I Built My Dream Bikepacking Bike

if you had told me a few years ago that one day I'd build my own dream bike there's no way I would have believed you until recently I knew very little about bikes and definitely didn't think I could ever build one I didn't really have very much experience building anything but after the last few years of traveling around the world by bike and trying different bike setups I realized that nothing I was writing really fit exactly what I wanted plus I really hated derailers so I decided to try and build my dream bike a rolloff salsa Fargo so that's what this video is about come along as I try and build a bike and learn a ton in the process process the end I'll share how the bike has worked out what I like and don't like about the rolloff and what I'd wish I'd done differently the story starts way back around the winter solstice talking to a camera which is always weird do you need a drink yeah I need a drink cheers this is my my bike one thing I forgot to say is that I bought the Fargo as a complete bike off Craigslist it right now has the stock one by drivetrain on it and I want to change it to a rolloff and so I got my roll off in the mail it's already laced into a wheel I got it off of eBay why did I get this rollof wheel derailers are really beautiful and efficient machines and they've been running bikes for over a 100 years but I feel like every bike that I've had the derailer is like constantly going out of alignment I decided that I would try a rolloff Hub um which is an internally geared Hub supposedly they shift perfectly every time they don't really take any maintenance you just have to change the oil every 5,000 Mi so I figured I would try it it's a little bit bit of investment but now I have to figure out how to put it on my bike which is an intimidating process cuz I have to change both the brake lovers and the crank and these are things that I've never done before so we'll see how it goes first start of business is read the [Applause] manual it's in German rolloffs are made in Germany and there isn't a whole lot of information about them in English so I took a couple days to scour the Internet and try and figure out everything I could about them and so now I have to put it on the bike I also am going to change it to a flat bar and so it's a whole process um where I need to basically strip almost everything off the bike and then put it all back on so we're going to try that ooh okay first the rack comes off this is a zip tie cutter well it's it's a flush cut wire cutter but in these parts we call it a zip tie cutter oo [Music] fancy I think the next thing is to take off the handlebars there you are then it was time to take the crank off which was harder than we expected yeah maybe park tools it's time for the Masters Calvin Jones here Park Tool Company turns out it was just on there really tight did you get it yep it's a good feeling that doesn't look like it's doing anything does it not really well everything's off the bike but we figured out that we probably need a new bottom bracket so we're going to take that off too I don't think I have a different bottom bracket we don't have the right tool so I'm going to take it to the bik shop it's day two you might hear some weird sounds it's because Chris has just come home and that means that Leo is finally allowed to chew on his bone this is a rule that he's made for himself he makes his own rules I went to the bike shop today and I bought a new bottom bracket and then I came home and I took out well they helped me get the bottom bracket out the inside is full of some sort of unidentifiable dust or rust or combination of the two how do you think that much sand gets in there I think some of it is rust I don't think it could be that much rust like I wouldn't have a bike frame anymore if all of that was rust like put your finger in it really fine sticky sand maybe we're going to clean that out and then figure out what the next step is before I brought it to the bike shop I had also attached my new handlebars I got denim bars which are kind of like crazy bars but the hoods are closer together which is what I prefer maybe a [Music] vacuum we're doing WD 40 and still wool to get the rust out of the inside of the bottom bracket okay so it's the next day and I have a cold but we're going to keep working on the bike so apparently the cause of rusting bottom brackets is well one of them could be that the seat post isn't greased so I decided to take off the seat post and yeah there's not very much grease in there I'm not sure if there's any grease on there and it goes all the way in cuz I'm short now we're putting loop on the inside of the bottom bracket so that this rust maybe won't happen as quickly now I got to figure out how to put in the bottom bracket I don't think that's right may try the other one first when I started trying to put the wheel back on the bike I realized that I had accidentally bought the through axle version instead of the quick release version of of the rolloff Hub I hadn't actually bought the through axle version I had bought the threaded spindle version but that was still different than the quick release that I had originally intended so I have to figure that out and if I can even use it or if I have to sell it and keep looking for another Hub what has happened since the last time I talked oh I mentioned that I thought maybe I had bought the wrong uh rolloff Hub and luckily it's not an unsolvable problem the salsa has a special system where you can change the dropouts to fit all sorts