Bikes Of 2017: Raleigh Tamland 2

It is that time of year when I start reviewing the bikes that got me through 2017. Many of these bikes have been tweaked and changed so I will talk about that and why they were important to me this past year.

Yep, another familiar face here. The Raleigh Tamland 2 has been a good rig for me over the years. I was amused recently when one of you commented here that the only thing original to the bike anymore is the frame and fork. Well, you could be forgiven for thinking as much, but while that is close, it isn't quite the case.

Just for the record, the frame, fork, head set, bottom bracket, crankset, seat post, and rear derailleur are still stock on this bike. That's not much, granted, but it is a fair amount of the original build! I still have the wheels and I still have the original brakes. I still have the original saddle also.

Speaking of saddles....I finally got what I needed on there after fiddling around with other saddles for a couple of years. The WTB Pure, (Pure V originally), is the bomb for my behind. Love that saddle. Now that this conundrum has been solved, I don't really need anything else different here.

Changes recently have been the Gevenalle HYDRAULIC brake system and the Ritchey Venturemax bar. These items were added as test items for review on RidingGravel.com and have been so good they are staying on long term. The brakes also changed up my shifting to the excellent Gevenalle system which also includes the Burd front derailleur. The shifting is so light and precise it is uncanny, and that system is nearly indestructible.

Finally the tires and wheels. I built up these White Industries/WTB i25 KOM wheels last year and these have been awesome wheels. I should build up another set just because. Anyway, I got to test these Trans Iowa inspired treads from WTB, the Resolutes, and they are fantastic on this bike.

Bikes Of 2017: Raleigh Tamland 2

It is that time of year when I start reviewing the bikes that got me through 2017. Many of these bikes have been tweaked and changed so I will talk about that and why they were important to me this past year.

Yep, another familiar face here. The Raleigh Tamland 2 has been a good rig for me over the years. I was amused recently when one of you commented here that the only thing original to the bike anymore is the frame and fork. Well, you could be forgiven for thinking as much, but while that is close, it isn't quite the case.

Just for the record, the frame, fork, head set, bottom bracket, crankset, seat post, and rear derailleur are still stock on this bike. That's not much, granted, but it is a fair amount of the original build! I still have the wheels and I still have the original brakes. I still have the original saddle also.

Speaking of saddles....I finally got what I needed on there after fiddling around with other saddles for a couple of years. The WTB Pure, (Pure V originally), is the bomb for my behind. Love that saddle. Now that this conundrum has been solved, I don't really need anything else different here.

Changes recently have been the Gevenalle HYDRAULIC brake system and the Ritchey Venturemax bar. These items were added as test items for review on RidingGravel.com and have been so good they are staying on long term. The brakes also changed up my shifting to the excellent Gevenalle system which also includes the Burd front derailleur. The shifting is so light and precise it is uncanny, and that system is nearly indestructible.

Finally the tires and wheels. I built up these White Industries/WTB i25 KOM wheels last year and these have been awesome wheels. I should build up another set just because. Anyway, I got to test these Trans Iowa inspired treads from WTB, the Resolutes, and they are fantastic on this bike.

French Shiny Bits

The French Connection for shiny, pointy rings of doom was Peter White Cycles.

Another rung in the ladder to the finish of my old custom bike has been reached. The crank set and bottom bracket have now been acquired and installed. Of course, I tried to stick to my plan of keeping it as polished as possible going strong. That meant I had to go to a source that maybe we don't think enough about. The French company, TA Specialties.

Old, old school mountain bikers might recall that the earliest Breezers, Ritcheys, and other custom mountain bikes came with TA Specialties crank sets as they were the only thing around one could fit to a bike with triple chain rings and get ring tooth counts which would provide the wide range gearing riders wanted. After the industry caught on to mountain bikes and started making purposeful designs for the activity, TA Specialties fell from grace. Touring, as a cycling activity, also faded from the forefront in the late 80's and early 90's and where TA Specialties held a strong presence was now no longer a focus for the majority of cyclist in North America.

Here are the rings with the bottom bracket and my XT crank arm.

