Following on from yesterdays thread.

Show me your flat bar road rat with guards and racks attached.

Has anyone fitted a rohloff to this frame ? Cys given me the go a head to do it without buggering up warrenty as long as i use a speedbone.

Was also looking at the genisis dayone but based on experiance of riding mrs trs dayone alfine in a 52cm found the frame a bit dead and not very forgiving and thats comparing it to my specialized tricross ss not an mtb.

Aren’t they a little too flexible at the back for larger gentlemen?

Oi Who you calling larger 😉 ? Im 6 ft 3 and ok im a stone heavier than my racing snake 500k a week figure im still only 12 stone.hardly clydesdale 🙂 i carry very little too and from work , mostly a change of clothes and a lock.occasionally ill ride the last 2 miles with a road of shopping. Which kills me on the fixie as its all up.

Also with a rohloff you learn to sit and spin , they aint happy when you mash uncontrolably 🙂

The compliance is whats drawing me to the roadrat .ideally id like to test one but given so many folk commend and rubbish the road rat for that flex i figure thats a good thing

Heres the one i used to have,its got flat bars but no racks or guards.

I’m really *not* trying to put you off, honest 😉 , but isn’t fixing a flat with guards + rohloff going to be purgatory?

*is just jealous cos im too biffer for one 👿

Shouldnt be any worse than what i have just now The tricross, what i want is my tricross with cable disks and the ability to stick hub gears in – the tricross is 120mm spacing and alloy so no cold setting. The tricross has rear exit drop outs , all you do is leave the tail of the mudguard a little more than the length of the drop out away from the wheel.

Tricross on the end. The thorn is gone but it was a horrible frame – on paper it woulda been ideal for this job being designed for the hub but me and that frame just hated each other – twas long enough but too low for me and angles were all derived from an 1942 specialized rock hopper.

mrs trail rats day one with full guards and hub gears and even she can change a flat on that 🙂 although we tried to negate this afterwards with some conti touring plus? Must admit as much as i dont like the ride of the frame i really like the 8spd alfine action so im tempted to get the alfine roadrat on c2w and just be done with it.

Selling one cheap if your interested. got about 90% of a build.

Cheers for offer jambo but only considering it through c2w atm

Sold this now because it was too flexi under load… I’m 12 stone. But I had stupidly put some (mtb)carbon forks on.

Springiness in the frame made for a fun ride unloaded but with those forks and full panniers it was actually dangerous with fairly violent speed wobbles. Which in fairness is not what it was designed for.

Sweet Jesus, sort that gravel pit out man!

SDC10264 by jcabuckley1974, on Flickr

Gone and forgotten…..didn’t like it much 😆

That was my old land lords gravel pit/ dog shitting ground i think judging by the shite all over it.

I like that brown , shame its black only now ah well.

Hearing you on its no touring bike and id be keeping the steel fork for sure.

Definantly looks better with hub gears than with deraileur jca 🙂

nice bike, I’ve got a dismantled drop bar orange one, something different to other stuff out there. no pics, sorry.
just don’t fix it – like riding with elastomers in your chainstays.

Here’s a pic I took about an hour after being splatted by a dizzy cow on the way to work, with a classic ‘oh sorry, I didn’t see you’ comment.

Nice bikes unladen – very nice to ride, springy and comfortable. PITA to change a rear puncture with rack and guards though, and rode like a bendy-bus with a single pannier of daily work stuff when I rode it SS.

Don’t have a picture of mine, but its a great bike. Never used it for carrying loads mind, but I am sure it would do a good job.
Must have done at least 30,000 on it within 2 years. These days it just gets ridden 4 miles into town 🙁

Keep thinking about getting it resprayed and tarting it up. One day.

Do the Roadrat frames give plenty of tyre clearance when used with 700c road bike wheels?

I’m really tempted to use my Boardman road bike as a donor bike for a Roadrat build.

Do the Roadrat frames give plenty of tyre clearance when used with 700c road bike wheels?

Absolutely loads.

and like that it was ordered ……

thanks to mark at the bikechain for accomdating a fussy customer !

Cheers Terry.

Pleasure etc

What is the logic with the disc brake being on the front of the fork, is that the load is being pushed into the fork and not pulled.

major bonus for the end user is mudguard fitments easier

anyone stuck drop bars on a current model flat bar model ?

thinking woodchippers with versa vrs8s (i have both already)

– picking the bike up tomorrow 😀 – got BB7 upgrade in place of the tektros as cotic were out.

Thinking about an alfine Roadrat on C2W myself at the moment.

