Yesterday was my first commute on the new Sutra-framed build I recently had done at Wheels in Motion. Totally awesome. It was a bit of a drawn-out experience at first, but once I started working with Marc, things came together very quickly.
It’s a Kona Sutra frame from 2007: The final year they offered this frame with sliding dropouts, which will become important in a moment. This frame is totally badass. It has a nice wide fork for a goodly range of possible tire options, and mount points for disc brakes, rear AND front racks, plus some other mount points I can’t even identify.
The sliding dropouts were key because this needed to be an all-weather brute. I had it on good advice from Charles at the Music Library that singlespeeds are handy in the winter, as there’s way less to go wrong when it gets wet and salty. For a singlespeed to work, there needs to be some way to tension the chain across both gears, as there won’t be a derailleur and jockey wheels to keep it snug. Usually one would accomplish this with a horizontal dropout, but the sliding ones on the Sutra frame manage just the same.
We (and by ‘we’ I mean ‘Marc’) built up the frame with all the requisite bits and widgets:
- Disc-ready hubs + spacers to make up for lack of a cassette (Cheaper than SS/Disc hubs)
- Caliper-brake rims, (Again, for unknown reasons, cheaper than disc rims)
- Avid BB7 brakes
- Sugino crank and some gears and stuff
Of course, with New Orleans 70.3, and, uhm, some ‘other events’ looming on the horizon, I’ll be in the market for a timetrial bike in the coming months. So it won’t be quite so drastic next season when I’m training and commuting, we finished off with:
- Vision TT handlebars
- Profile Design T2+ aerobars.
That’s right, aerobars on the commuter. I think they’re more comfortable than handlebars anyway. Coupled with bright orange bar tape (to match my garish bike shoes, of course,) I should be pretty easy to spot zipping up and down Packard. I’ll add some pictures to this post as soon as Marc gets them sent to me. Check The Stable for the nitty-gritty on component details and the rest of the photos (when available.)