I am not going to pretend to know how TA Specialties managed to carry on after those days, but I would imagine that they have had good sales in Europe all along. I say this because when my search for silver chain rings led me to this company, I found out that there were 34 pages of choices in chain rings alone! Now, I may not know details, but a company just doesn't make that many chain rings unless they are selling some.

I purchased my rings via Peter White Cycles, but I understand that there are a couple of other US importers as well.  Anyway, since I had a triple chain ring crank, I decided to utilize all three positions and purchased a 46T, 36T, and 26T Chinook model set of rings in silver. The rings are ramped and pinned for better shifting and they have a beefy, solid feel to them. I was impressed with how well they seemed to be made.

I bolted those up to my circa 2008/2009 XT triple crank and then I matched that up with a set of Shimano outboard bearing cups that I filled with Enduro sealed bearings. I also used an anodized red FSA bottom bracket sleeve just because it looks cool and is, well..........metal. I like the way it interlocked in with the Shimano bearing cups better than a plastic Shimano tube does.

All bolted up and ready to install.

The big, thick tabs on the TA Specialties rings don't quite match up with the lines of the spider on the XT cranks, but that's okay with me. This would really be an issue only if the cranks were black and the rings were silver or vice versa. With both being a similar hue, it isn't the eyesore it could be. So, I am okay with this.

I have found that a 46T is a good place to be for gravel travel on flatter roads, so the 36T only gets used on hilly to rolling terrain. That 26T will come in handy when I am on really long rides and the legs are spent, or if the winds are contrary in combination with hills. A "leg saving" bail out gear. It is nice to have that to fall back on.

This bike will likely bike a 9 speed rig now. I have a mostly silver XT rear derailleur from the mid 90's that I will likely use here. I also will have to check in to a front derailleur, but obviously those are silver most of the time, so I am not too worried there. I checked in to my parts bin and I do not have a shifter set up. This means I will likely get either a set of bar end shifters, (not the best option with Luxy Bars), or I will opt for a new set of Gevenalle levers.

Then there are the wheels. That could get pretty expensive, and I am leaning toward doing White Industries XMR hubs laced to Velocity Blunt SS polished rims. This may have to wait for a bit. So, depending on how things go on that front, I may end up rolling on a place holder wheel set for a time. Most likely I will if the rest comes together well.

Stay tuned........

French Shiny Bits

The French Connection for shiny, pointy rings of doom was Peter White Cycles.

Another rung in the ladder to the finish of my old custom bike has been reached. The crank set and bottom bracket have now been acquired and installed. Of course, I tried to stick to my plan of keeping it as polished as possible going strong. That meant I had to go to a source that maybe we don't think enough about. The French company, TA Specialties.

Old, old school mountain bikers might recall that the earliest Breezers, Ritcheys, and other custom mountain bikes came with TA Specialties crank sets as they were the only thing around one could fit to a bike with triple chain rings and get ring tooth counts which would provide the wide range gearing riders wanted. After the industry caught on to mountain bikes and started making purposeful designs for the activity, TA Specialties fell from grace. Touring, as a cycling activity, also faded from the forefront in the late 80's and early 90's and where TA Specialties held a strong presence was now no longer a focus for the majority of cyclist in North America.

Here are the rings with the bottom bracket and my XT crank arm.

I am not going to pretend to know how TA Specialties managed to carry on after those days, but I would imagine that they have had good sales in Europe all along. I say this because when my search for silver chain rings led me to this company, I found out that there were 34 pages of choices in chain rings alone! Now, I may not know details, but a company just doesn't make that many chain rings unless they are selling some.

I purchased my rings via Peter White Cycles, but I understand that there are a couple of other US importers as well.  Anyway, since I had a triple chain ring crank, I decided to utilize all three positions and purchased a 46T, 36T, and 26T Chinook model set of rings in silver. The rings are ramped and pinned for better shifting and they have a beefy, solid feel to them. I was impressed with how well they seemed to be made.

I bolted those up to my circa 2008/2009 XT triple crank and then I matched that up with a set of Shimano outboard bearing cups that I filled with Enduro sealed bearings. I also used an anodized red FSA bottom bracket sleeve just because it looks cool and is, well..........metal. I like the way it interlocked in with the Shimano bearing cups better than a plastic Shimano tube does.

