Wont be too long and I'll have those answers first hand with regards the Rohloff.
A Surly Ogre order went through this morning after an email from Jenson informing me they now sell the frames in black.
Also coming in that order is some silver 36H Dyad rims to match silver spokes and polished alloy Rohloff/Son28 disk hubs.
Seatpost and stem will be black, Tubus Cosmo in SS, Black Brooks saddle with copper rivets all go towards the aesthetics.
I'm hopeful the relatively light Dyad rims matched with CX-Ray spokes will help somewhat alleviate the burden of the packages
weighty 4130 stovepiping and heavy hubs. I'll have to research tyres carefully to try to find the balance between weight and puncture proof
due to the problematic rear wheel removal of this particular frameset. I'm looking forward to getting the project underway.
After some encouragement here I did consider the 18" frameset which would have enabled the possibility of reaching some drop bars allowing more possibilities
for hand positioning. After looking at many photos oniine including all the threads in
http://forums.mtbr.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; about Ogres (theres a few), I came to the conclusion I didnt like both the necessary seatpost height nor handlebar height and stem spacers needed to make this work.
Going for the large (20) I'll be stepping way out of my comfort zone with the Ogres long, in my opinion, effective top tube at 616.3mm. For many years now I've been riding a bike with an ETT of 55.5cm so I'm going to feel very stretched out.
I'll be looking to buy the shortest reach stem with the tallest angle available and making my seattube a straight version rather than one with setback.
My measurement between the BB spindle and saddletop of approx 73cm also factored into this decision. I'll be using the same length, 170mm, cranks as my current bike.
Surly Ogre, Extrawheel trailer.