On a related matter..

If I was building a 9 speed triple tourer…

Genesis Tour de Fer or Surly disc trucker frameset?

I used to go in Ride (then called Xtreme) as a young slip of a lad and drool over all the Orange 5s and occasionally see Team Animal and X lite people there. Oh the memories

It used to be called Poole Mountain Bike Centre when I got my Kona Fire Mountain from there in 1992.

My bike still has their sticker on it.

thomthumb is your man, do a search on here.

I’ve tried CG, either my use of the search function was totally inadequate or his account was buried deep in another thread!

Ps i think we’ve met!

I do believe we have Mr F :)

I was even in your office this lunchtime (although you weren’t there obviously!

And, in the name of all that is good in the world, cut down your steerer before you go

No need cap’n, I’ll probably do it on the CdF :)

When I do finally cut the Kaff steerer down, I’ll come and present it to you :)

I’m hoping to do it this summer. I used to live in one of the villages it goes through in the 70’s (Nafferton – home of the latest bird flu outbreak) and went to school in Pocklington (also on route) so will bring back memories.

I’ve got a cunning plan of making a circular route by linking it with the w2w (Whitby to Walney) or the classic C2C, so I can actually start from Nafferton, but the plan is only in the pipedream phase :)

In the absence of a self portrait have this, old gang smelting mill and hard level gill

Looks familiar from old walking trips. Is that Upper Swaledale (Reeth) area?

here’s not a lot off the shelf but I built something very similar to what you’re describing. It’s the old Planet X Kaffenback frame with an £80 pair of wheels from on-one, 38c Schwalbe Kojak tyres, full length SKS mudguards, some bits left over from a Vitus Vee-29 and a few other cheap bits. It’s heavy enough, but it’s fairly bombproof and rides beautifully

Is that the old style frame or the disc only Kaffenback 2 frame? I didn’t realise it would take that size tyres with mudguards, but it obviously does.i can’t quite make out the back end to see what the drop outs are.

No stones, just a post

SKS Chromplastics for the mudguards = 45mm IIRC

Did you just cut the steerer by eye or did you use a guide of some sort. I’ve got my trusty hacksaw standing by to attack mine:)

How much did you actually take off?

I still haven’t cut my Kaff2 steerer down and I finished the build in August :)
I thought I had it about right and then I raised the stem a bit more to see how it felt, unfortunately I’ve not much time at the moment to go for a long ride to confirm the setting (or inclination until it warms up a bit !). It’s beginning to look like a Thorn touring bike with the amount of spacers under the stem. I’m aiming to use mine for light touring and audax, so want a relaxed ride.

Under the A303 near Wylye..

Brant – thanks for that. i’m presuming that if a change of front mech was required, it would be to something like a Deore (from what I’ve seen googling other bike specs) and it would work okay(ish) with a sora STI shifter? If i’d built the bike up with a Sora 50/39/30 triple (i.e. hollowtech bb) would i have had to play around with a couple of spacers?

if the chainstays were longer (e.g. 440mm) I’m presuming it would be less of an issue/

cheers

I put a BBB 35 degree riser stem on my CdF. Works for me :)

Will probably try some different bars soon – Cowbells I expect.

Thanks – been puzzled over this for months !!

Thomthumb – thanks for the link. Don’t think this is the issue though as my set up is the same as what Spa use on their tourer.

ampthill – it would be a comparison between the Kaff and the CdF (not CDA). I’m probably not to person to ask though because before last year I hadn’t ridden any bike for about 8 years and the last drop bar bike I rode was in the late 70’s and it only had 5 gears. Consequently any bike feels good compared to that !

robdob – I agree with you. The red appears to be a nicer colour (not seen either colour in the flesh though).

Cap’n – in which case you must be Charlie and I claim my prize?

Thanks for the replies chaps :)

Just to clarify – I actually do have a triple. I built up a Kaffenback 2 over the summer with mainly 9spd sora (STIs, front and rear mechs and 11-32 cassette ) coupled to a stronglight 28/38/48 crankset which I will probably use for light touring. At the moment it’s not quite set up right as I’ve got some chain rub in the middle ring which I’m hoping to fettle out. It disappears when I put a bit of sideways pressure on the big lever, which I think means I need a bit more cable tension (i.e. moving the lever moves the mech outboard a tadge and the noise disappears). Maybe I should give up on STIs and use bar end friction levers :)

Stronglight also do the crankset in 46/34/24 so I could lower the gearing more if I felt the need (hopefully the front mech would work with the low tooth count of the smaller ring).

The original post was whether I could make a lower geared pootletouring CdF with a double (more out of curiosity unless it was really simple and cheap).