All bolted up and ready to install.

The big, thick tabs on the TA Specialties rings don't quite match up with the lines of the spider on the XT cranks, but that's okay with me. This would really be an issue only if the cranks were black and the rings were silver or vice versa. With both being a similar hue, it isn't the eyesore it could be. So, I am okay with this.

I have found that a 46T is a good place to be for gravel travel on flatter roads, so the 36T only gets used on hilly to rolling terrain. That 26T will come in handy when I am on really long rides and the legs are spent, or if the winds are contrary in combination with hills. A "leg saving" bail out gear. It is nice to have that to fall back on.

This bike will likely bike a 9 speed rig now. I have a mostly silver XT rear derailleur from the mid 90's that I will likely use here. I also will have to check in to a front derailleur, but obviously those are silver most of the time, so I am not too worried there. I checked in to my parts bin and I do not have a shifter set up. This means I will likely get either a set of bar end shifters, (not the best option with Luxy Bars), or I will opt for a new set of Gevenalle levers.

Then there are the wheels. That could get pretty expensive, and I am leaning toward doing White Industries XMR hubs laced to Velocity Blunt SS polished rims. This may have to wait for a bit. So, depending on how things go on that front, I may end up rolling on a place holder wheel set for a time. Most likely I will if the rest comes together well.

Stay tuned........

Project Wide Gravel Wheels: Update

Up at East Janesville Church the other day.

The idea was to run wider rims than maybe what any cyclo crosser or roadies would ever consider for a gravel road bike and see what, if any performance advantages there are when running those wider rims. Once again, I tried the WTB KOM i25 rims which, as the name implies, have a 25mm inner rim width. Keep in mind that many rim companies are saying "wide" for a road rim is 20mm, maybe 21mm, of inner rim width. Yes, the KOM i25 is "really" a 29"er rim, but hey! That's a minor detail, and so I used them anyway.

One other thing I did here was that I did not weigh the wheels. I did this because I think it might affect the way I look at this project, if I knew, and I really think a good set of wheels with a reasonable weight is going to feel great no matter. So, I don't have a weight on these wheels, and weight wasn't the biggest concern here, quite honestly. I was mostly wanting to see how, or even if, tire performance could be enhanced.

That said, here are a few things I've noticed about these wheels, and a comment about what they do to tires so far.

The White Industries XMR hubs are amazing. Normally, you probably do not think much about your hubs, and that would be considered a great thing in a hub. These hubs I actually do think about once in a while because I could see how much better they spin, and that translated in to a faster coast with longer times off the power without losing ground to other riders or slowing down too much. The build is solid. I have had no issues with the wheels at all, but I will say that the KOM rims are a pretty lightweight extrusion. I wouldn't place any bets on how long they will last, but so far, so good. And I have pounded these wheels doing curb hops, bunny hops, and generally banging them around.

So, anyway, the tires...... Well, I've only mounted one set so far, so I have to reserve judgement on the tire part. That said, I feel they have made a big tire less crowned, wider, and more stable in the loose stuff as a result. The tubeless factor makes for lowered pressures and I have found that makes these wheel great over rough terrain and deeper grounds, like sand, and really deep gravel.

So far so good, like I say. More soon.......

Project Wide Gravel Wheels: Update

Up at East Janesville Church the other day.

The idea was to run wider rims than maybe what any cyclo crosser or roadies would ever consider for a gravel road bike and see what, if any performance advantages there are when running those wider rims. Once again, I tried the WTB KOM i25 rims which, as the name implies, have a 25mm inner rim width. Keep in mind that many rim companies are saying "wide" for a road rim is 20mm, maybe 21mm, of inner rim width. Yes, the KOM i25 is "really" a 29"er rim, but hey! That's a minor detail, and so I used them anyway.

One other thing I did here was that I did not weigh the wheels. I did this because I think it might affect the way I look at this project, if I knew, and I really think a good set of wheels with a reasonable weight is going to feel great no matter. So, I don't have a weight on these wheels, and weight wasn't the biggest concern here, quite honestly. I was mostly wanting to see how, or even if, tire performance could be enhanced.

