I was able to build up one of the new Polyvalent framesets from Velo-Orange over the holiday. I won’t be able to take the bike for a long ride until the weekend (crossing fingers) but I have some observations from the build and short errand-running rides that might be useful for those considering the frameset.

My goal for the build was a spirited porteur–something that felt a lot like a road bike and could carry a large load on the front rack.  Parts selection was widely guided by what I had sitting in bins in the shop. The build went smoothly and I didn’t encounter any frame quirks. The welds are very nice and the flat black black frame color grew on me.

As luck would have it, a day after the bicycle was completed I received a call from my wife telling me she was at the post office picking up an unexpectedly large package. So the Polyvalent was able to do a little porteur duty immediately.

While very large, the box above wasn’t extremely heavy, and wind was much more of a concern on the ride home than the weight. When installing the VO porteur rack I made one simple change from the rack installation shown on their blog that improves the rack performance. If you click on the link you’ll see that mounting the porteur rack level on the PV moves the rack away from the headtube, creating a long lever between the rack and the single mounting point at the fork crown. I sacrificed a level rack and mounted the rack as far back as to shorten the rack strut/lever.

I’ve started to use the Polyvalent for sans toddler grocery runs. I usually treat these rides as a form of exercise, ride fairly quickly, and haven’t once felt the bicycle was holding me back at all. Although my schedule rarely allows it, I do like to ride with the local roadie club once in a while. I stick with the 17-18 mph group, and the rides are generally from 30 to 60 miles. I intended these rides to be the Polyvalent’s second use, and my first few miles have done nothing to make me think it won’t serve this purpose well.

The obligatory component list follows. For the interested the bicycle as pictured would cost $2175. This price includes assembly and two wheelbuilds. $2025 unassembled (wheels built, headset and bottom bracket installed). Framesets are $400. Call or e-mail to order.

• Nexus 8spd rear hub
• Alfine trigger shifter (akward and hideous–I spoke with Jtek yesterday and they should have their Alfine/Nexus barend shifters back in production in a month or two)
• Sugino XD700 compact double cranks used with single ring and Sugino chainguard
• VO bottom bracket, headset, seatpost, porteur rack, 650B fenders, and Diagonale rims
• Nitto Technomic Deluxe stem and Promenade bars
• Dia-Compe Giudonnet Levers with Tektro CR720 brakes
• Shimano DH-3N72 dynohub
• Busch & Muller Lumotec IQ Cyo Chrome Senso headlight and Planet Bike Superflash tailight
• Gran Bois Hetre tires
• Brooks B17 Champion Special
• MKS Sylvan Touring pedals
• Sunlite double legged kickstand

We’ll receive our VO Polyvalent Frames on Monday. Until then I’ll have to refer you to the VO website. The dealer frames are shipping with a Gran Cru aluminum threaded headset. Frame, fork and headset will be $425, which saves you $15 on the headset. If you don’t want a headset, that’s fine. $400 for frame and fork alone. If you want a complete bike, I can of course build the framesets up with anything in our webstore, but I’m happy to special order anything we don’t regularly stock for complete bike orders. You’ll likely want to take advantage of the wheelbuilding special mentioned below if you need some 650B wheels to go with your Polyvalent.

Update: Frames are here, but I won’t have time to build a sample bike or add the frames to the webstore this week. If you’d like a frame or a complete bike please call me at the shop. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about sizing and frame features.

Prolific list-master Jim G generously volunteered to start a discussion group for those interested in the 650B framesets and future Longleaf products. I think this will be a better medium for discussion than blog comments, which are limited to topics generated by me. The home page for the group can be found here.

Happy Thanksgiving.

On a related note, I received news last week that VO Imports, the distribution arm of Velo-Orange, will be selling their Polyvalent 650B frames through dealers. I had a long talk with Tom at VO Imports about the frames and they sound like they’ll ride very much like the G2 Kogswell P/R’s, except they’ll have proportionally longer top tubes for swept back bars and threaded headsets.  I don’t think these framesets will work well with drop bars because of the long top tubes. Frames should be in around the first week of December, and I’ll put them on the site then. They be $450 and as with all frames I sell I’m happy to build them up not only with parts that I regularly stock, but also special order parts or parts you send me as well. Being small has some advantages.

I would recommend choosing a frame with as little standover clearance as possible when picking a Polyvalent. The top tubes are level, so if you like your bars roughly level with your saddle keep the toptube high and tight or you’ll need a very, very long stem.

Matthew at Kogswell and I have agreed that I will take over the Kogswell 650B P/R production and design. Kogswell has decided to concentrate on 26″ framesets and when Matthew told me he didn’t plan to continue production of the 650B P/R it seemed like a natural fit.  As was the process with the P/R, I’ll be soliciting feedback from owners and prospective buyers about fine tuning the G2 P/R’s before producing the Longleaf 650B frames. The broad strokes of the design will remain the same, a steel TIG welded 650B bicycle with low-trail geometry designed for 35-42mm tires. For now I’ll keep discussion of the frameset on the blog, but I think in the future a google or yahoo group will be a better medium for discussing this and future framesets. For starters, I’d like to solicit feedback about the following:

• Tubing–The current tubing gauge produces a lively bike, but makes shimmy more probable. What do we think about the pros and cons of zippy but-might-shimmy tubing vs. slower-won’t-shimmy tubing?
• Sloping top tubes–Some people hate them, others don’t mind. The problem with eliminating the slope is that it will mean a ton of stem/steerer tube for many builds.
• Threaded vs. threadless steerer tubes–I prefer threaded, but lean toward threadless for practical reasons. Perhaps a switch to 1″ threadless? This would give people who want to use quill stems the option of cutting and threading the steerer tube without using headtube reducers. I know there are 1 1/8 quill stems and threaded headsets, but there aren’t any good options in those categories.
• Fenders–I’m pretty happy with the VO 650B fenders, but I also have a soft spot for fenders painted to match the frameset, so I lean toward producing fenders with the framesets.
• Name? Just wouldn’t seem right to keep calling it the P/R. I have an aversion to branding, but realize it is important. Any name suggestions for this model?
• And in case anyone is wondering, I will make the frame modifications on this P/R standard to allow for further integration of the lighting system–ports for internal tailight wiring, brazed on loops for headlight wiring.

As for the inevitable “When?” questions I’m shooting for prototypes in early spring and hope to have the the first production run by the end of the summer.