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.

Rapha Festive 500 Ride 11 - Almost done!

Today's ride was BRUTAL, to say the least. Temperatures were 10F (-12C), with winchill around 0F (-18C). The wind chill was real, with a 10mph headwind from the west, challenging me all the way to my turnaround point in Waconia. I have ridden these roads quite a bit in the fair weather in preparation for the Tour de Tonka century, so at least it was familiar territory. As I turned around and headed east, my core warmed back up, and some feeling returned to my toes.

This distance (60 miles ~ 95km) is about my limit in this weather. I had about 65 miles to go to finish the 310 miles (500km) for the challenge, so I was close enough to finish with a fatbike ride in the evening. I deviated from my strategy of repeating smaller-distance loops, which works to stop back in at the house to refuel, and find liquid water. I have found that if I carry a couple insulated bottles wrapped inside the zip-off sleeve of a Chrome jacket, the water will stay liquid at these temperatures. Obviously, bottles of any sort in the cages will freeze quite quickly. Access to liquid water (in addition to incredibly numb toes) seems to be my limiting factor and greatest cause of unpleasant feelings this time of year.

Insulated bottle inside a jacket sleeve

The trusty Salsa Casseroll all ready to go

And the submission to Strava:


About 10 miles (15km) left! I'll get out the Fatbike for this one. 

Tubus Twine Shellacking, ala Rivendell

I have been riding for a few weeks now with the Arkel Cam-Lock pannier hardware. After a few days, I thought to eliminate metal-on-metal contact caused by the lower hook. My go-to lately for such an issue is hemp twine and Shellac. Using the "Rivendell" method* for twining handlebar tape, I twined the lower bar of the Tubus Carry rack:

I presume that the indentations in the Shellacked twine indicates potential long-term wear prevention against the titanium Tubus. And I think it looks sharp.

Today's reason for Why I Ride a bike: The Casseroll carries what I need it to in the manner I want it to.

*

Tubus Carry Ti w/ Supernova E3 Triple & Rear (and Schmidt SonDelux)

As my cycling tastes evolve, I find myself gravitating toward the more expensive, but high-functionality items. My latest Casseroll project involved an increase in storage carrying capacity, as well as lighting solutions.

Starting at the front of the bike, I laced up a new wheel around a Schmidt Sondelux. Renamed from the Son 20R, this hub is the same, just renamed as it now meets German lighting standards for wheels other than 20", ie 700c wheels  (as long as one is using efficiend LED lighting). Details on the drag and power output here.

This data set claims that the drag is lower with the Sondelux as opposed to the traditional Son28, with the only downside being a little less power output at low speeds. Other benefits include a lighter hub, and its visual appeal (in my opinion, anyway). I laced said hub to a Salsa Delgado Cross, the same as before, using DT 2.0/1.8 spokes. And a little plug for Livestrong. Here are some pics:

If I have a generator hub, I must have lights to connect to it, right? I went with a Supernova duo, specifically the E3 Triple and E3 Rear lights. When considering mounting options for the E3 Triple, I considered handlebar, fork crown, and either fork leg.

I lack handlebar space, so that option was out, and my rando bag precludes the installation on the fork crown, so I was left with fork leg options. After reading the install manual for the Sondelux (yes, I read it), I decided to mount the light on the "road" side, or left fork leg, since Schmidt clarifies that the hub can be installed with the connections either on the right or the left. I considered using the Nob XL with the handlebar-mount E3, but I instead went with VeloOrange's handlebar bottle cage mount. This allows for a super-secure mount with no worries of twisting or sliding down the tapered fork leg. Details:

To mount the rear light, Supernova does offer a seatpost mount for the E3 Rear, but I have had my eyes on a Ti Tubus rack for a while, specifically the Carry. So, that's what I did. In the past, the Carry included mounts on the horizontal support at the rear of the rack for 50mm spaced lights, such as the E3 Rear. This proved problematic, as the wiring for the light required some sort of spacing out away from the rack to allow room for said wiring. As I looked over the rack, I noticed no such mounts. After suffering my way through the 1-page instruction sheet, I noticed that Tubus now includes two small plastic mounts that eliminate the need for spacers, or holes in the rack, for that matter. The rack also has little "stops" at the front of the pannier rails. Here are the details of the rack and E3 Rear:

See, no holes.

See the little "stops?"

Front view

Back view

Nice touch

Installed

I went with the single strut approach. Had to bend it a little.

Here are the plastic mounts

Super busy dropout, but it works. Tuggnut, Rack, and fenders. Awesome. 

Mounting of fenders is easier without a silly cassette in the way. 

So, I think the Casseroll is basically Rando-ready. I'm using the Tubus to mount my Acorn tri-fold, as it would annoy at times when mounted on the saddle. The VO rando bag is quite nice, and the Garmin Edge 305 keeps me from getting lost. Night ride reviews of the lighting system to follow . . . . 

Sans bags.