An all modern L’Eroica style gravel grinder
What is a L’Eroica style gravel grinder you ask? Well, it should start with a modern but classic steel frame design, with clearance for larger tires, say up to 35c at least and fender eyelets. Many older steel frames would appear to be quite suitable but they have the limitations of 1″ steerer tubes and narrow rear dropout spacing which prevents the use of modern drives without altering the frame. A modern frame design will allow the use of current 2 x 10 drive components. There are a lot of cross bike frames that offer these features but virtually all of them have either braze-ons for cantilever or disc brakes. I wanted to use side pull brakes to keep a more vintage look so this limited my choice in frames dramatically. The idea is to get modern function and performance while maintaining a classic look. The Rawland Nordavinden offers the perfect combination of qualities in a bike for my purposes. The classic era of bicycles in my definition runs from about 1960 thru the mid 1980’s. This is when bicycles became much of what we are so familiar with today.
The drive on this bike comes from a mix of components including: Campy Veloce shifters, Campy Chorus Derailleurs, Velo Orange 48/30 crank-set and Campy Centaur 12-30 cassette. This gives me a 48/12 top gear and a 30/30 low gear which should conquer most hills as well as giving a decent top end speed. The wheels are built with Chris King road hubs and Velo Orange Raid rims. The rim is 22mm in width and should be very sturdy with 32 Wheelsmith double butted 14/15 spokes.
Cockpit components include: a Deda Zero stem and bars which are my favorite bend in a handlebar. The 43cm bar width is a perfect fit for me. At the back end the Deda Zero seat-post carries a Brooks Cambium saddle. The jury is still out on the saddle since it is a new design by Brooks and is their first non-leather model. Only after I put some miles on it will I know for sure how it sits, but I am optimistic! These saddles are not yet in the stores here in the US, this one was ordered direct from Brooks in England in their initial offering of the model. The pedals are an unusual model by Wellgo with an SPD cleat on one side and a platform on the other. They are super versatile, durable, user serviceable and reasonably lightweight at 352 grams per set. Price, $22 new online!
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Brakes by VO are the most powerful long reach side-pulls that are available. The small weight penalty is more than offset by their superior stopping power! They are also perhaps the only Sidepull with clearance for 35c tires and fenders. VO vintage style bottle cages keep a spring tension on the bottle to hold it securely on rough roads.
The completed bike as shown weighs in at 21.25 lbs. Of course when you add a seat bag, fenders, GPS unit and water bottles, the “real world” riding weight will be very different. Nobody weighs their bike how they actually ride it anymore though. Often times, people will not even weigh the bike with pedals installed! It is pretty silly really.
A bicycle is more than the sum of its parts.
Rawland Nordavinden, 58 cm
VO Grand Cru headset
VO bottom bracket
VO Grand Cru crankset
Chris King Classic hubs
VO Raid rims
VO Grand Cru Sidepulls
Campy Chorus derailleur
The Utah Randonneur 
January 11, 2015 at 1:39 pm
What handlebar tape is that? The color compliments the bike really well.
January 11, 2015 at 5:14 pm
Its just a tan Cinelli cork tape from the LBS. Nothing fancy.
December 30, 2013 at 9:11 pm
Nice build. I am building largely the same bike. Did you ever install fenders on this bike? I am running into some issue with the fender dragging on the whell. I am using VO Grand Cru brakes as well
December 30, 2013 at 9:42 pm
Duppie,
I have not yet gotten to the fender install. I feel pretty confident that I can fit some VO fenders with the 32c tires and have no clearance problems but I am concerned that if I go with a bigger tire that I could have clearance issues. I dealt with this issue on a Surly Pacer that I did a couple of years ago.
It basically involved cutting the rear fender at the rear brake and fabricating a bracket to support it adequately. River City Bikes in Portland now sells a bracket to solve this problem. My solution was similar.
http://rivercitybicycles.com/rcb-catalog/reacharound-fender-brackets/
For the Surly front fender, which also had clearance problems I simply installed the fender behind the fork crown, not underneath. This leaves the front coverage a little short but I have a low front rack installed which sort of takes care of that problem. This is the handicap that we have to deal with by not using cantilever brakes, but I just hate canti’s!
Good luck, and let me know how it works out for you!
Lonnie
December 16, 2013 at 11:50 am
Very cool build and it looks like you found the sweet spot for gearing a non-tripled gravel bike. On the subject of the Cambium – I’m pretty sure Brooks has sold non-leather saddles in the past; I’ve seen a few standard vinyl padded cheapos from the 70’s with the familiar brooks logo on the back.
September 5, 2013 at 3:53 pm
Gravel or no that is a beautiful bike, I just got done building up a VO Rando with lots of VO parts and really like working with their stuff. Hope you get to take that Nordavinden on Tuscan roads some day.