RoadRat3 build ... is it bird? Is it a plane?....

[2manyoranges]

Is it a road bike (clue might be in the name)? Is it an MTB? Is it a Gravel Bike?.....

It will spend most of its life off road tarmac...who knows what it is?
It will, however, get me to work 10 miles there and 10 miles back. Muddy. Wet. Gravelly. Slippy slidey.

RoadRat3 f&f in Orange (yeh!) 52cm with CroMo forks. Not here yet but anticipating.

First things first, always the headset. That means I can get the bike in the stand and understand the geometry and how long the brake cables need to be etc.

The headset box, in 1 and 1/8, has:

- complete ACROS sealed. Nasty thing.
- top cup and fittings including top cap Cane Creek. Over-rated. No bottom cup.
- top cup and fittings, Hope in black. Traditional for COTIC. No bottom. Why? No Idea.
- top cup and fittings, Chris King in silver with red NoThread top. No bottom. Stolen bits for Stanton Ti 26. That's why.




After an hour on t'Web....no Hope A bottoms in the known universe. No bottom Chris King at a sensible price.
Ah ha! Winstanleys have a Hope A. But Winstanley's is like playing Russian Roulette; maybe just maybe six months after they have taken your money you might get the thing which they have shown as 'in stock'. Or it could come the next day. Or not at all.

Oh well, PING, committed.

Imagine my surprise when the Hope A turned up the next day. Hurrah!


Next....tyres and wheels....

 

[2manyoranges]

Yeh! Frame and forks arrived - carefully packed by Paul and well cared for by ParcelForce.
Very excited.

First things first. It's in that lovely flat/matt orange. I have the right RAL touch up paint, so will be going over the frame degreasing and touching up. But not now. Very tired and ready to hit the sack. My partner might notice it if I sleep with the frame so I will just have to dream of it instead...

ZZZZZZZZZZZ

 

[2manyoranges]

Work….tree felling….work….family stuff….RIDING….work….

For many good reasons, not much time in the workshop….BUT

1
Front wheel (Hope Fortus on Hope Pro2) down to TrueWheels for Ant and Rich to retrack back to 100mm spacing. They respaced this during the Summer since I wanted it as a spare (albeit narrow at 23 internal) for my and my son’s enduro bikes. Oh well, backwards and forwards, but better than it hanging in the workshop looking glum.

2
This arrived! Hurrah!

Great thing is that this respaces the Pro2 Evo rear to 135, and allows peace of mind in tightening the back wheel in the track dropout on the RoadRat. I see people with QR in the rearwards-open horizontal drop outs and I think that’s a bit of a weak link….

Last week I got out all my Hope freehubs, thinking that I would need a new one, since last time I did a 10mm bolt on axle conversion I needed one. But a hour of faffing saw me find Hope, Shimano and XD Hope freehubs - all Pro4, which don’t fit the Pro2 EVO. Grrr. Then I realise that the rear hub I am working with is EVO and the new axle fits!…it was only when I did a Pro2 non EVO on the jump bike that I needed to put on a new freehub - one with bigger bearings … ie EVO. Hurrah!

So I get out the Hope axle support - nice - pull off the 142 axle ends, pull off the freehub (and the 1mm spacer which almost always falls on the floor - yep it did this time but I had my beady eye on the little b+gger) then try to remember which end of the axle I should bash with a nylon hammer. And ‘yes’ I do the right side. Bearings all good, whack them back in carefully. Yes you can whack things carefully.

Engineering = ‘application of the right amount of brute force in exactly the right place’.

It’s probably fine to use a QR but I just love these Hope 10mm bolts. They are Gorgeous Things.

 

[foz]

pics please!

 

[2manyoranges]

Okey doke.

Frame and forks. Nice long steerer, which will help with riding position. COTIC Matt orange ... the ‘first SOUL’ colour. I like the Matt duck-egg blue a lot....but this is THE Cotic colour, I think.



Lovely details around the bottom bracket, for mudguard fixing. Big clearances. I hope big enough for the 45c WTBs I have, plus mudguards. If not, I will go to 38 for the winter and run the 45s in the summer. It will be a relief to go tubeless rather than grapple with all the punctures I am getting on the Cannondale. It’s thorn city where we live at this time of year....




Lovely tidy rear end (!) with a lot going on regarding attachment options....excellent thinking Cy.




CroMo forks - not light, but will track well I think. Lovely 9mm thru-dropouts.



Altogether Rather Nice.

 

[slackboy]

Nice, fancy one of these myself.

Flat bars or going with drops?

Unlike you to go for a Cotic

 

[Peachy!]

Just tagging along for the ride

 

[2manyoranges]

....thanks guys - work is mental so the parts have been gathering and the build stalling...

slack boy, I am erring towards flat, which reproduces more the position I am content with on my enduro bikes and my current Cannondale F6 commuter. But I would like about 12 deg or more backsweep to the bars rather than the 'standard' 9 deg which is for some reason absolutely dominant. But that means a punitively expensive SQ Labs bar (80-90gbp) which I am not keen on right now. I am poking around on the PLanetX website since they seem to have some wacky geometry flats on there.....

 

[eightyeight]

Always fancied a roadrat and agree that orange is the Cotic colour.
Thinking of doing something similar with an old 26" frame and some 700c wheels+CX tyres to replace my 'town bike' built out of spares.

 

[retroJIM]

Just wondered how the RoadRat is progressing?