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Stephan's recent commuter build.
Stephan is a good friend and active leader in the San Diego bicycling community. Recently he built up a new commuter bike for his daily 15 mile round trip to downtown. This is a comfortable upright bicycle that can carry bags front and rear, has dyno hub lighting for the night time rides, and an internal gear hub that stays clean while providing plenty of gear options for hills and headwinds. Cantilever brakes offer plenty of stopping power, even when the rig is fully loaded and going down hill. The shifting and braking are right at the ends of the handle bar so he never has to "take his hands off the wheel" so to speak. A comfortable, broken-in Brooks saddle, matched to the cork grips and Cherry wood fenders, complete the nice color scheme on this good looking commuter.
Stephan's Polyvalent 650B frame from Velo Orange, with Cherry wood Fenders by Grandprey.
Cherry wood fenders after finishing and prior to installation, hand made by Lee Grandprey.
"I didn't have much of a hand in the build-up, but here's my new commuter bike, made necessary when a cab clipped the rear end of my old commuter. This one's a 650B frame, the Polyvalent from Velo Orange. Some parts were salvaged from the old bike; saddle, handlebar stem, chain ring, pedals, front wheel. Otherwise, the components are mostly new stuff. The drive train features a Shimano Alfine 11-speed internal gear rear hub. Brakes are Velo Orange Gran Cru canti's. Busch and Muller lights are powered by a Shimano dyno hub. The bike was expertly built by Ryan Floth, the proprietor of Terra Rhythm Bicycles on Voltaire Street in Ocean Beach, CA. And the piece de resistance are the custom, hand made cherry wood fenders built by my buddy Lee Grandprey."
Rear Fender
The stays are hand formed from 3/16" stainless steel rod,
custom fitted
Note the rear fender stay mounting on the rear drop-out.
The drive train features a Shimano Alfine 11-speed internal gear rear hub. "So far I have to say I love the hub. A much wider range of gears than my old Nexus 7-speed hub, and its even a little lighter than the Nexus 8-speed. I'm going to change the rear cog from 18 tooth to 20 because right now I'm riding in the low end of the range and it would be good to have room at the bottom for real hills. I have to say I am not in love with the shifter however. Unlike the grip shifters on the Nexus hubs, this one has a thumb and finger shifter, I guess made necessary by the larger number of gears. What I don't like is you can only down-shift two gears with each throw of the thumb shifter, so it takes sometimes three tries to get to the start-up gear. I can live with it, but the grip shifter was easier."
The rear fender has a mounting point at the seat stay bridge with stainless steel hardware.
Velo Orange Gran Cru cantilever brakes.
A third attachment point for the fender is at the chain stay bridge / kickstand plate.
Front Fender
Here the front fender stays are attached to the fork drop outs and secured to the fender with stainless hardware.
Busch and Muller lights are powered by a Shimano dyno hub. "I run the wiring through the fork. On my previous bicycle, a Bleriot, the wiring from the hub generator came out under the crown, but that wasn't possible on this bike, so it comes out of the front rack boss and runs up the rack stay to the light. The hub connector and wires run on the right side of the bike."
An attachment point is under the fork crown and is secured by stainless hardware.
Another attachment point is at the front of the fender, from the rack itself.
Custom Cherry wood fenders
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