21 October 2021
After months of hoping and dreaming, and planning and anticipating, my new bike was finally shipped up from Commuter Cycles in Brunswick, Victoria. Time for the unboxing.
First-day unpacking. The front-wheel came with tyre deflated and in a separate box.
My plans to head out bikepacking have been frustrated by many delays. It has been a long saga for me. I first started talking with Adam at Commuter Cycles in Melbourne last April and placed my original order for the bike build on 13 May. Since then numerous parts have proved to be too hard to get during Covid-19 delays, or I’ve had to wait weeks or months for components to arrive. I couldn’t travel to Melbourne for a bike fit. So we had to rely on various measurements of my body and my older mountain bike.
We waited for weeks and weeks for some SunRingle Mulefüt SL 80 wheel rims. Then, when these became unavailable, Adam and Will tried the wheel build with some older Mulefüt Rims they had in stock. It proved to be too difficult to get a strong enough build with the Rohloff rear hub and the Son dynamo hub. So, after a lot of dithering, and conversations back-and-forth, I ordered LightBicycle carbon rims to be manufactured in China. These rims only took three weeks for manufacturing. But then it took another 10 weeks before they got through Australian Customs and through the Australia Post Sydney and Melbourne mail exchanges. Once the bike build commenced in earnest, Adam and Will and Leigh had it done in a few short days.
However. it has been an interesting story, and it’s good timing now because our Covid-19 lockdown rules will enable me to cross back-and-forth into the NSW national parks adjacent to our ACT border as from 01 November.
Plus, dealing with suppliers/manufacturers over the Internet has been amazing. People have been wonderful.
A Son dynamo front wheel hub will generate electricity for my phone, GPS, computer, lights, etc. It will keep my Mophie Powerstation battery charged as I pedal along.
There is a Sinewave Reactor USB outlet at the top of the headset.
The carbon fat tyre rims are 80mm in between the flanges. The manufacturers, Light Bicycle from China were wonderful people to deal with. Their customer service folks are truly delightful people.
So, it was time to re-assembe this mighty steed.
This is the part I really enjoy. Getting on the tools and getting a little grease on my hands. I love tinkering with bikes. It took me about 90 minutes to get it all together.
A 30-tooth chain ring is connected via a fixed-length chain to the 14 speed Rohloff hub gears. So there are no derailleurs to worry about getting smashed or bent if I have a fall. The internal gear mechanisms stay out of the dirt and mud. So there is far less maintenance. The 14 gears are evenly spaced with a much wider gear ratio than my e-bike. The lowest gear is much, much lower. A true “granny-gear”. So my ageing old legs should be able to get my up the steepest of hills. The Jones Bar handlebar has a 45-degree back sweep and is 710 mm wide. The Ergon hand grips are intended to support my palms and prevent carpal-tunnel syndrome. The Rohloff gears change with a twist-grip. Old school and not indexed. This will take a little getting used to.
The Tumbleweed Prospector frame is hand built by Tumbleweed, a one-person framebuilding company originally from Oakland, California, now headquartered in Boise, Idaho. The designer Daniel Molloy uses Taiwanese-made steel to construct his frames. He wanted a symmetrical frame to accommodate fat tyres, and the stiffness to support a Rohloff Speedhub. Dan created a set of rear stays able to accommodate 27.5″ x 4″ rear tyes, but without extra-wide bottom bracket shell. That way there’s no increase in the distance between the pedals and the resulting Q-factor, unlike most Fat-bikes. It means, when you are pedalling, the distance between your feet is the same as for narrower-tyre bikes. Resulting in less strain on your knees and hips when pedalling for long distances and spending long hours in the saddle. So it is kind to your body. There are famous stories on bikepacking.com with fabulous photography of the guys riding Tumbleweed Prospector prototypes across the Mongolian Steppe.
The fiddliest assembly task proved to be re-connecting the front disc brake to the front forks. Note the Shimano post-mount, together with the brake mount bracket at the foot of the fork leg in the background. It was a bit of struggle aligning the brake mechanism so that the brake pads were centred either side of the disc. It took some fine adjustment to ensure the disc spun freely between the pads.
My first choice of brakes would be the wonderful SRAM Code RSC brakes that work so well on my e-bike. But it is a little more difficult sourcing post-mount kits to fit the SRAM units. So these are Shimano Deore XT M8120 brakesets, together with Shimano SM-MA-F180-Ps adaptors.
The next step was to connect the wiring for the Son dynamo hub. Will set up the wiring to run up inside the right fork leg and then up through the centre of the steerer tube to the USB connector on the top of the headset. Nice and tidy and away from being snagged on bushes or scrub.
The 180 mm rear disc rotor is a special one built to work with the stresses on the Rohloff Speedhub.
I’m so very, very pleased with the great job Adam, Will, and Leigh from Commuter Cycles did putting this bicycle together.
Acknowledgements:
- https://www.commutercycles.com.au
- https://tumbleweed.cc/products/prospector
- https://www.rohloff.de/en/
- https://nabendynamo.de/en/products/hub-dynamos/
- https://www.sinewavecycles.com/products/sinewave-cycles-reactor
- https://www.lightbicycle.com/75mm-wide-carbon-650B-fat-bike-rim-27-5-inch-hookless-double-wall-tubeless-compatible.html
- https://kssuspension.com/product/lev-integra/
- https://www.brooksengland.com/en_row/saddles.html?___from_store=en_row