of different rear ends got a couple of those but they're going to come in the mail so it's in a few days so for now we are doing brakes um and I have my old wheel back on the bike just to be able to do some adjusting I also reattached the crank according to the official rolloff website the best chain line for a rolloff is 57 mm which is about the same as the outside chain ring on a triple crank set so that's what I did I bought a triple crank set and I put a 36 to chain ring on the outside and that gave me the right chain line and good gear ratios so on my bottom end I have 18.2 and on my top end I have 95.5 okay it's a few days later and I finally got the little pieces of metal that I think I need to make my bike work so they have an alternator plate for a roll off and we are going to see if it works it's cool okay so the issue that I have now is that the rollof needs to go in a 135 mm Dropout my bike is set up for 148 these are the alternator plates this is my brake that's an alternator plate left alternator plate I have a reduction plate that goes in between the frame and this alternator plate one on either side should reduce it by 6 mm apparently and then this left Dropout plate gets replaced by this rollof Dropout plate so it has a space for the the mech to go I hope that this works it seems like it [Music] works looks like that's how it's going to go on okay can I show you my current problem these are all the bolts that came with the kit this is the instructions for how to put it together you can see that they show you exactly which bolt is supposed to go to which spot but each one is slightly different and I can't really tell which of those are which things so I'm going to have to measure them this thing says that this little screw is like 27 or 28 I'm supposed to be looking for a 25 but that's the shortest one I have so I'm guessing it's nominal fun fact you measure bolts by the thread length I just learned that this is my 25 mm bolt okay that's there but then what holds it on H again I'm missing something all right friends I'm bad at reading diagrams finally I think I might have gotten this right let's see we have these two pieces we have this thing this is the bolt that goes on it then it goes in this side the other side all right that is what it is supposed to look like screws go in like they came out on the outside of the bike now for this side I need to take the brake connector off and then put it onto my roll off I'm going to take the screw out too [Music] it's loose enough for the rest of this process breaks back on I think it's working this is so exciting I had this little bit wrong there's a little knob that sticks off of the plate attached to the roll off and that needs to be in this slot so I just fixed that and now I'm adding the spacer screws that keep the alternator plate where you want them to be so this is day something of working on my bike I'm not really sure how long I've been doing this a couple weeks now I have the chain on and the next step is just to change the oil and maybe change a little few things with the fit um and then it should be good to go [Music] [Music] done so after adjusting the seat like you do on any new bike and putting on a slightly shorter stem to adjust for the flat bar geometry my bike was all set to go and I'm happy to report that the bike rides Great And as far as the rolloff I freaking love it the first time Chris and I went for a bike ride after I built this bike his front derailer seized up and he had to bike 10 miles with only one gear and I'm just so glad that i' never have to worry about that ever again I love never having to adjust a derailer I love that I can shift from 14th gear to first gear at a stop sign without moving I love how smooth the gears shift I love that since the Hub is bigger the spokes are shorter which means my rear wheel is really strong and I love that the chain doesn't wear out as quickly because it doesn't have to shift between chain Rings a few of the things that I don't love or I just had to get used to is you're never really supposed to shift when you're under load but the rolloff won't let you it feels like you're trying to Pedal into a brick wall so it took me a little while to get the hang of not shifting when I needed to Pedal really hard um but now that it's been a few months I've gotten used to it and I never really think about it anymore so if that's something you're worried about with the rollof I wouldn't let it stop you also gears 1 through 7 make a slight worring sound and you can also feel it a little bit and that's normal for a rolloff and it's just something that you kind of get used to and now I don't ever think about it anymore finally my rear wheel is pretty heavy it's about a pound and a half heavier than a 1 by derailer but I'm not really going for a feather light bike I'm really looking for a bike that can take me everywhere and is really durable and will last a long time being Beat Around in buses and things like that so so I'm I'm really happy with this bike as I've built it and I'm really excited to see where it takes me so thank you and happy trails

Channel: Slow Spokes

Views: 86,626

Keywords: bike touring, cycle touring, biketouring, bikepacking, bike packing, world by bike, cycle around the world, wild camping, adventure, wildcamping, bicycle camping, travel by bike, bike camping, greg mccahon, bike touring tips, bicycle touring, bicycle travel, bike touring gear, rohloff, salsa, salsa fargo, flat bar

Id: cNUEOSRxU4A

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2024