I must say I thought they were heavier than that, but I don’t have a means of weighing them accurately, and even if I did I’m not sure I could be bothered to fetch the tyres and rotors off.

If I use Stans Crest rims, they should come out at around the 1400g mark, maybe a fraction less.

I’m puzzled by the end cap thing – never done that before. The front hub already has a 24mm axle, so I can’t see how that would work, or am I missing something?

I’ve since come across another possibility for the rear. The Tempest has replaceable alu inserts in the dropouts – Planet X sell them for QR axles, so I could leave the hub alone and adapt the frame. The trouble is Planet X want £30 per side which is pretty much what it’ll cost me to convert the hub. Does anyone know if those inserts are standard items I could buy elsewhere, or are they only available from Planet X?

Thanks all,

Peter

More useful stuff on this thread, cheers. I am a roadie so a roadie type position suits me. I want a gravel bike because where I live in SW France there’s loads of great non-technical off road to be done, and I don’t like doing it on a mountain bike. I’m also close to the Pyrenees where there’s even more of that stuff to be going at. I’ve got a CX bike too, but the tyres are too skinny, the brakes are awful and it’s always in tourer/training bike mode.

@Brant, have you had my email? No reply yet, although I’m not in a big hurry.

Hi @Scruff, yep, still got the tinny. There’s no tech in a fully rigid singlespeed, so until it breaks, I’ll keep riding it. Right now it doesn’t work because the brakes have died, but I’ve got some very old pre mono hopes knocking around somewhere, I’ll get round to swapping them soon.

Thanks all, that’s really helpful. I’ve emailed Brant with a few tweaks I want, but it looks like I’ll go for it. It’ll be the 4th Ti bike in my stable (which includes an indestructible EBB Tinbred!)

My Merlin Extralight is now 17 years old and still gets a lot of use. Very expensive but worth it for the ride quality and longevity.

Although in its day it was one of the lightest production frames available, it has very beefy chainstays, so when I put the power down it doesn’t flex – but it has the Ti ride quality in spades.

The only issues I now have with it are age specific. 1″ forks and very tight clearances mean 23mm tyres max.

If you're riding off road, I'd say a lock ring is essential. You'll be using a pretty small gear so you'll easily spin the cog off. OK, you'll be able to stop no problem because of the rear brake, but no way can you ride a fixed off road without ever putting a lot of back pressure on the pedals. Long off road cranks will make it worse.

If you loosen the cog on a descent, and then stomp up a steep hill, you're quite likely to strip the thread on the hub as it tightens up suddenly.

There were also Ti ones, singlespeed with an appalling Bushnell EBB, 20 in each size made, and geared ones.

Track riders don't use a lockring because they use such a big gear, they don't have enough leverage to unscrew it with leg power – therefore it's unnecessary.

On the road, assuming you're not using a daft gear, that doesn't apply – you'll have a lot more leverage so you can spin the sprocket off, so it's a good idea to have one.

Legally, a fixed only counts as a rear brake if you have a lockring, but that doesn't matter because you'll be running a rear brake anyway.

Yes. Few of my trips here:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Occupiedterritories
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Northatlanticdrift
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/standiet

Kev, I did it on my tourer in July with full camping gear. It's neither hard nor technical. I was going the other way, but after wild camping near Teifi lakes, I got to Rhayader for an early lunch after a very leisurely start. As for navigation, it's all straight on on a very distinct track so it's hard to imagine getting lost. If you do the section where you head north shortly after the tarmac begins, that's also very easy to navigate and was also totally rideable on my tourer.

You don't say where you're going and what water you'll be drinking. Coffeeking's comments are daft, unless you're talking about slightly sub standard tap water. You can get all sorts of nasties from contaminated water.

Iodine is kind of OK for short periods if you don't mind the awful taste but a very bad idea in health terms if you drink much of it, and these days there's no need to use it.

I've used Aqua Mira in the past which has no taste, far fewer health implications than Iodine and is very effective. It's a two part liquid treatment though.

Puritabs are hassle and taste free but won't deal with anything really nasty.

These days I use a steripen if I can. No chemicals at all and it's very effective if the water isn't too cloudy.