Meandering Velonauts

Last night I added the finishing touches to my new aluminum 9:Zero:7 snow bike. Working on this project has been a blast. I am both sad and excited that it is over. To celebrate completing the build I woke up early today and got a 30 minute shakeout ride in. These bikes are so much fun to ride, and it is easy to understand why people are so passionate about them.

Here is some technical facts about my new ride:

• Hand made in USA aluminum frame
• Hand made in USA titanium fork.
• Fork uses 135mm front hub, instead of typical 100mm.
• Rims are 80mm and custom drilled to save weight.
• Tires are 26″ x 3.7″ and inflated to 10 psi
• Mechanical disc brakes have 185mm rotors
• SRAM X.0/x.9 drive-train, with stainless steel chain
• Bike weighs 29 lbs 8 onces total.

After my ride, once the sun was up, I took a bunch more photos of the new bike.  Enjoy this new album.

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On Friday my packages arrived from Chain Reaction Cycles. I was both excited and relieved, because UPS left the packages on my door step for 4 hours. Whew! I openned the boxes and marveled at the frame, fork, and wheels.

After dinner, I disappeared into my bike shop and started working on the bike. I’ve been down there the better part of Friday evenning, Saturday, and today. I’ve been taking my time building this bike. Over the last few days I’ve been taking lots of pictures to document the build. And now, the bike is nearly complete and looks spectacular. However, I’m still waiting on the last few parts to arrive in the mail. Until then enjoy these photos I uploaded of the bike’s construction.

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Small communication problem between me and Chain Reaction Cycles. The front wheel was built with unmodified Vicious Graceful Fat Sheeba rims. Modified rims are drilled to shave 1/2 pound from each wheel, and needs to be done.

Chris King rear hub, was taking a little bit of extra time to arrive, but is finally in. Should be a great rear hub for snow and ice. I’m hoping spline drive does better than standard pawls. Maybe avoid freehub freezing. 

So front wheel was rebuilt, and rear should be built today. Bike should ship from Chain Reaction Cycles in the next few days. I found this email in my inbox this morning!

Hi Shawn,

We will be building your wheels today and should be able to ship tomorrow or Thursday. Thought you would want to know…

Later,
Bill

My project snow bike is coming along beautifully. I’m stuck waiting for my much anticipated Aluminum 9:Zero:7 frame to come in next week. Once I have it in my shop, I can really start building the bike.

I decided to have Chain Reaction Cycles build my wheels. They are very experianced snow bike wheel builders, and I would be a fool not to leverage those skills.

They special ordered the Chris King rear hub, which should arive in Anchorage next week. In the mean time they finished building the front wheel. For the front wheel I decided to go with a Vicious Cycles 80mm rim, Paul WHUB 135mm front hub, and black DT Champion straight gauge spokes. I think the wheel turned out great, check out these photos.

After much deliberation I’ve finally settled on the frame I’ll be using for my project. Introducing the 9:Zero:7 Aluminum fat bike, from Chain Reaction Cycles in Anchorage AK.

The frames were designed by Bill and James at Chain Reaction Cycles, and produced by Sapa Profiles, Inc. Sapa Profiles make products for Titus, Turner, Moots, and a host of other custom builders/designers. I very wise partnership, with premier US frame builder.

My decision boiled down to cost, weight, and quality. 9:Zero:7 AL excelled at all three. Its hand made in USA, weighs 2 lbs less than Pugsley, and only costs $300 more.

Now that I have chosen a frame, I need to focus on fork selection.

My options are:

• Surly Steel 100m
• BlackSheep Steel 135mm
• BlackSheep Ti 100mm
• BlackSheep Ti 135mm

As you can see I need to choose the material and axle width. So why axle width? Snow bikes run very wide rims, typically between 60-100mm to float on snow. These wide rims, when combined with disc brakes are difficult to extract from the fork.

What is the difference between steel or titanium. Titanium rides smoother and is 1 lb lighter. Steel is stiffer and costs $100 less.

I choose the BlackSheep 135mm titanium fork with disc tabs. Its lighter and offers a more supple ride, for not much more than the steel version.

This fork choice does complicate the front wheel selection. Standard front hubs have 100mm axles. Standard rear hubs have 135mm axles. This means I need to run a rear hub on the front, or find a front hub designed for 135mm spacing forks. Since the BlackSheep fork does not have the 15mm offset required by a back wheel, running a rear hub doesn’t make sense. Instead I’ve settled on running a Paul Components WHUB “wide hub” in the front wheel.

As you can see from the comparison photo, the WHUB (pronounced “wub”, the h is silent) is much wider than a standard front hub. As for product quality, Paul has always been a pioneer and leader of quality bicycle components. Their hubs were specifically designed for Jeff Jones bicycles. If they are good enough for Jeff, then they should exceed my every expectation.

Well that’s all I’ve got right now, but I have time, since the frames will not be ready until mid October. Most of the minor details are still rattling around in my head, but I’ll find time to commit them to paper.