I’m 6’2″ and about 14.5 stone though. And I want to carry my stuff on a rack/pannier

I’m afraid to ask but… will I die?

From the sounds of it the frame will flex so much that it will send me under the wheels of the nearest oncoming bus.

Biscuit Powered – Member
Thinking about an alfine Roadrat on C2W myself at the moment.

I’m 6’2″ and about 14.5 stone though. And I want to carry my stuff on a rack/pannier

I’m afraid to ask but… will I die?

From the sounds of it the frame will flex so much that it will send me under the wheels of the nearest oncoming bus.

I’m bigger than you and have had no issues riding mine singlespeed.

i doubt it.

ive ridden with panniers/carradice on lightweight racing bikes with no issues – i doubt this can be much flexier than them.

One of the old dropbar frames, run fixed with bullhorns and a BB7 on the front for a couple of winters

I never had a rack and panniers on it, just a saddlebag at most, but what others would call flex you could also call comfort…? 6ft2 and 13 stone so no lightweight.

Sold it last year as I realised I could all the same things plus loads more with a Singular Swift (SS not fixed).

Top tip: use secuclips on the rear mudguard stays as well as the front to assist getting the wheel out for punctures etc.

“Top tip: use secuclips on the rear mudguard stays as well as the front to assist getting the wheel out for punctures etc. “

further top tip – leave the mudguard about 1.5 times the length of your drop out away from the tire – the wheel will slide back and dropout the drop out easy.

works fine on the mrs genisis day one and my spesh tricross, saves the mudguard flapping about loose when trying to get the wheel in and out

Top tip(s) With sks guards I made a shim from a felt tip pen body and a long bolt to attach at the bottom bracket.
If running gears dont forget to un tension the chain before taking out the qr/wheel or the whole thing can explode with one’s hand in the middle.
Although I dont generally do this but I make an exception for the rat. Turn the bike upside down to remove rear wheel; Prise the stays apart(nice flexy steel) so it drops out(or up!), thus avoiding the slot and no need to remove/unclip the mudguard.

further top tip – leave the mudguard about 1.5 times the length of your drop out away from the tire – the wheel will slide back and dropout the drop out easy.

Yeah, but that looks even worse than mudguards with a nice even gap all the way round (which still doesn’t look great I know).

For the couple of rear punctures I had a year I figured the secuclips and flapping mudguard was acceptable.

I once did a CX race on mine and changed it to 1×9 for a couple of weeks up to the race. God help anyone trying to get the rear wheel out with the mech hanger only held in by the QR!

Dyffers – how did you get on with time trial levers and cable discs? It’s something I’m mulling over but not sure about short vs long cable pull in the system without resorting to problem solvers..

A Dia Compe metal brake lever and a road BB7 was absolutely fine.

In fact, I used to be a bit disappointed with the feel (not the power) of my SRAM dual pivots when I went back to the road bike.

I’ve since found the cheap metal CX bartop levers in the same position on bullhorn bars to be just as good.

Ah, road BB7, of course! Ta 🙂

My old medium long Roadrat with racks and ‘guards:

Roadrat by cnarborough, on Flickr

My new large short Roadrat (it’s actually Dyffers’ old one) in monstercross mode:

Roadrat by cnarborough, on Flickr
Loads of clearance for big 700C tyres, up to 46mm wide.

and in bikepacking setup with Small Block 8’s:

Loaded ‘rat by cnarborough, on Flickr

no rack on mine, just changed the Alfine oil, new sprocket & chain, riding like new 🙂

Summer:

Roadrat by jwrfooo, on Flickr

Winter:

Winter Roadrat by jwrfooo, on Flickr

Ok wow

Makes my tricross feel as awful as i felt it was…..

THought i was just getting soft with my ti td-1 feeling so much comfier but it wasnt just the big tires the tricross really was just hammering my back hard.

tis a bit flexy when standing climbing hard but i can live with that.

Be better once i get a rear brake on it – misjudged the cable outer length 🙁

Cheers mark and the guys at tbc for the bits.

I’ve just picked up a Roadrat yesterday and need some advice about it.

First off, what cogs do I need for a SS Roadrat? Mines running the standard 16t on the back and I’d prefer something like an 18t but don’t know what type of sprocket to get.

Secondly, when refitting the rear wheel, what’s the best way to ensure it’s fitted squarely and how much chain tension should I have?

Mines an alfine so cant help with that front

But

Rear wheel tension . Just pull it back and straighten it by eye then nipp it up

Or for precision get a pair of good chain tugs and fit em

Have to say im still very happy with it , might shorten the stem slightly more to compensate for the long tt as its meant to be a flat bar model.

Done about 250k on it now.