Reviewing my Commuter (Van Nicholas Yukon Disc Rohloff)

This bike is pretty close to my perfect commuter. I live in the Pacific Northwest where we get quite a few rainy or wet days in the non-summer time and I wanted a bike that was relatively low maintenance and quiet. I find dropbar handlebars more comfortable, and that's what I'm used to, so I spent time looking for a bike with either a Rohloff or Pinion drivetrain, Gates belt, and dropbars. Unfortunately, that really limits my choices quite a bit.

The Yukon Disc Rohloff

Surprisngly, Van Nicholas' offering was less expensive than steel frame options from Shand and Co-Motion. After purchasing my bike I discovered the Booda Bike Alpine for less, but I had already purchased the Van Nicholas. I also couldn't find much info or reviews on Booda's bikes so I'm not sure how reputable they are. Anyway, some stats are:

• Titanium frame
• Disc brakes
• Gates CDX belt drive
• Rohloff rear hub
• SON 28 dynamo front hub
• Ryde Andra 321 wheels (not tubeless compatible, unfortunately)
• Schwalbe Lugano II tires (not great, but I couldn't get the bike without any tires, so I went with the cheapest)

The Rohloff Speedhub

I highly recommend the Rohloff Speedhub, but it's biggest downside is the cost. It's efficiency is surprisingly good and weight really only slows me down going uphill or accelerating. Admittedly I do a fair amount of hills where I live, but the gearing helps a lot with that. My times on Strava are pretty consistent with my last bike (Jamis Aurora Elite with Shimano 105 components), although I upgraded the tires to Pirelli Cinturato Velos on my Yukon, so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. I have hit quite a few PRs this year with the Rohloff.

At first I thought maybe I'd save up and upgrade the Rohloff shifter to a Rohbox solution with brifters, but I'm not sure I'll do that now. It's really not a big deal using the Rohloff shifter. It can switch more gears faster than a regular road bike shifter, but has a few downside:

• You're limited on handlebar upgrades (more on that below)
• If you're not wearing gloves and your hands get wet from rain or sweat, shifting can become difficult
• Mounting aero bars may be difficult or impossible. I know, why would you mount aero bars on a road bike with a Rohloff? I've thought about it for comfort on long rides, but I'm not sure if it's possible.

Gear range

The Rohloff's 526% gear range, similar to many mountain bikes and better than most road/gravel bikes, helps a lot with the hills! This is great for living in Seattle. I probably spend 80% of my time in gears 8-11, and 20% in the lower gears.

I opted for a 46 tooth crankset and a 22 tooth rear sprocket, giving me a crazy 15.7 gear inches in first gear according to Bicycle Gear Calculator (better than most mountain bikes). Even with my pannier full and going up a 15%+ hill, I'm able to easily hold a steady cadence. My last bike with the Shimano 105 had 25.7 gear inches, and the difference is noticeable.

Noise

In gears 1-6 it makes a bit of noise, which I knew before buying so I was prepared. It's a whirring noise that's uniform/smooth enough that it doesn't bother me. Gear 7 is, as everyone else will tell you, the loudest of all gears. Gears 8-14 are very quiet and I can't hear them at all when riding. The sound of the tires rolling over gravel or pavement is the only thing I hear besides the wind blowing my ears. One downside of having such a quiet bike is that if anything does begin to make noise (such as my pannier bouncing on the rack), I notice it immediately. My disc brakes will make some noise when they get wet, but there's not much one can do about that.

SON 28 Dynamo Hub

I love this thing. When the lights are turned off, it adds virtually no drag (~7 seconds per hour according to Alee Denham of CyclingAbout). The Yukon came with the dynamo hub and an Edelux II headlight. I've since added a SON rack tail light to increase visibility. Unfortunately, I'm already using all the internal routing for the Rohloff shifters and brakes, so I had to route it outside the frame, but that's not a big deal IMO. During the fall I find myself using the lights often, it seems to slow me down around 2-3 minutes during my commute home (About 16.5 miles). These are rough numbers based on my Strava historical data. I actually slow down more at night anyway since it's dark and many people in Seattle wear black, even at night when walking on the trail 🙂

My last bike had battery-powered lights which worked fine, but the front light needed charging every other ride. The rear light only needed charging once every 2 weeks since I used it in blinking mode. The convenience of not having to charge batteries and not having to worry about a battery dying mid-ride is worth it to me.

