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  • New bike: Big wheels, alfine hub and snow content
  • stooo
    Free Member

    2nd ride out on my new bike today… it’s got 29″ wheels, gears inside the hub and bouncy forks. I kinda like it.

    Freezing cold day in the snow, but my my how pretty the trails looked.


    Potter at Innerleithen by Spakman, on Flickr

    Bike build: Classifieds special
    Inbred 29er
    Alfine hub
    Reba 100mm forks
    60mm on-one stem and 725mm Nukeproof flat bars.

    Built this up as a means to try a bunch of things… first time on hub gears, 29″ wheels and tubeless tyres. All a resounding success.

    The Alfine – running 32/20 cogs; seems to be just the job for a winter bike. Struggled a couple of times in the cold when the gear cable froze and I had to bounce the rear wheel a little to free it while riding. I could do with 1 lower gear on the steep stuff, but aside from that it seems great. Yes, it’s a bunch of weight right at the back of the bike, but I can’t say I really notice that much once riding. Gaps between gears are noticeable, but not annoying. For a winter bike or a commuter, I’m converted.

    The tubeless – Bonty mustang front rim, with ghetto home-made rim strip. Stans flow rear rim, with yellow tape. Bonty mud-x TLR tyres front n rear.
    Front ghetto setup took a bit of inflating, but seems to be holding well after 2 weeks. Rear Stans rim setup was super straight forward. Very impressed. Bonty mud-x tyres are awesome. Prob buying a set for the 26″ (now fair weather) bike too.

    The big wheels – I missed out on a lot of riding last winter due to the conditions being so bad and just felt uninspiring driving somewhere to go and ride fire road and trash my nice bike with the weather. I’ve since moved to Innerleithen and have great trails and countryside on my doorstep and figured I want to try and get out no matter what the weather is doing this winter. Hub gear seemed an obvious choice, but I also wanted something that could just keep on rolling if I ended up doing a 3 hour fire road blast.

    It really does roll. I’ve heard some people say it’s like having a bit of suspension… but it’s not, well not exactly. It’s not as comfy and doesn’t track as well as my 100mm travel SC Superlight, but it does just keep on rolling over bumps like it’s got a bit of bounce to it. You never get that ‘oof, stop’ feeling when you hit a fair sized root or rock like you do on a 26″ bike. Basically it keeps it’s momentum better. It also feels surprisingly nimble in tight, twisty single track… while somehow feeling more stable at the same time. It sort of turns when you tell it too, but only when you tell it too. I like the wide bars and short stem setup to help with this – though may lengthen the stem to a 70mm (I had a spare 60mm in the garage).

    Overall, I’m liking it and, given this weekends weather, really glad I’ve built it up. Hoping to get lots more use of it through this season… will most likely see me through the Strathpuffer in January too.

    lucien
    Full Member

    Nice……..”Moved to Innerleithen”, lucky boy!

    stooo
    Free Member

    “Moved to Innerleithen”, lucky boy!

    Yes – it is a chore… I feel I can’t take it for granted and force myself to go out on the bike as often as possible as all you lot would have every right to have a go at me for not making good use of the local trails.

    thv3
    Free Member

    Looks good Stu, will have to have a closer look sometime.

    Alfine looks good, especially after my rear mech and freehub froze solid on Saturday. Had never tried a fixed wheel bike before, think I need to think about replacing my current wheelset not surprisingly.

    StuMcGroo
    Free Member

    stooo, i’m in the process of fitting alfine to my inbred 29er, just waiting for spokes. i wanted to route my gear cable along top tube and down seat stay but with the cassette joint in-line with the chain stay thought it may have been to sharp a bend in the cable. am i right in thinking you have done this?

    cheers, stu.

    singlecrack
    Free Member

    The Perfect bike ….a hub geared 29er

    Good man…. 😉

    ivantate
    Free Member

    Looks nice, the riding and the bike.

    Was it a big saving building from the classifieds?? or did you have quite a few bits already?

    dobo
    Free Member

    nice pic, i dindt read the rest as i have wine

    Del
    Full Member

    Stu,
    you should find a combination of washers that will put the cable in a good orientation. that routing will help avoid the cable freezing issue too. 😉
    on my P7 the cable stop ran very close to the chain ( too close ) with that sort of routing, rising up between the chainstay and the seatstay. i lobbed it in the vice and bent it out enough to clear with good margin. works fine. no issues at all.

    StuMcGroo
    Free Member

    Del – You should find a combination of washers that will put the cable in a good orientation.

    yeah thought about using the different non-turn washers so that the cassette joint is pointing more upwards, can’t see any problem in doing that other than cable/chain interference. i’ll have a play later. 🙂

    a11y
    Full Member

    An Alfine’d 29er has been my choice of winter bike for the last 2 winters. Not light – mine’s on a GF Rig and comes in around 29lbs with the standard kit and Rebas – but it’s only not while I’m overhauling it that I realise how much I’m missing it at the moment. I’ve been back in SS mode for a few months which is still great, but I cannae manage longer rides on it…

    Saccades
    Free Member

    I’ve an Alfine’d 456 with some light pace forks on and it comes in at 32lb, I don’t really notice it until I have to carry it over a stile or gate.

    Has been very handy in the recent weather getting to and from work though.

    in the 2 years I’ve owned I have had to tigthen the EBB and axel bolts a coupla times (the axel because of the child trailor hitch I have) and that’s it.

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