[PdxMark]

With a new job my bike commute went from an easy 4 in-town miles to a less-easy 14 miles out to a suburb. I wanted a commuter that would also serve duty in weekend touring pulling a trailer. I settled on a Pake C'muter, set-up old school style with downtube shifters (nice Dia Compe-style ratcheting ones) and silver-colored parts every, including Nitto Noddle handlebar and a Sugino crankset. I'll let you know how it rides.

 

[drawerfixer]

My goodness, that's a classy bike and build. The bottle cage is handsome, and I like the splashes of gold in the bell and brakes.

What's that in the spokes of your front wheel?

 

[holy cromoly]

Very nice. I was considering a similar build, with downtube shifters and gold cantis from Velo Orange.

What size frame is that?

 

[Dave Hickey]

I like it.....very well done...

 

[MB1]

I believe I can already tell you how it rides......

 

[PdxMark]

It's a 54cm, which has an effective 57 cm top tube. The card in the spokes was a promotional reflector for when Portland was trying to get platinum status as a bike city.

It rides nicely. It's a bit heavy, but a nice solid ride. I really like the shape of the Nitto Noodle bars, and the compact double paired with a 12-32 8sp cassette will be a pretty good combination for commuting & touring.

 

[tihsepa]

Very nice bike. How do you like those shifters? Are they firmer than the friction shifters? I am thinking of getting a set from VO.

 

[seeborough]

I like the little touches, like the brake cable going through the front light bracket. Or the light itself, for that matter.

Very nicely done.

 

[10ae1203]

Very nice.

I have had a Noodle bar for a couple years. I think they look good and are comfortable too.

 

[rkj__]

I really like it!

 

[snapdragen]

Gorgeous. I have the same bottle cage, I like the look.

 

[BentChainring]

Where do you get those bottle cages?

 

[PdxMark]

Where do you get those bottle cages?

Most all of the parts, including the cages, are from Velo Orange. I think the bottle cages, brakes, headset, and stem are specced and imported by VO. The shifters also came from there. The light is the new crazy-bright generator-driven LED Lumotec CYO from Peter White. The hard part to come by in all of this was the fork.

The shifters are very nice. On my first ride, today, the ratchet mechanism is very smooth and reliable with the 8-sp cassette. It doesn't even feel odd to reach down to shift.

One deviation from Old School was that I tried a Rapid-Rise rear derailleur, as touted by GP at Rivendell. Having ridden integrated shifters for 10+ years I find it a fine variation.

 

[gilley]

That is a beautiful ride!

I have a question regarding your rear wheel set up. I notice that you have horizontal dropouts with a quick release axle. I was under the impression that a quick release was not strong enough to keep the wheel from slipping forward in a horizontal dropout. Or is that just the case with single speeds set ups.

I'm interested because I want to build up a single speed commuter ride but would love to have the option to convert it to geared setup in future if my knees don't agree or I move to a hilly area.

Also, how do you set the wheel placement in the dropout so that you get the correct tension on the derailleur and drivetrain?

Cheers
Gilley

 

[snapdragen]

Where do you get those bottle cages?

http://www.velo-orange.com/voretrocage.html

 

[Squidward]

Nice bike. I like the way it looks and the skinsides are classy.

I have a question regarding your rear wheel set up. I notice that you have horizontal dropouts with a quick release axle. I was under the impression that a quick release was not strong enough to keep the wheel from slipping forward in a horizontal dropout. Or is that just the case with single speeds set ups.

I'm interested because I want to build up a single speed commuter ride but would love to have the option to convert it to geared setup in future if my knees don't agree or I move to a hilly area.

Also, how do you set the wheel placement in the dropout so that you get the correct tension on the derailleur and drivetrain?

Cheers
Gilley

With single-speeds the axle has to resist the torque from both acceleration and stopping. This can put a tremendous load on the axle. With a geared or SS setup the axle only has to resist acceleration torque and with a multi-geared setup the torque at the axle is less because the rider can shift to ease the load on his/her legs and this reduces the load on the axle. Still, horizontal dropouts and quick releases could mean a slipping rear wheel. You'll notice that PdxMark used an old-style rear quick release. These grab the dropout with more torque than the newer exposed cam style quick releases so the chances of a slipping wheel are reduced.

WRT to centering the wheel in the dropouts, pull the wheel all the way back into the dropout or just visually center it between the chainstays. Horizontal dropouts used to come with adjuster screws that allow you to set this ahead of time, just pull the wheel back and tighten the QR.

 

[JP]

Beautiful.

 

[boltzmann]

Where did you get the bikestand?

 

[rodar y rodar]

I didn`t know Sugino offered a double. I like the Cyo, too- I was going t oorder one a few months ago, but my bike funds all ran dry. I really don`t need more than I have now, but... well, you know how it goes.

 

[jd3]

Beautiful classy build. I like it.