The Steamroller is such a lovely and trustworthy tool. It has been of great interest to myself to see how people have customized this ubiquitous object according to their own needs and taste.
After aquiring the right size steamroller last fall, I have thought it would be nice to document the journey of my own copy.
This thread serves much as an own log to track the changes, and by making it public I hope others may benefit from the knowledge of the various modifications that take place.
In the first iteration, the build was close to how I imagine a roller was intended to be arranged, i.e. 700c wheels, 32mm tires, fixed gear with flat bars front brake.
Later in the year when the rainy season began I added full fenders - pelago narrow model. The stem and bars changed to a more ergonomic setup, and seatpost was also swapped as the fluted one I had previously was too long and the flutes would let water into the frame.
The fit of the fenders was very tight in the front due to the road caliper and needed some custom bracket to avoid rubbing.
After the snow and ice arrived, studded tires and dynamo lights were added. These did not fit under the fenders, and snow clearance was desired so the swap was made to an Ass Saver arrangement front and rear. Using zip-ties to fix a mini fender to the lower seattube has worked surprisingly well.
There still remained issue that the front tire’s studs would eat into the brake caliper under heavy braking.
So when opportunity arose to purchase a disc fork, this was changed. At the same time a 650b wheel was put with even larger front tire of 50mm. The grip was already quite good with front studs, but the larger volume has helped considerably on bump ice trails.
The stem was also changed to 60mm, along with Brooks seat. There have been many alterations so it is hard to say what has affected most the handling and comfort, but the short stem has made it easier to unweight the front wheel to clear snowbanks and whatnot. I reckon this would be uncomfortably short for longer rides, but distances longer than 10km commute are not common in the winter conditions.
This is how the setup remains for the time being, but planned changes include building a 650b rear wheel, playing with stem lengths when weather improves, and attempting to fit full fenders again after the tires change.
