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  1. For reasons of early midlife crises and a light dose of work burn-out, I started thinking of an "extended" break from work to clear the head. I settled on 3 months in Europe, cycling the big Cols of the Tour de France, some monuments of the Giro d’Italia, emerging Spring Classics (read: Strada Bianche route) and exploring new countries if time allows. To make the money stretch for that long, there'd be a lot of camping, and some home-cooking to boot. Finally, I’ve decided to be on a holiday and not a pilgrimage or crusade. A joyful heart, sore legs and double-espressos, if you will. The decision on the nature of the trip set some key parameters for equipment: 1) I need a bike. 2) I need to carry stuff with it. 3) I need to love looking at it while I’m doing it, as well as when the trip is over. Since there will be a lot of climbing (and I guess descending too) I realized I need racing geometry. With good brakes. My notes kept returning to “Cyclo-cross Tourer”. It certainly makes for a niche machine, but jury is out on the “beautiful” part. That was until I started hitting Google with intent, and stumbled upon Mr David Mercer, an up and coming local frame builder. His work got featured every so often in local magazines. Seeing his personal tourer online, something stirred inside... http://mudcakedface.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/MercerBikes-300x160.jpg (Photo courtesy of MercerBikes) I delayed the necessary phone call, knowing if the price was right the deal would be done and the option to turn back, well, gone. And so it happened. On an ordinary day, using an ordinary phone, from an ordinary location, something with promises of extravagance and artisanal beauty was born. David named his (approximate) price and deposit requirements. I thought about it for a moment and counted on my ability to breathe under water. It became a bit of a timing deal, I guess. Waiting longer to commit would cause hassles given his order book and my envisioned departure date. In the end, we settled on delivery early April 2016. Again, so far off, it seemed almost unreal. The key specifications were: Disc brake ready frame and fork700c/29” wheelsAmple clearance for cyclocross/MTB tiresThe frame would be built in steel, with a Columbus carbon CX fork. The good thing about the extended timeline was that I had lots of time to research and procure components for the build. I also saw our local currency loose its **** twice, while I was sitting with wish-list orders on various bicycle part supply sites. It was obviously great being able to wait these things out a little... I’ll do the write-up in chronological order, to share the agonizing process of waiting with a bleeding credit card in hand. The frame is covered. Ordered 1st and expected to arrive last. Like it should be. I should name this frame Hitchcock for all its suspense. Here's a sneak view of some of the details..."Artisanal" http://mudcakedface.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Cameleon_LuggedDelight.jpg (Photo courtesy of MercerBikes) Gearing / braking up next At the time of the build, hydraulic disc brakes for road bikes was just approved by the UCI for use in the pro peloton. Not that I would race at that level…this year…or ever…but…it meant product options started trickling in from SRAM, Shimano and other players. I knew I wanted disc brakes and from previous experience with a touring tandem, I knew I was looking for a hydraulic setup. Both Shimano and SRAM have just launched fully hydraulic setups, with shifters housing the fluid reservoir driving pistons much as we know from the MTB world. A super-sexy setup no doubt, but also rather pricey. Other options included cable/fluid combinations, which would allow me to decouple the groupset/brake setup options. I kept this in the back of my mind as I filled my trolley online, comparing options on price while reading as much as I could about pros and cons either way. In the end I figured: I actually have to start with the brake set up, since everything else would hang off this backwards. Buy Shimano and I will have to go Shimano road gearing. Ditto SRAM, but at least there I would have the option of mixing road vs. MTB parts. This then went the direction of gearing. I’ll be hauling approx. 35kg of kit up 20km passes at 10% ave. grade. That requires MTB gearing at best I thought. Options, options. 1x10, 1x11? 2x11? 3xwhatever. It became so confusing, I spent days in the fetal position in a semi-catatonic state. Safe word was “Simplification”. I decided to decouple the braking/shifter/speed dilemma by going for a cable-to-hydraulic option from TRP (they call it Hy/Rd, pronounced "High Road"). This allowed me to make the groupset decision later, while being able to look for good deals on standard equipment. http://mudcakedface.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/TRPBoxSet-1024x768.jpg Sold as a single caliper, it ships with a 160mm rotor (6-bolt) and adapters for direct and IS mount. Interestingly, with the TRP setup, the hydraulic fluid is housed in a reservoir on the caliper assembly. This makes for a bulkier brake and requires some consideration to limit heel-strike.Its a hefty little unit, with the reservoir located on the caliper body itself - the shiny plate is the cover: http://mudcakedface.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/TRPUpclose-1024x768.jpg Additionally, TRP and several others recommend running compression-less brake housing to minimize drag and create a more direct braking feel. Some research pointed to Yokozuna brake housing, in the league of Nokon, but more reasonably priced. My credit card cried tears the shape of dollar signs as it gleefully gotten itself whipped and abused. The set arrived with brake and shifter housing, promising an improvement in already-sweet shifting (from the experience of my all-Campy set up on the road bike). Back to shifters/gearing then. A chance discussion with my local Campy dealer opened up a whole new can of worms…what about using a triple Campy Record crank up front? This can be run with a standard 10 speed Campy shifter set, since the front shifter has enough trim positions to cover all three blades. As luck would have it, I was running a Record 10 speed setup on my road bike. All I needed was a reason to upgrade to 11 speed on that bike…eventually. The plan was thought over and then committed to. I picked up the triple crank for next to nothing, and had a triple front derailleur and long cage rear derailleur thrown in. The latter not top-of-the-line stuff, but certainly adequate for my purposes... http://mudcakedface.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Der-768x1024.jpg Of course, one needs a bottom bracket too...I picked up a matching Record BB in the right size. Unfortunately no pictures since this has been dispatched to my frame builder along with the crank. To check clearances, you see... Voila, gearing was sorted (for now)! While the classic alloy Record crankset is something to behold, the theme of the bike turned into black/cream/gold/copper with very little silver/chrome. After some consideration, I found a local anodizing shop and commissioned a "mirror-black" finish. They refused to anodize the blades, which thus still leaves a bit of silver splash in the wrong place. To be sorted. (More at http://mudcakedface.com/build-projects/mercer-cx-tourer-build/)
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