CFH – I might possibly be more svelte than you but I bet I’m older with worse posture both on and off a bike :) Someone once described their posture as that of a wok smuggler and I expect my back looks a lot like that :)

Mr Poddy – I’m suprised you didn’t suggest that I buy a Tour de Fer. :) I’d quite like to see one of those in the flesh.

Maybe those of us from the Sarf should all go en masse to france and cycle up the Col?

CG

My 2013 CdF is definitely a 9 speed Sora :).

The 2013 full fat Croix is a 10 speed (Tiagra)

Same for 2014 models.

2015 range is expanded more = 4 models IIRC

As we are having a cdF love-in. I thought that I would add a gratuitous picture of mine :)

.

PP – are those the standard bars at 50cms? My 2013 CdF (size 56) has 42 cms bars. I didn’t think drop bars came much wider than that. What are you going to replace them with?

CFH – Depends what you mean by finished. If you mean “have I cut down the steerer yet” the answer is – no. :) It now has SKS mudguards on, so off road clearance might be a bit tight, hence I hadn’t considered using it.

Snownrock – I’m the same height as you with the same inside leg measurement. I’m on a 56. The LBS reckoned the 58 was too big and I got the 56 from them instead. Seems okay to me.

I’ve got a Mk2 Kaffenback which is fitted with Panaracer Tourguard plus 28 tyres. Absolutely bomb proof but weigh a ton. I’ve run them for most of the year on my CdF on/off road (bridlepaths etc).

When I was building the Kaff I borrowed the wheels and tyres off the CdF. The CdF now has it’s own wheels back and its original knobbly tyres now.

Thanks Jeffus.

The colour is really beginning to grow on me. Planet X were selling some of these off on ebay for 129.99 in the summer and I couldn’t resist (as I wanted to try my hand at building a bike up). At the time I would have preferred black, but they weren’t available (or not for that price anyway).

135 spacing.
BB7 brakes and stronglight 48/38/28 triple and Sora brifters and mechs.

And yes – I still need to cut the steerer down :)

28mm panaracer Tourguard tyres (heavy but bombproof)

i don’t think i could cope with the pitying looks from Stonehenge Cycles, I’m easily upset :)

Cap’n, if you think that’s bad, you should see my CdF with the adjustable stem. Now that does offend the senses :)

Jerrys, that stack is an abomination! Get it sorted, sharpish!

That aside, I’m sure I’ve seen your bike….Sarum area?

Correct on both counts :)

Bishopdown Salisbury. You might have seen it down the wylye valley road or the Woodfords.

I can’t remember where I mislaid my hacksaw, I’m also not a ‘completer-finisher’ so it might stay that way for another month .

Kaffenback just built up, but need to cut steerer down when I’ve finished tweaking.

Well I seem to have sorted it.

Managed to free up link and played with the cable tension. Took it for a 40 mile spin with no issues – apart from the front mech trying to migrate down the downtube as I hadn’t tightened it enough. Took me ages to work out why it wouldn’t shift into the big ring until I realised the mech was actually contacting the teeth – doh!.

I did have a fiddle, will do it a bit more :)

More or less tension, that is the question – probably less if it was trying to change to a larger sprocket?

I’ll be tinkering with the CdF after I’ve played around with the Kaff for a bit. The CdF currently has 11/32 on the back (except the wheels are currently on the Kaff :)) and I will leave that alone but change the 50/34 to something lower and possibly closer ratio.

50/34 and 12/25 was what was on my CdF originally. I soon realised that i was too much of a wuss to live with it :)

OP, So how did the gearing work out?

I ended up picking up a Kaffenback 2 and putting a Stronglight 48/38/28 triple on the front, coupled to an 11-32 on the back as a more general pootling around gearing, rather than going down the fully loaded tourer route. (Probably because I subconsciously realised I wasn’t going anywhere for a while :) ).

and yes – I know I need to cut the steerer down :)

I use an old Garmin eTrex Venture Cx, with a quick detachable RAM mount. Works a treat but not the cheapest mount (about £25).

Boblo – I might have to go smaller at the front then or bigger at the back as well :)

This post has come just at the right time for me. I’ve also got a CdF with 50/34 and 11-32 and strongly suspect that if I load it up with panniers and touring stuff I’d struggle to get up hills. Researching t’internet came up with a bewildering choice of options. My cunning strategy soon changed to seeing what Spa cycles put on their steel tourer (48/38/28 and 11-32) and think about copying that :)

Alternatively I did come across someone opting for a double up front (40/28) and 11-28 cassette which might be a cheaper option.