Dries’s Randonneur
The last bike of 2020 to leave the shop is Dries’s quite exquisite Columbus XCR Rohloff-Gates carbon belt drive randonneur. Stainless steel is normally not the first choice for randonneur type bikes where comfort on long distances is key. But Dries is a big fan of the material and the pure aesthetics so I didn’t want to deny him.
Apart from building the bike to personal measures there are a quite a few other “sur mesure” items in this build: a custom front rack that allows to clip a Bose speaker to it, a modified Tubus rear rack to hold a pair of North St. Pioneer waist bags tightly in place (requirement by the client), a shorter rear Gilles Berthoud fender to ease the travel in trains, where bikes are usually hanging on the front wheel, or to take it into the elevator.
The Rohloff-Gates transmission is controlled by modified Sram Rival 22 brifters and the Gebla Rohbox. The wheels were built inhouse using H plus Son Hydra rims and a SON SL dynamo for the front wheel, i.e. no connectors, the contact is integrated in the dropout and the cable runs hidden in one of the Reynolds 921 stainless steel fork blades.
Finishing kit is Ritchey WCS and touch points are from Gilles Berthoud (perfect Aspin randonneur saddle), Lizard Skin (DSP 1.8) and Shimano (SPD and flat in one with the sexy name PD-EH500).
