The Montelimar

From Audax frame

The Montelimar is the result of the minor crisis I went through in 2009. It was designed as a long-distance bike for taking a certain amount of punishment and not necessarily for speed. To take 700c 28mm tyres with enough clearance for mudguards. The angles on the seat tube and the head tube are somewhere between 72 and 73 degrees and the bottom bracket drop is 60mm. The chainstays are oval and once again they ended up slightly too short.

The oversized tubes make the frame fairly stiff. It's really good when the roads are rough and in hilly terrain but at first I found it too rigid. However with the Panaracer Pasela 28mm tyres I learned not to inflate to 9 bar/130 psi as is the custom here in Germany (people think you're half cracked here if you ride a racing/touring tyre with less than 6 bar/87 psi) and that improved the comfort and the handling of the bike no end.

The bike comes into its own with a load in the front or on the rear where I hardly notice the extra weight. So I decided I'd have a go at making a front rack, which above all would support the light. The support on the brake-bolt interfered with the front-brake too much so I'll have to alter it but otherwise I was quite happy with my first rack.

From Audax frame

While the frame was lying around finished but unpainted, I made a pump-peg out of a pump stud and a cut-off from a mudguard stay.

From Audax frame

It has been an invaluable experience testing this bike on long rides in various terrains as well as commuting to work on it. It boosted my confidence in my meagre framebuilding capabilities and gave me the bike I had always dreamt about.