adapter installed using bolts supplied with the caliper,  as it didn't come with bolts of its own, leaving me two bolts short.  Lowes had 'em ... saw them while looking for a headlight mount bolt the other day.

After Lowes, I swung by a LBS for some bar tape.

last night's efforts essentially finished the bike, including brake pad burn in.  A couple small items remain but aren't required to start riding.  The final installs weren't without struggles and subsequent cuss words, but a lot got done last night which I'll post in pieces over the next few days.

What's not done:

Headlight wire:  On its way from Peter White Cycles
Bar Tape:  Installed, removed.  Will look for something less bulky. Fenders: TBD
Kickstand: TBD
Lollipop:  Claimed by daughter, yet to be eaten