Cycling UK Forum

The ride is very comfortable and the bike feels quite nippy. As well as the lighter frame, it has lighter wheels than the standard Skylander spec. These are TK 540s. Simon Stanforth is very helpful and easy to deal with. This is my second bike from him. I had a big input on the spec and asked a lot of questions. He was happy to give me options. Re the steerer, I chose that because I didn’t like the aesthetics of the smaller diameter bars. I don’t understand the comment about the chain looking a bit long long. That’s down to the geometry of the bike which is tailored to fit me. Perhaps you are yanking mine!

Lazybird wrote: ↑7 Jan 2024, 7:11pm ...... Perhaps you are yanking mine!

It just looked to me like the rear wheel might be in the back of the slot already; if so, there will be no place to go once the chain wears.

That should last you a long time. I fitted a Rohloff hub to my touring bike almost 25 years ago, and it's still going strong, though the hub is on its second replacement sprocket and the wheel rims have also needed replacing due to wear of the brake track. My hub is serial number one thousand and something, and I believe that Rohloff have now shipped somewhere north of 400,000 hubs.

I went with drop bars and fitted the shifter into one end of the drops. I also had to use the Rohloff chain tensioner as the frame has vertical dropouts. I'm using a 38t chainring and 17t sprocket, which gives a high of 89" and a low of 17".

Brucey wrote: ↑7 Jan 2024, 7:31pm

Lazybird wrote: ↑7 Jan 2024, 7:11pm ...... Perhaps you are yanking mine!

It just looked to me like the rear wheel might be in the back of the slot already; if so, there will be no place to go once the chain wears.

I think it's an optical illusion, those sliding dropouts put the wheel behind the slots.

Rohloff say you shouldn't drive their hub gear at any lower ratio than 2:1.
21T is the biggest sprocket, so i used a 42T chainwheel to drive 2:1
Rohloff gear 11 is direct drive, with a 700c wheel this gives a gear of 54 inches;
There is a nice symmetry in this, on my 9 speed triples the most wear was on the 23T sprocket, which gives a gear of 54 inches with a 46T chainring...I guess this is a gear I use when trying to make progress on a rising road or against the wind, so used frequently and with a bit of pressure, so its a good ratio for Rohloff gear 11 which has no friction loss within the hub.(although I would expect to "cruise" a gear or two higher on a level road. Most of a lifetime ago I used 64 inches on fixed, I have never been a fan of big gears)
Ratio spread on my Rohloff is 15 to 79 inches
For comparison on my 9 speed triple I got 19 inches ( 24 front 34 rear) to 95 inches (46 front 13 rear)
Top gear on the 9 speed triple has always been pretty redundant, and in recent years I could have used even lower gears at the bottom end.

The chain looks a bit long due to the sliding dropout design, this results in the rear wheel axle sitting behind where the seat stays come in. In my view this results in the rack mounting point on the dropouts being a bit further forward than it might otherwise be.
I considered a Stanforth, but went for a Sven with Paragon rocker dropouts in the end. That said, Simon was very helpful when I made some detailed enquireis, and thanked me (politely!) when I said he'd lost out on "artistic interpretation"(!), ie the rear dropouts.
Yes, built by Lee Cooper.
My Rohloff gives me I think 18" - 92", cruising gear is in direct drive (11).

Curious, the inflexibility about the dropouts. Were you able to chat with Lee Cooper or only with Stanforth?

PH wrote: ↑7 Jan 2024, 8:32pm

Brucey wrote: ↑7 Jan 2024, 7:31pm

Lazybird wrote: ↑7 Jan 2024, 7:11pm ...... Perhaps you are yanking mine!

It just looked to me like the rear wheel might be in the back of the slot already; if so, there will be no place to go once the chain wears.

I think it's an optical illusion, those sliding dropouts put the wheel behind the slots.

ah yes, that would explain it.

Simon designs the frame in discussion with the customer. The dropouts didn’t come up for discussion and I have no problem with them as they are.

any chance of a better photo of your dropouts? I can't be the only person that is interested.....

Brucey wrote: ↑8 Jan 2024, 2:49pm any chance of a better photo of your dropouts? I can't be the only person that is interested.....

I was also interested.
There's a couple of clear images at the bottom of this page:
https://www.stanforthbikes.co.uk/skyela ... hloff-home

Edit - crossed posts with PH.

From https://www.stanforthbikes.co.uk/skyela ... hloff-home:
Thorn frames use eccentric bottom brackets, but Kevin Sayles, who was formerly their in-house custom frame builder, reportedly prefers sliding dropouts, and that is what he uses on the custom Rohloff frames he builds for Woodrup (https://www.woodrupcycles.com/bespoke/).

"Curious, the inflexibility about the dropouts. Were you able to chat with Lee Cooper or only with Stanforth?"
I did ask, he said he/Lee Cooper could not do the Paragon Rocker dropouts, I forget the reason exactly.
Stanforth bikes are technically very good, but I felt if I got one, I would always think "oh" every time I looked at the dropouts!

To my mind, the Paragons look better, though with the Rohloff gear box, disc brake, the LHS looks very cluttered.
The bottom line is, both makes of dropouts are good at stopping the rear wheel from falling off.

My tout terrain Rohloff 700c was delivered with 42x16T [20-104"] and I changed it later to 38x16T [18-94"] which gives 64" in direct drive. It got me up some short seriously steep hills recently - I had some of my wife's luggage too. I have an eccentric bottom bracket which works well. A 38x17T setup would give 17-89". This is all a lot more comfortable than my 12 gears on the Wester Ross of 27-108".

tout terrain fitted their own brand (Cinq) ratchet box and paddle shifters on my drop bars. Push one paddle for up, the other for down. There is no indicator of which gear I am in but who cares - in almost all circumstances there is another one when I want it. I think tt now fit brifters.

I hope you enjoy many miles on your new bike. Riding around town is so much easier than with derailleurs.

I have one tip and a comment: practise removing and replacing the rear wheel at home so you can do it on the road in the dark with cold fingers, which is when punctures usually happen. Oil change is easy. Make a note in the service book. Rohloff now recommend half the amount of oil and flushing fluid they did before. The bottles remain the same size I believe.

slowster wrote: ↑8 Jan 2024, 3:23pm Edit - crossed posts with PH.

From https://www.stanforthbikes.co.uk/skyela ... hloff-home:

Screenshot 2024-01-08 at 14-58-18 Skyelander Rohloff.png

Thorn frames use eccentric bottom brackets, but Kevin Sayles, who was formerly their in-house custom frame builder, reportedly prefers sliding dropouts, and that is what he uses on the custom Rohloff frames he builds for Woodrup (https://www.woodrupcycles.com/bespoke/).

Thorn's eccentric bottom brackets do work, in a crude sort of way, but for purists they have the drawback of altering the effective seat tube angle every time you adjust the tension of the chain. The bottom bracket moves relative to the saddle and everything else on the bike. So your finely tuned seating position goes out the window.