So, I bought the 2011 Casseroll Frame. Had to do it. Yes, had to. I had thoughts of chronicling the build, but it was uneventful (lucky me), as I was transferring parts from one Casseroll to another. Here are a couple pics of the frame before building it up:
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| Dropouts |
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| These dropouts rock. The Surly Tuggnut keeps my wheel from sliding forward. |
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| A little more clearance than the 2009 chainstays. |
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| Ride & Smile |
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| Chainstay personality |
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| Adventure by bike on downtube |
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| Ride & Smile :) |
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| These were a surprise. More heavy duty rack mounts (just below the brake mounts) |
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| New head tube setup |
Here is the shot of the bike build in its complete stage. Well, almost complete. I haven't wired up the lights since Supernova upgraded the
E3 triple from 533 to 800 lumens, so I have an upgrade on the way! Other than that, it's on the road like this:
I love the ease of adjustability with the
VO Grand Cru seatpost. My last seatpost had one bolt, so adjusting the saddle angle was a chore. Now, with two bolts for tilt adjustment, I can dial it right in. It is also designed to work with more fore/aft adjustment on Brooks saddles than the typical seatpost. Lovely.
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| The rack is designed with a gap at the fork crown. Had to use some spacers. |
So I have a beef with light mounts. I enjoy mounting my light on the left, or road, side of the bike. I don't really enjoy lighting up the curb so much. Why don't more people make light mounts for people like me? This Casseroll rack has a nice mount on the curb side, so I had to get creative with an extra fender daruma and other hardware to mount the light on the road side of the bike:
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| Rear brake setup |
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| Brake stop installed. |
The fork is taller, accommodating a wider tire/fender setup than with the original Casseroll. As the fork crown is higher, the down tube slopes up a little steeper, as can be noted by the smaller vertical space in between the top of the downtube and the bottom of the toptube. The headtube height was held close to the same height, so the overall height difference at the top of the headtube is about +12mm. I removed a spacer from my original setup and it is really close. I may remove another spacer as I fine tune the fit.
So far, the frame is noticeably smoother. I'm not sure what any differences may be, but after riding the 2009 Casseroll for almost two years, I could tell right away that this rides smoother. Did I mention it's smooth? Looking forward to many, many miles of Adventure. Join me, if you like.
Join you I will! Lisa
ReplyDeleteSo, I look forward to some reporting on the overall feel for it after a few miles. I have to say that if I wasn't going to get a Madone to ride across Utah on, I would be looking at getting one of these to replace my LHT. They do look nice. What did your build come in at weight wise?
ReplyDeletesiiiiicccckkkkkk!!
ReplyDeleteSpencer! Love seeing the '11 Casseroll, Spencer Morse style. I was wondering if you would be upgrading:). You should know that I am seriously considering getting that bike myself, and one for my wife! I need a more versatile bike than my carbon roadie (which I'm trying to sell). Of the many options I've looked at, I'm almost completely set that the Casseroll would be sweeeeettttt. I'm open to any suggestions you have about it though!
ReplyDeleteHappy to see the build and details Spencer, as I have a brand new Casseroll in my garage waiting to be built. I'm collecting parts, and am not going quite as retro as yours, but a mix of that for sure. Lovely! Enjoy it.
ReplyDelete@Brad--I'm not sure on the weight. It's really close to the original setup, + the front rack and 3rd bottle cage. The brakes and fenders are marginally lighter than the original setup. Probably 25lbs or so.
ReplyDelete@Bankshot--Which parts have you selected? Will you chronicle your new loveliness? If I rode in any sort of competitive environment, it would definitely be more minimalist. And the brakes would be new-school--these Mafac replica style aren't very strong. They work ok, but not awesome. Keep me updated on your Casseroll.
ReplyDeleteHi there! What a lovely look on that Casseroll. I own one myself, and am in the process of add ons - like fenders e.g.
ReplyDeleteI bought VO hammered aluminum fenders from my bike shop, but they only had 37mm which they said should fit fine- well, they don't. I was wondering what size fenders are you using? Are your tires 700C/32?
I'd appreciate some advice as I'm kinda new to the whole scene (;
And again, you dressed that Casseroll real fine!
Tiascia-
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout! I have the 45mm VO fenders. My fair weather tires are 28mm Panaracers, and for the winter I use Schwalbe Marathon Winters (studded) that are 35mm wide. The general rule is to have a fender measurement that is 10mm or greater than the tire width. For the 45mm fender, you could run up to 35mm width tires no problem on the Casseroll. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions that I may be able to help with.
