Velosmith

Quality Handmade Touring Bikes for Those Passionate About Their Cycling

Jota

Jota (Yohta) - Tibetan for ‘iron horse’ - perfectly describing the ultimate expedition touring bike, at home in the deserts of Australia, the mountains of Tibet or commuting to work on the potholed and debris strewn streets of our cities.

What makes the Jota particularly special is the drivetrain.

The Rohloff 14 speed hub gear is unique in the history of bicycle transmission, never have so many gears been packaged in sealed virtually maintenance-free unit. The hub is just perfect for an expedition style of bike, its totally unaffected by water, mud, dust and sand it will always change perfectly from one gear whatever the conditions. With just one chain ring and straightforward chain line the whole bike is uncluttered, aesthetically pleasing and most importantly incredibly reliable.

Rohloff have been making the hub for over ten years and not one hub has had a failure of its internal gear mechanism despite some having been ridden in excess of 100,000 kilometres. It is this level of dependability, that out in the middle of nowhere miles from the nearest bike shop, that makes the Rohloff the only choice for expedition touring.

The hub is operated by a twist grip style of changer, which enables you to change through all 14 evenly spaced gears in one go when riding AND when stopped. A 27-speed derailleur system once duplicated and unusable gears due to cross chaining have been taken into consideration has approximately the same number of useable individual gear ratios as the Rohloff hub.

One of the weaknesses of touring bikes with derailleur gears is the severely dished rear wheel, an Achilles heal that can (and does) cause problems of spoke breakage and out-of-true rims. A Rohloff hub equipped rear wheel has no dish at all, this coupled with quality DT spokes and bombproof Velocity Aeroheat rim produces an wheel that will not give any problems whatever the terrain you are riding on or the load you are carrying.

Basically the gearing and rear wheel of a Rohloff equipped bike are as close to indestructible as it is possible to get.

The frame of the Jota is customised for the Rohloff hub with extended vertical dropouts and tandem style eccentric bottom bracket for a simple, easy to adjust, fit and forget chain tensioning system.

If you are only going to own one bike as the workhorse of your day-to-day and recreational cycling the Jota is the perfect bike. Although primarily aimed at expedition touring with front and rear racks or BOB trailer it’s versatility means that fitted with high-pressure 1” tyres, mudguards and lights a Jota makes an unbeatably stable, nimble and maintenance-free commuter bike.

Standard specifications

$5,300 including delivery anywhere in Australia.

Frame and Forks Fillet brazed Reynolds 631 main triangle, Reynolds 725 stays, and Reynolds 531 forks. Chain tensioned using eccentric bottom bracket or sliding dropouts
Braze on mountings for front and rear racks, three bottle cages and mudguards.
Headset Cane Creek S 8
Drivetrain Rolhoff Speedhub 500/14 XC OEM EX
Sugino XD 600 cranks and chainring
Choice of chainring size to provide chosen gear range
SRAM PC 68 chain
Shimano sealed cartridge
Brakes Shimano Deore XT
Brake Levers Deore
Saddle San Marco ‘Rolls’ or Terry Women’s Liberator X
Handlebars Ritchey Pro Flat
Seatpost Ritchey Comp V2
Stem Ritchey Comp V2
Wheels Velocity Aeroheat 32 hole Rims
Velocity hub (replaceable sealed cartridge bearings
Tyres Continental Sport Contact 26 x 1.3 or
Travel Contact 26 x 1.75 or
Explorer 26 x 2.1

Specifications may change at short notice due to availability of components.

Your Velosmith Jota can be customised to your specifications. Such upgrades can include:

Contact Velosmith for upgrade prices.

Updated October 2008