That said, here are a few things I've noticed about these wheels, and a comment about what they do to tires so far.

The White Industries XMR hubs are amazing. Normally, you probably do not think much about your hubs, and that would be considered a great thing in a hub. These hubs I actually do think about once in a while because I could see how much better they spin, and that translated in to a faster coast with longer times off the power without losing ground to other riders or slowing down too much. The build is solid. I have had no issues with the wheels at all, but I will say that the KOM rims are a pretty lightweight extrusion. I wouldn't place any bets on how long they will last, but so far, so good. And I have pounded these wheels doing curb hops, bunny hops, and generally banging them around.

So, anyway, the tires...... Well, I've only mounted one set so far, so I have to reserve judgement on the tire part. That said, I feel they have made a big tire less crowned, wider, and more stable in the loose stuff as a result. The tubeless factor makes for lowered pressures and I have found that makes these wheel great over rough terrain and deeper grounds, like sand, and really deep gravel.

So far so good, like I say. More soon.......

Wheels For The Standard Rando

White Industries XMR hubs, Wheelsmith spokes/nipples, and WTB KOM rims.

That took waaaaay too long, but they are finally coming together. What should have been going on in January has finally happened. The parts are paid for and the building of the wheels for the Twin Six Standard Rando is done.

Interestingly enough, I got to do a similar build with slightly different Wheelsmith spokes at work. Same rims and hubs, just all butted spokes instead of what I ended up using. So, I had a bit of practice, which went swimmingly by the way, with these components before I built up my set.

My set uses spokes I had already. After having built up several wheel sets for myself and a few others over the course of a decade, I had quite a few spokes sitting in my spoke drawer in my tool box. I was fortunate enough to be able to use up 64 of them in this build, but the arrangement may be a tiny bit unorthodox. You see, my disc side front and drive side rear spokes are straight gauge black Wheelsmith and the non-driveside rear and driveside front spokes are double butted silver Wheelsmith spokes. All have silver alloy nipples. Weird, I know, but not unheard of.

Straight gauge spokes are considered to be stiffer and stronger, so putting them on the sides that undergo the most stress is often done on wheels. Butted spokes are more flexible and maybe not as strong as straight gauge, but save weight, so using those where I did is something I've seen before. The lengths I needed and color of spoke just worked out the way that it did.

They really don't look as odd as they might seem to by the description. 

I know I could have been rolling on those Stan's wheels a long time ago, and I know these wheels cost a whole heck of a lot more money, but they are what I think are premium hubs and modern, up to the minute rim technology. Plus, these are wider rims internally, and I wanted to experiment with that idea with tires for gravel bikes, which I am reporting on in some future posts for RidingGravel.com.

White Industries designed a super slick end cap to convert these hubs to a 15mm thru axle.

The XMR hubs are super cool in that the front can be easily switched to 15mm through axle simply by pulling the quick release end cap off. Since White Industries designed that end cap to sit flush into the 15mm ID axle, you do not need a separate end cap for 15mm conversion. It is all ready to go once you pop off the quick release cap. Neat! They even put holes into the end cap so you can pluck off the cap with a pick. Super neat! It made converting the set I built up at work a snap. So, now if I ever wanted to switch over to a 15mm through axle fork, I could do so easily. The rear hub is also convertible with swappable end caps, but due to how that overlock dimension (OD) works on the rear, you do need to switch out caps there. (135mmOD vs 142mmOD)

So, now all I have to do is to mount my Avid rotors, SRAM 11 speed cassette, and put the rim strip, valves, and tubeless tires on, and the T-6 Standard Rando should be ready to ride by Monday. I suppose you could say that is "just in time" since the riding season is just cranking up, but that was cutting it close.

I'll have more on the bike, hubs, and how the rims are working out in future posts.

Wheels For The Standard Rando

White Industries XMR hubs, Wheelsmith spokes/nipples, and WTB KOM rims.

That took waaaaay too long, but they are finally coming together. What should have been going on in January has finally happened. The parts are paid for and the building of the wheels for the Twin Six Standard Rando is done.