Perfect! I did order 45mm VOs. I really appreciate your advice, Spencer.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm glad to know someone else who's riding a Casseroll. I am enjoying it immensely! And the more I load that bike, the more she (the bike) likes it. So far I've only been grocery shopping and commuting to work on it, but I'm building up more power to take her on longer trips.
Thanks again!
the surly tugnut is new to me.How does it work and is that screw standard with the frameset?
ReplyDeleteThe dropout screws do come with the frameset, for aligning the rear wheel to one's desired virtual chainstay length. Here's a link to my original post on the Tuggnut w/ pictures:
ReplyDeletehttp://ridingwhilewriting.blogspot.com/2010/05/tuggnut-by-surly-7900-index.html
Just wondering if you tried loading this build down with full panniers and front bag...? I'm looking to do some light touring (2-3 days w/ tent, etc) and Salsa says this bike is good for "Credit Card Touring" which means, I assume, it won't carry over __ lbs very well.
ReplyDeleteJohn Mc,
ReplyDeleteI have yet to do any camping (s24o, 2-3 day camp, etc.). I have, however, had it loaded fairly respectably in terms of the panniers and front bag. I've had 20-25 lbs (including laptop) in the panniers for most days throughout the summer I spent in Minneapolis. It worked fantastic. I had plenty of heel clearance with a mid-sized pannier. As far as the front bag, my Velo Orange handlebar bag isn't huge, but I recently rode a century with 7 water bottles. 3 in the cages, the other 4 in the bag (plus food, phone, keys, wallet, etc.). No problem with the load. Part of the equation is the wheelset you choose to run. I run 32h Salsa Delgado cross rims, with 2.0 Wheelsmith straight gauge spokes in the rear, and 1.8/2.0 butted spokes up front.
A fellow Casseroll friend, Colin, has used the Casseroll for such 2/3 day events:
His site here
He is riding the previous frameset, sans front rack. I would argue that the bike would ride more stable with panniers & front rack than with panniers only.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for confirming that the VO 45mm fenders fit both the '09, and '11, cass frame-sets.
ReplyDeleteOh, how I wish the casseroll had disc tabs and an ebb. It would be the perfect winter bike.
Nice. Very similar to what I was thinking...
ReplyDeleteBtw What did you find wrong with the brakes? Looks like you ran out of room in the back. Did you try making the transverse cable longer in the front?
DeleteI basically am looking to build a Velo Orange bike. Just not sure their frames are what I want. This is very close.
With the brakes, I used a handy online tool MAITOY for trying to get a reasonable mechanical advantage out of the VO brake/Casseroll combination of dimensions. It simply wouldn't work with the rear given the cable stop location. On the MAITOY scale, I was around a 2. I ended up going with TRD Cafam and they are fantastic, yielding around 3.5 on the MAITOY scale: Blog post here.
DeleteThe Casseroll does have toe overlap for me (which I really don't like), and the trail is goofy when the handlebar bag is loaded, i.e. can't ride hands-free.
Yeah I had a Kona Kapu and the space on my LHT felt really good. Also just the stand up and stomp on it feel. The Kapu would flex enough to shift. Though better when I upgraded the wheels to touring class with wider tires.
DeleteHow does the Casserole feel when climbing hard out of the saddle? I am wondering how strong it is. So many of the rando bikes are relaxed but then light.. so I am thinking I might just have to do a cross check and repaint it...
I have had good luck with lateral stiffness. I'm a bigger dude, 200 lbs. or so, with squatter's legs. The frame does flex, but nowhere near enough to shift. The only problem I've had is with wheel slippage in the horizontal dropouts. Installing the Surly Tuggnut solved that problem. I recently upgraded the drivetrain to 2x10 Ultegra from 3x10 105. So far, so good.
DeleteCould I run 38c tires (Maxxis Overdrive) with 45mm VO fenders on the salsa casseroll?
ReplyDeleteNo problem. The 45mm VO fenders mount easily with no clearance issues. The tires I run in the winter are the Schwalbe Marathon Winter 35c (with studs) and they clear with plenty of room.
