My mate bought one of them Van Nicholas Zion Rolhoff frames off On-one, after a few issues with the first frame he eventually got a good one and brought it round at the weekend to build up.

Wheels are DT4.2’s on Rolhoff/Hope Pro II, XT cranks with Middleburn ring, post & stem are Thomson, brakes are Hope M4’s and a set of RS Revs finish it off.

Along with the eccentric bottom bracket – helpfully packaged up with no instructions, cheers there on-one! we set about building it up.

The frame itself is very nicely finished and pretty light, but the cable bosses for the Rolhoff cable routing on the underside of the down tube, BB shell & chainstay were ridiculously tight – to the point where the cable outers had to be pulled/fed through with the help of pliers!

Anyway we go it all together eventually and here’s a few pictures to look at.

I have to say it looks a very very tidy build.

I’d probably have bought one if the Zion still had the option of running a V-brake at the back but I didn’t want to have to payout for the frame and have the additional cost of getting my hub converted.

very nice indeed.
alway’s fancied a ti bike, but always been told i am too heavy for one.
a mate broke 2 and is half my weight.
both frames snapped mid tube.

That shed is in serious need of some cuprinol or such like.
Bush could do with a good trim too.

Seriously though – nice looking bike. Do they do a version for large wheels?

I LIKE THAT! 😀

Seriously though – nice looking bike. Do they do a version for large wheels?

They do for conventional gearing but Van Nicholas do offer some customisation so you could probably get a 29 Rohloff frame from them.

They also offer a belt drive option.

The shed just about stands up by itself so I CBA’d painting it to be fair 😆

Nice tidy build, very neat. Just a couple of thoughts:

1) Your conservatory roof needs cleaning
2) The hoses/cables look a little long….
3) The rear hose has an unecessary bend in it
4) The wheels are a little small (at least the front one 😉 )
5) If your ‘mate’ trained a bit more they could ditch all that gubbins and have a very clean singlespeed!

On a more serious note, what’s the weight distribution like?

Nice tidy build, very neat. Just a couple of thoughts:

1) Your conservatory roof needs cleaning
2) The rear hose has an unecessary bend in it
3) The wheels are a little small (at least the front one )
4) If your mate trained a bit more they could ditch all that gubbins and have a very clean singlespeed!

On a more serious note, what’s the weight distribution like?

1) It’s coming down next year so there’s no point 😆
2) Do you mean the brake – if so that’s down to the closeness of the guide.
3) Look normal to me.
4) No chance of him ditching gears ever, he’s more of a spinner than a grinder.

Weight distribution was felt ok from the “pick it up and see how much it weighs” test. Probably helped a little by the EBB

Very smart looking build – I like it 🙂

avdave2 – Member

I’d probably have bought one if the Zion still had the option of running a V-brake at the back but I didn’t want to have to payout for the frame and have the additional cost of getting my hub converted.
I could be wrong but I think you can get V-brake bosses that clamp onto the seatstays, if you’re serious about it.

Nice build; I ran a Rohloff’d Setavento Ti for a while. Never really got on with it, but it was great to try (and from a maintenance point of view!)

2) Do you mean the brake – if so that’s down to the closeness of the guide.

Rotate the banjo.

Ti is loverly.

Nice – tidy looking bike that.

Just keep an eye on where the stays are welded to the dropout though, hate to say it, but that M4 might just knock straight through it.

Does it have an EBB, or have you been lucky with the chain length?

EDIT – missed the EBB point above! 😳

+1 on rotate the banjo. Hose looks like it has a cut in it too.

It is nice though but my list:

1. headset not quite lined up right
2. can you get a nicer looking CNC chainring? I am guessing it doesnt need to be a Rolhoff one?
3. Rear hose angle/damage as mentioned
4. The Rolhoff gubbins hanging down low looks vulnerable.
5. QR skewer levers on the wrong side
6. needs some matching red highlights higher up (seat clamp, single stem spacer etc)

When you say “knock Straight through it” do you mean they’ll be too powerful for the frame and crack the welds?

+1 on rotate the banjo. Hose looks like it has a cut in it too.

It is nice though but my list:

1. headset not quite lined up right
2. can you get a nicer looking CNC chainring? I am guessing it doesnt need to be a Rolhoff one?
3. Rear hose angle/damage as mentioned
4. The Rolhoff gubbins hanging down low looks vulnerable.
5. QR skewer levers on the wrong side
6. needs some matching red highlights higher up (seat clamp, single stem spacer etc

1. A minor detail 😉
2. The Midleburn one is fine and I can’t see him wasting money just for looks.
3. Hose/banjo angle is easy to do, hose is fine – this “Damage” concerns me 😯 Please enlighten.
4. It is quite low but that’s down to the routing, nothing can be done about it.
5. Oh well 😯
6. Matching bits would be nice, I said as much but he had everything handy.

Like this (from a previous thread), although I doubt this happened on day 1:

Was sorely tempted to get one of those VN frames myself, but waited for the Ti 456 – one reason being the stronger dropouts. I’m certainly no expert, so will happily admit I’m wrong, but they just look a bit weedy to me! Having said all this, he’ll now go on to have no problems and a great time on it – some friends I know have Rohloff Zions and they’ve done 10,000s of miles on them! 😀

Very Nice. You know you can rotate the Rohloff box thingy so it fits snugly against the frame don’t you?

Like this:-
http://www.zen202900.zen.co.uk/bike/pics/IMG_2168.JPG

QR skewer levers on the wrong side

Yes always better to have it near a nice hot rotor when your doing a quick tube change at the bottom of a hill. 🙂

Mattstreet – that’s a Linskey built 456

Mattstreet – i love how that photo gets banded around- if the owner will use a 200mm disc rotor on a hardtail!! The point of that is??

Yes always better to have it near a nice hot rotor when your doing a quick tube change at the bottom of a hill.

Well most of us can manage not to burn ourselves! Maybe you brake too much :p

Damage to hose: looks like there is a tiny little cut in the hose about 8mm from the end of the banjo. I’m being pedantic though – my hoses have much worse!

The lynksey weld failure: I was speaking to a highly regarded UK based Ti manufacturer about drop out welds. Not going to say any more but I know where I am going when/if I can ever afford it. I don’t have any problems with Lynksey and VN though as they do back up their products with lifetime warranties. I’d just love a completely custom one with my own little features 😀

Rik – a 200mm?!
Closer look reveals 203mm etching on the rotor – hehe – fair point! 😀

Nicknoxx – what frame is that?

@mattstreet
My custom bike, first seen here:-
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/my-new-bike-warning-uber-niche-content

nice looking bike.

really should get a pic or 2 of my titanium Rohloff’d Voodoo 🙂