Interestingly enough, I got to do a similar build with slightly different Wheelsmith spokes at work. Same rims and hubs, just all butted spokes instead of what I ended up using. So, I had a bit of practice, which went swimmingly by the way, with these components before I built up my set.

My set uses spokes I had already. After having built up several wheel sets for myself and a few others over the course of a decade, I had quite a few spokes sitting in my spoke drawer in my tool box. I was fortunate enough to be able to use up 64 of them in this build, but the arrangement may be a tiny bit unorthodox. You see, my disc side front and drive side rear spokes are straight gauge black Wheelsmith and the non-driveside rear and driveside front spokes are double butted silver Wheelsmith spokes. All have silver alloy nipples. Weird, I know, but not unheard of.

Straight gauge spokes are considered to be stiffer and stronger, so putting them on the sides that undergo the most stress is often done on wheels. Butted spokes are more flexible and maybe not as strong as straight gauge, but save weight, so using those where I did is something I've seen before. The lengths I needed and color of spoke just worked out the way that it did.

They really don't look as odd as they might seem to by the description. 

I know I could have been rolling on those Stan's wheels a long time ago, and I know these wheels cost a whole heck of a lot more money, but they are what I think are premium hubs and modern, up to the minute rim technology. Plus, these are wider rims internally, and I wanted to experiment with that idea with tires for gravel bikes, which I am reporting on in some future posts for RidingGravel.com.

White Industries designed a super slick end cap to convert these hubs to a 15mm thru axle.

The XMR hubs are super cool in that the front can be easily switched to 15mm through axle simply by pulling the quick release end cap off. Since White Industries designed that end cap to sit flush into the 15mm ID axle, you do not need a separate end cap for 15mm conversion. It is all ready to go once you pop off the quick release cap. Neat! They even put holes into the end cap so you can pluck off the cap with a pick. Super neat! It made converting the set I built up at work a snap. So, now if I ever wanted to switch over to a 15mm through axle fork, I could do so easily. The rear hub is also convertible with swappable end caps, but due to how that overlock dimension (OD) works on the rear, you do need to switch out caps there. (135mmOD vs 142mmOD)

So, now all I have to do is to mount my Avid rotors, SRAM 11 speed cassette, and put the rim strip, valves, and tubeless tires on, and the T-6 Standard Rando should be ready to ride by Monday. I suppose you could say that is "just in time" since the riding season is just cranking up, but that was cutting it close.

I'll have more on the bike, hubs, and how the rims are working out in future posts.

Project Wide Gravel Wheels

Well.......look at that, would ya?

Okay.......White Industries came through. I have the hubs in hand and now, as I am wont to do, I have instigated another "project". This one will be a wheel build to test my theory on wide rims for gravel.

Before I get into my hypothesis, let's take a look at these gorgeous black anodized goodies here, shall we? Of course, they are from White Industries and are their new disc hubs dubbed "XMR". What does that stand for? Who knows! I would say, "good looking", sleek", and light weight, but none of those terms start with "X" "M" or "R". White Industries says the hubs have a 6-4 titanium free hub body, a six bolt disc rotor interface, available swappable end caps for through axle compatibility, or as in my case, the standard traditional quick release caps which are included, and an 11 speed compatibility with backwards compatibility to 10 speed and 9 speed cassettes via an included spacer. Pretty swank looks, if I say so myself, with laser etched graphics, and an availability in a few different anodized hues to boot. I chose black so I can swap these wheels, when they are built, between multiple bikes if I so choose and they will look great in all of them. I must say that I was sorely tempted by the option of getting White Industries XMR hubs in luscious purple ano though!

These hubs came highly recommended to me, but of course, there are more things to a wheel than hubs. I also chose WTB's KOM i25 rims for this build, and here's where it gets interesting, as far as my theory goes here. First, you need to know that WTB KOM i25 rims are 25mm inside width, so they are pretty wide rims! Keep in mind that most road-ish, cyclo-cross rims run in the 17mm-19mm inner rim width territory. Yeah......these are wide rims!! Well, for 35-40mm tires, they are wide rims. And see......that's the thing, everybody is going wide and wider off road, so why not for gravel? I mean, a 30mm wide rim is considered XC-ish these days and 35-40mm inner rim widths are commonplace on trail bikes. Every road rim that is introduced gets wider as well. So, it only follows that gravel riders might be benefiting from the same ideas, right? Well, we will see......

