Comments on: Starting on the Ivy-T

By: Alex Wetmore

Alex Wetmore — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:42:18 +0000

No, I”d like to use the new hub, but I don”t have access to the special dropouts and I already have a good 700C Schmidt wheel built up.

By: rory

rory — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:08:54 +0000

ok, so after reading the latest bicycle quarterly and remembering it was coming out, are you building the fork for the new schmidt wireless hub? i remember you mentioning using Keith’’s dropouts, but i was wondering if the new hub was the reason…

By: Alex Wetmore

Alex Wetmore — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:42:10 +0000

It is regular old plywood. It came from a cabinet that we removed from the house. It looks like birch furniture-grade plywood, but I don”t know for sure.

By: David Feldman

David Feldman — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 05:05:42 +0000

Alex, for your brake bridge bending form is the plywood anything especially hard–maple, for instance–or just regular old lumberyard plywood?

By: Phil Brown

Phil Brown — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:21:17 +0000

My canti/centerpull pivot jig is just a piece of flat aluminum bar with a hole and a slot. And I use my drill press pillar for the form when I make curved bridges. And I just use 1/2″ mild steel.
Phil Brown

By: Christian Berger

Christian Berger — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:16:04 +0000

There’’s the link..

By: Christian Berger

Christian Berger — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:15:34 +0000

Alex, my friend Tom Tunguz just posted this CNC machine that can be built for under $100. Now you can start machining your own components!

Great blog, I”m not a builder, just enjoy keeping up on your projects and cool bikes.

By: Alex Wetmore

Alex Wetmore — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:49:26 +0000

Yeah, Gifford was the replacement for my Rohloff IvyCycles. I did make a lot of changes from the IvyCycles...things that I now see as important learnings, but which I wasn''t ready to accept in 2006 when I first drew up the IvyCycles plan. I needed to have that bike to learn that 650B really made sense for this application, eccentric bottom brackets were a better solution than sliding dropouts, and that 7/4/7 tubing was too light for loaded touring. In comparison I''ve been riding Gifford for almost a year now, and can''t think of anything major that I''d change. I''d make very minor tweaks to the locations of a couple of brazeons, but none that really matter. The Rohloff IvyCycles died an untimely death in June or July 2009. I don''t know if you remember, but I had a car/bike accident while riding that bike literally weeks after receiving it (so early on that I didn''t even have the proper fork for it yet). Two years later the downtube failed behind the head tube lug. It looks like there was a crumple there from that original accident that wasn''t noticed during inspection, and that started a crack. One of the reasons that I''m not keen on very light 7/4/7 heat treated tubing anymore is that I think it is probably a little too brittle and fragile for bikes that will take a beating. A car/bike accident is an unusual beating, but I think that the punishment of me riding that bike all over the place on dirt roads with camping gear probably would have done it in at some point anyway. To be fair Brandon warned me of that as soon as I specified that very light tubing.

By: Alex Wetmore

Alex Wetmore — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:41:03 +0000

700c. I considered 650B, but the frame was originally meant for 700C, and these calipers would be a pretty tight fit with 38mm wide 650B wheels. I”m building this bike as a “go-fast” (for me) bike with somewhat lighter parts. I”m hoping that it ends up around 4-5lbs lighter than Gifford, just to make a noticable difference between them.

The other components don”t live up to the brakes, but are all pretty nice. Ritchey Logic 94mm BCD double cranks with 42/30 chainrings; Shimano XTR M900 derailleurs; Nitto seatpost, stem, and handlebars; Dura-Ace 9sp downtube shifters; Schmidt hub; kind of a normal Alex build. Originally the fenders will just be the Berthoud stainless ones because I have them on hand, but I may swap them out for something aluminum down the line.

I haven”t figured out what I want to do about the front rack. I think that a small handlebar rack that was chromed would be most fitting for the bike, but a larger porteur rack (basically a clone of the one on my other bike) is actually the most functional for me. I may build both just because I can. There isn”t really a good way for me to visually or physically lighten up the porteur racks much while still leaving them functional…they already come right around a pound.

By: Jimmy Livengood

Jimmy Livengood — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 23:04:08 +0000

Looks like fun. Is this a 650b or 700c?

I”m curious what other components the bike ends up with that can keep up to the standards of those beautiful calipers (though the wheel guides seem a bit out of place).

Jimmy