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Click 🖱️ to open
My goal was to create the ultimate worldtouring bicycle. I would assemble the bicycle myself since I know I can do that the best and because I wanted to create an unique combi. Guess what, I succeeded 😁.
This is what was important to achieve this :
Frame and fork :
- Without suspension, suitable for beltdrive and with maximum loadcapacity,
- Designed for 28 inch wheels with 29 inch tyres since they roll the best,
- And for regular 9mm quick release axles (hubs),
- Long support of the saddlepost (to avoid breaking of the frame),
- Suitable for use with 4 big sidepanniers, so equipped with high positioned frontracks
to have reasonable groundclearance,
- With independend droppers for the rearwheel, so the belttension is not influenced,
Pinion P1.18 gearbox :
- 18 real gears with the highest gearrange available and without overlaps,
- A fixed differential of 11,5 % between any 2 gears and a total range of 636%,
- Gearshifting at any speed (and any power !) and at standstills,
- Positioned at the center of gravity of the bicycle,
- Complete all-in-one-box solution, no extra and/or fragile parts elsewere,
- Design that makes oil leakages actually impossible,
- Very easy oil-changing,
- 5 year warranty,
Drivetrain :
- Gates beltdrive,
- Can be used with any regular cassette-rearwheel worldwide,
- Front and rear sprockets both sized 32 teeth, so equal, which causes the least wear,
- (because it is always the smallest sprocket that causes the biggest bending and the highest load per engaged number of teeth),
- No belt protection needed since the belt stays clean and does not grap your pants,
- Silent,
- Wearless,
- Maintenancefree,
- Clean,
Wheels :
- Powerfull XT discbrakes with 200 and 180 mm discs,
- Very strong 28 inch wheelset with Shutter Precision PD-8 dynamohub and a Novatec D252SB singlespeed rearhub
with 4 (!) strong industrial ballbearings and 4 pawls, Mavic XM624 rims and Sapim Strong spokes and nipples,
- And ofcourse with regular 9mm quick release axles (hubs),
- No oilseals in the rearwheel (hub) where they are prone to leakage caused by sideway forces,
- Full length spokes also at the rearwheel, no special (short, less flexible and more breakable) spokes needed,
- Wide tyres with the very best longterm quality,
Brakes :
- Powerfull XT discbrakes with 200 and 180 mm discs,
Miscellaneous :
- All metal parts finished off with a 2-tone metalic powdercoat scheme,
- Home-designed labels at frame and fenders,
Further characteristics :
- No cables beyond mid-bike,
- Easy, quick and clean (!) rearwheel removal and reinstalling,
- No change of alignment when uninstalling rearwheel (vertical dropouts),
- No small parts and bolts in the rearwheel area,
- No unique spokes needed,
- No cra(n)ckbearings, (let alone special excentric types (and tool !)),
Advantages :
- All of the above !!!
- Tensionfree gearbox cables at rest and almost tensionfree during (the 1 second of) shifting, so very long lasting cabling
- A much better ground clearance when having to tilt your bike over something
- A weight of just 17 kgs with all parts as shown !
- Of which 8 kgs at the frontwheel and 9 kgs at the rearwheel.
- No more costs nor headaches after the first day.
Disadvantages :
- The cost (at the first day only 🙂),
- Gearbox and beltdrive are unreparable on the road,
- Special fix of the frontsprocket, and with a very heavy, unhandy special tool only
( a lightweight version is now available),
- Both gearbox and rearhub have there own freewheel which causes a larger total freeplay
in the drivetrain (which I however never ever noticed),
- So choose a hub with maximum number of engagingpoints
(Shimano has only 10 but Novatec has 36 so there freeplay is 36 versus 10 degrees),
- Tip : change the hub to a fixie by fixing the pawls in the hub with ie small plastic strips,
- Gripshifting is much more difficult and uncomfortable then levershifting
since you need to let loose the handlebar,
- You can not operate that brake while shifting,
- The original gripshifter lacked grip totally when wet (and your hands are always wet !)
however there is a now a new version which is oké.
Disadvantages ?
- Indeed unrepairable. But did you find any stories concerning problems on the world wide web ?
- And are there any decent ((modern) derailleur) bicycleshops along your traject anyway ?
- A 5-year guarantee period without ifs, ands or buts might convince you
- The whole drivetrain is about 1,5 kilo more heavy
- Which however is only about 1,5 % of the complete bike weight
- and about 3,5% of the fully packed bike (without yourself)
- But even this isn't the whole story because there is no realworld weight difference !
- Since you should also take into account the need for several spareparts (-types),
volumes and tools you then need for regular derailleur- and chainbikes
- Where the weights are about : cranckbearings (non-existing versus 100 gr plus big, heavy tool),
belt 90gr and chain 290gr, chaincaliper 80gr, chainsplitter 150gr, small chain- and sprockettools 15gr each, jockeywheels 15gr each,
sprocket removaltool and contratool 250gr each, frontsprockets 80gr each, cassettes 300gr each,
chainoil, gloves and cleaningtowel about 300gr in total.
▶️ Part 2 : about the engineering and planning 🖱️