KOM rims come in several widths and diameters, but I chose the biggest and widest!

I figure we can look at gravel road tires as "plus sized road tires", so wider rims make sense to me in that vein. My hope is that the wider KOM i25 will do for the 38mm-40mm tires I intend to use on them what the wider mtb rims and 27.5+ tires did for my "Fat Fargo". Those corpulent wheels transformed the Fat Fargo into a rough terrain eating machine. Maybe wider rims will help stabilize gravel tires and help them roll over loose, deep gravel at lowered pressures better than they do on more traditional width cyclo-cross or road rims, the likes of which I have been using. Maybe that will translate into a more comfortable, less fatiguing ride quality which will help me out on longer rides. That's the hope and what I intend on finding out.

So, stay tuned for a detailed wheel build post, then I'll pop on some bigger gravel going rubber and then these will be featured first on my Twin Six Standard Rando, but I fully expect to also use them on my Raleigh Tamland Two and my Gen I Fargo.

Project Wide Gravel Wheels

Well.......look at that, would ya?

Okay.......White Industries came through. I have the hubs in hand and now, as I am wont to do, I have instigated another "project". This one will be a wheel build to test my theory on wide rims for gravel.

Before I get into my hypothesis, let's take a look at these gorgeous black anodized goodies here, shall we? Of course, they are from White Industries and are their new disc hubs dubbed "XMR". What does that stand for? Who knows! I would say, "good looking", sleek", and light weight, but none of those terms start with "X" "M" or "R". White Industries says the hubs have a 6-4 titanium free hub body, a six bolt disc rotor interface, available swappable end caps for through axle compatibility, or as in my case, the standard traditional quick release caps which are included, and an 11 speed compatibility with backwards compatibility to 10 speed and 9 speed cassettes via an included spacer. Pretty swank looks, if I say so myself, with laser etched graphics, and an availability in a few different anodized hues to boot. I chose black so I can swap these wheels, when they are built, between multiple bikes if I so choose and they will look great in all of them. I must say that I was sorely tempted by the option of getting White Industries XMR hubs in luscious purple ano though!

These hubs came highly recommended to me, but of course, there are more things to a wheel than hubs. I also chose WTB's KOM i25 rims for this build, and here's where it gets interesting, as far as my theory goes here. First, you need to know that WTB KOM i25 rims are 25mm inside width, so they are pretty wide rims! Keep in mind that most road-ish, cyclo-cross rims run in the 17mm-19mm inner rim width territory. Yeah......these are wide rims!! Well, for 35-40mm tires, they are wide rims. And see......that's the thing, everybody is going wide and wider off road, so why not for gravel? I mean, a 30mm wide rim is considered XC-ish these days and 35-40mm inner rim widths are commonplace on trail bikes. Every road rim that is introduced gets wider as well. So, it only follows that gravel riders might be benefiting from the same ideas, right? Well, we will see......

KOM rims come in several widths and diameters, but I chose the biggest and widest!

I figure we can look at gravel road tires as "plus sized road tires", so wider rims make sense to me in that vein. My hope is that the wider KOM i25 will do for the 38mm-40mm tires I intend to use on them what the wider mtb rims and 27.5+ tires did for my "Fat Fargo". Those corpulent wheels transformed the Fat Fargo into a rough terrain eating machine. Maybe wider rims will help stabilize gravel tires and help them roll over loose, deep gravel at lowered pressures better than they do on more traditional width cyclo-cross or road rims, the likes of which I have been using. Maybe that will translate into a more comfortable, less fatiguing ride quality which will help me out on longer rides. That's the hope and what I intend on finding out.

So, stay tuned for a detailed wheel build post, then I'll pop on some bigger gravel going rubber and then these will be featured first on my Twin Six Standard Rando, but I fully expect to also use them on my Raleigh Tamland Two and my Gen I Fargo.