Salsa Casseroll - Moving On **SOLD**

Over 4 years, nearly 20,000 miles, and countless adventures with this bike are coming to an end. I'm looking to sell the Casseroll after many good times on the earth's surface, and I'm planning on adjacent wheel-based adventures. 

I have chronicled many of the aforementioned adventures on this blog, and I hope that you have enjoyed reading about them. All posts related to the bike can be found here. 

Detailed description of the setup is below:

Just overhauled the bike with new cables/housing and deep cleaned all parts and the frame. This bike has been a daily commuter, century rider, credit card touring, and randonneuring setup. I started with the 2012 Casseroll frameset and built it up from there. Over $3500 as built.

54cm (54.5cm top tube) frameset bought in 2011 with Crank Brothers directset headset. I replaced the front rack with a Nitto chromed rack (I still have the original). The fork was reraked by Minnesota frame builder A-Train cycles to improve trail. No toe overlap like it used to have. Three stainless steel water bottle cages. Fenders are Velo Orange hammered aluminum with Brooks leather mudflap on the front fender. Brakes are IRD Cafam cantilever, which are very strong.

Wheels built with Schmidt Son28 generator / dynamo front hub, White Industries rear hub w/ titanium driver, Velo Orange Raid 32h rims with Sapim spokes. Tires are Panaracer Ruffy Tuffy 28c. This is an awesome setup with efficient power generation for the light system.Generator lights are Supernova. Front is E3 triple (800+ lumens). Rear is the E3 rear. They have a stand light feature that keeps the lights on for a couple minutes when you're stopped.

Rear rack is Tubus Carry titanium that holds smaller panniers. Front bag is Velo Orange square bag. Includes pedal power plus, which is wiring from the generator hub to charge most USB powered gadgets (GPS, phone, etc.) while pedaling.

Crank and derailleurs are Ultegra 6700 series. Crank is compact double 50/34 10 speed with 11-28 cassette. Shifters are down tube Dura Ace 10 speed friction front and indexed rear. Handlebar is Salsa 42cm wrapped in Velo Orange elk skin. Stem is generic aluminum 100mm with headset spacer mounted brass bell. Brake levers are Cane Creek. Seatpost is Velo Orange. Saddle will be replaced with a standard saddle, the Brooks will go with me. Includes Topeak frame pump. Bottle cages are wrapped in leather because I would use stainless steel bottles and they would rattle.


The link to the classified ad can be found here.

I'll be sad to see it go, but it will provide for many adventures for someone out there. I'm happy to box and ship if you're not along the Wasatch front here in Utah. Contact info is in the classified ad.

Brooks Saddles - On All 4 Bikes

I was first introduced to Brooks saddles with my first version of the Salsa Casseroll in 2009. I swapped out the original WTB Salsa Pepper logo saddle for a Brooks B-17 Special, color Honey. I have loved this saddle. With my Brompton, I opted for the same B-17 Special, color Brown. When I rebuilt our Peugeot, the B-67s in Antique Brown. Last fall, my wife got a Trek 7.5FX, and the stock saddle wasn't working for her. What saddle did we go with? Brooks B-17s in Black. Awesome. Here are some shots:

2011 Salsa Casseroll -- Build Project Complete

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:

Frameset and rack.

Dropouts

These dropouts rock. The Surly Tuggnut keeps my wheel from sliding forward.

A little more clearance than the 2009 chainstays.

Ride & Smile

Chainstay personality

Adventure by bike on downtube

Ride & Smile :)

These were a surprise. More heavy duty rack mounts (just below the brake mounts)

With the Crank Brothers Cobalt headset (directset).

Velo Orange brake stop

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:

All built up. 3 bottles, front rack, Velo Orange hbar bag, etc.

 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.

The rack is designed with a gap at the fork crown. Had to use some spacers.

Velo Orange brakes mounted up quite nicely.

 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:

Daruma. Velo Orange light bracket. 

Bell and mount

Rear brake setup

Brake stop installed.

Klean Kanteen Bottles. Velo Orange fenders and bottle cages.

 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.

It's only a demo, it's only a demo . . . . .

I've been anxiously awaiting my Brompton since early March, so on occasion I have borrowed the shop's demo model, which is similarly spec'd to mine. This is a M6L-X in British Racing Green with the Shimano generator hub and Brooks B-17 saddle. Mine will come in black with the Schmidt Son generator hub. Every time I take it out, I have to tell myself: "It's only a demo, it's only a demo."

Seen here with the IT Chair installed. I have since installed a Bontrager Eco saddle in brown. I rigged a 6mm seatpost QR lever on standard straight post saddle hardware so I can flip the IT Chair saddle out of the way, so as to keep my Carradice City Folder installed on the carrier block. Did I mention I have a Carradice City Folder? Mine was made by a certain Priscilla. Thanks, Priscilla.

Here's the Brompton folded with the IT Chair and Carradice.

Top view of the fold including the IT Chair.

Front view of the fold with the IT Chair.

So far, I've taken this setup on a handful of commutes and family rides with my almost-five-year-old daughter. She's quite tall for her age, and still fits comfortably. I've wheeled it right in to the grocery store and used it as my shopping cart. I absolutely love it. Can't wait for mine to arrive! (Although I'll have to).