DeleteJust a shot in the dark, but maybe the front rack is a copy of a Nitto design (M12?), and Nitto being from Japan, a left-side traffic country, puts the light mount on the right side of the rack to light the road for their domestic (and UK) users.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the rear rack you have mounted? I'm working on fine-tuning the same bike, and have been looking for something that matches the look and feel of the bike, with stability for some weight. So far, I'm leaning towards the Daija rack at Velo-Orange (http://store.velo-orange.com/index.php/accessories/racks-decaleurs/racks/dajia-stainless-steel-rear-expedition-rack.html) but I'm curious what you went with and can't tell from the photos. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHello. It's a Tubus Carry titanium rack. It's similarly-styled steel counterpart is the Logo. Good luck fine-tuning!
Deletehttp://ridingwhilewriting.blogspot.com/2010/11/tubus-carry-ti-w-supernova-e3-triple.html
Thanks! It looks great. I'm still leaning towards the VO/Daija for cost reasons but the Tubus Cosmo looks tempting.
ReplyDeleteLate on my comments here, but a couple things I have discovered for my Casseroll 2011.
ReplyDelete1. I got a mount from Peter White Cycles and was able to mount my Edelux light on one of the two bolts on the front of my rack. Puts the light at the perfect height. On the left bolt, I have the same thing for my backup light,an Ixon IQ. Works great.
2. I pretty much got rid of my toe overlap problem by having the fork re-raked. Went from 54 trail to 42 trail. The builder was able to do it without ruining the paint, so I think I am pretty much the only guy out there with a low-trail Salsa Casseroll (with stock fork). Bike rides much better no-hands with full handlebar bag. Best part is the whole job was under $100, shipping and labor included! If you want more details on the builder, let me know.
Quick question for you: Any idea what the tube thickness is on this bike? I'm debating about getting a 650B bike with lighter, more flexible tubing, but am unsure if I will see a benefit with this. I am 6'1" 2oo lbs, and thinking that kind of bike would be too noodly for me Most of the guys extolling the virtues of "planning" are in the 150 lb. range. What do you think?
Ty
I ended up replacing the front rack with a chromed Nitto, which has ambidextrous light mounts! Nice work with the re-rake. That's probably the only thing I would significantly change on the bike. I would LOVE the info!
DeleteRe: tube thickness. I ride with the gearing at 2x10 with an indexed (downtube) shifter. I went with indexed because with friction because the friction would cause shifting issues as I cranked hard. What I mean is if the chain wasn't positioned exactly, which happens with friction, it would tempt skipping at times, due to frame flex. I'm 5'8" 200, and generally put a great deal of force into things, so anything "thinner" would make me nervous personally. Just my thoughts. Sorry about the delay!
Hi Spencer,
ReplyDeleteSorry for my LATE reply too, but I didn't get a notification that you had replied. I should have looked for it.
Here are the specs for my bike trail then and now:
My bike trail
Head tube angle 73 degrees
Fork offset 50mm
Bead-seat diameter 622mm (700c)
Existing trail 54 mm
Ideal is 40mm
Increasing fork offset to 60, gets trail of 43mm
Increasing fork offset to 63 gets trail to 40
Got fork back on bike 6/1/13 from Rock Lobster. Fork offset 61.5 mm. Trail calculator says trail exactly 42 now.
http://yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/trailcalc.php?ha=73&fo=45&bsd=622&tw=35
Paul from Rock Lobster Cycles did it.He warned me that it could go wrong, but I said I was willing to take the chance. If you contact him, tell him I sent you and that you have the exact same bike.
http://www.rocklobstercycles.com/
I've had it for nearly a year now, and I can definitely tell the difference. No toe overlap anymore as long as my foot placement is correct. (I'm a platformer). If you are clipless, you will definitely have no problem.
Which Nitto rack did you go with? I found your blog again today because I am thinking of switching to a Nitto rack for better fit and presumably lighter weight. Do you know what the casseroll 2011 front rack weighs? Thinking about doing it for the better fit/look anyway, but if there were weight savings, that would be an even bigger plus.
Good luck!
Disregard most of above. I just saw you got the re-rake done locally. Excellent!
ReplyDeletePlease do let me know your thoughts on the rack though.
Thanks again!
Ty
Hello,
ReplyDeleteBy chance would you or anyone o here want to sell there Casseroll front rack? I year ago I bought a NOS Casseroll but it did not have the front rack? Thanks.
I recently sold the bike and the original rack went with it. Best of luck! I really preferred the Nitto rack, though.
Delete