Tires

My Yukon has had Pirelli's Cinturato Velo tires which are great as they have decent puncture protection while still having relatively low rolling resistance. Last fall I switched over to Continental's Contact Plus as I really don't want a flat tire in the fall or winter. Unfortunately, there's no info on bicyclerollingresistance.com the Contact Plus. My experience is that they have extremely good puncture protection and seem to have reasonable rolling resistance as well. I've ridden a total of 3k-5k miles I think on Contact Plus tires without any punctures, and my wife also hasn't had a single issue with them on her bike either. I'm not trying to win any races with this bike, so if they're a bit slower that's worth it to me.

Frame

I think titanium frames are overhyped and aren't really worth it for most people. If I could have found the equivalent bike with a steel frame at a lower price I would have gone that route. That said, the Yukon's frame looks nice and is a little lighter than a steel frame. But my bike is not light by any means. With all the bells and whistles I have on it it's probably around 32 pounds (14.5 kg).

My one complaint about the fork is that it only allows thinner tires. I'd love to be able to mount at least 40mm tires on it (the new Continental Pure Contact tires look interesting), but the max supported is 35mm with no fenders, and 30mm with fenders. I always have fenders on, and use 28mm tires since 30mm is an uncommon size.

Handlebars

If you like dropbar handlebars and get this bike, know that you're stuck with these handlebars without spending quite a bit of money and/or time switching to a different system like the Rohbox, Sternshift electric shifter, or some other clever way of mounting a Rohloff shifter. Van Nicholas' dropbar handlebars disconnect in the middle, allowing the Rohloff (or Pinion) shifter to slide on. They're available in 40cm, 42cm, and 46cm sizes.

Extras (not included with bike)

The Redshift suspension stem and seatpost are great. Many of the streets around Seattle are terrible (I'm looking at you Capitol Hill), and even some of the paved trails have root buckles, although this has improved over the past year. I found myself riding faster on gravel after putting them both on as it feels noticeably smoother and more comfortable. I first had the seatpost with too little tension and it bobbed up and down a bit. The nice thing about the redshift seatpost is that it's configurable and I was able to tighten it up so that it feels more secure while still smoothing out bumps. This is a big advantage over the Cane Creek suspension offerings which have lower granularity tuning and may require extra purchases.

Portland Design Works fenders are also top notch. I don't have any issues with them rubbing against my tires, and haven't had to bend the stays on them to stop rubbing like I've had with SKS fenders. The SKS may have just been mounted poorly, but either way the PDW fenders are more rigid and feel higher-quality.

I like the Ortlieb Vario convertable pannier-backpack. A few years ago I tried using a convertable from Timbuk2 but it wasn't very durable (the clips broke off) and it was a pain to convert as the pannier clips and backpack straps were on the same side. Ortlieb's design is better and I like switching it into a backpack once I arrive at the office. It only takes maybe 10 seconds and is more comfortable than carrying it around with one arm.

Critiques

One minor annoying thing I did run into was that there was enough slack on the brake/shifter cables that they rubbed against the top of the Edelux light, causing it to switch off when I would turn. Not a major issue though, and a zip tie fixed it.

The biggest problem I had with this bike was a creaky eccentric bottom bracket! This drove me nuts for nearly 2000 miles. It began only 100-200 miles after I started riding the Yukon and it took me a while to figure out what the problem was. Van Nicholas states that it comes with a "Problem Solvers Bushnell Eccentric Classic", but it actually comes with the lightweight version. This is probably fine in most cases, but the classic version has more grip and is less likely to slip (and creak) as it has more contact with the bottom bracket shell. My lightweight EBB was scuffed up quite a bit from grinding against the BB shell. Since replacing the EBB with the classic version, and applying some assembly compound to increase the grip, I haven't had any issues.

It'd be nice if Van Nicholas offered a tire with high pubcture resistance, like the Cinturato Velo, Schwalbe Marathon Plus or Continental Contact Plus.

Summary

Anyway, enough rambling. I'm very happy with my bike and think the internal gear hub + belt drive is a fantastic solution for commuting. Apart from the EBB, I've had to do almost no regular maintenance yet. I should probably wash it once in a while, but almost never do. Even the belt doesn't get much love and it's been fine (so far 🤞) I've ridden about ~2,900 miles so far and don't regret my purchase.