OK folks, after some long chats with a good pal last week, who’s about to head off around europe on her Long Haul Trucker for 2 months, I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonet about planning some multi-day expeditions.

Couple of differences to my pal, I’m not likely to get much time for more than a weeks worth of biking at a time… not for a few years anyway… And I’m likely to want a bike capable of a bit of offroad too for bothy bashing in the highlands etc.

So – help me plan my bike.
I’m thinking a hardtail, 26″ wheeler… with a couple of sets of forks:
80 or 100mm travel for offroad stuff
Rigid with mudguard and rack mounts for on road touring

I like the idea of hub gears for the zero maintenance and othing to get trashed off rocks or in transit when traveling… thinking 11 speed alfine as can’t afford rohloff.

Frame would need to be able to take rack and mudguard and handle a sensible load when touring, though I tend to travel light.
Might also want the option to put V-brakes on frame and rigid forks for serious adventure… not sure about that though.

Rims… thinking toughish MTB rims with 36 spokes and ability to take V brakes too… Mavic 719s?

Frames? I like the look of Thorns – the sterling or Nomad? Anyone got any experience?
On-one’s are pretty classic multi-purpose machines too, and good value.

I know Surly and Salsa do some options too….

what else should I be looking at?

Any tips, or links to blog posts on the subject, would be much appreciated.

Share your adventures… come on, let’s hear about it 🙂

Keep the suspension fork even for touring – there is a tubus rack that works well with suspension forks

i do a on/off road tour every september with my mates.
been to the alps, pyrenees, the highlands and southern ireland over the years.

used various bikes with various degrees of success.
spesh tricross, not enough control offroad
spesh rockhopper, bit slow on longer road sections
on one 29r, bit hard to fit racks to
singular swift, ditto but far comfiest
surly lht, ace for almost all of it except the lack of disc mounts.

whatever bike you choose there is gonna be a compromise…..but i like the chance to try bike to see if they suit.

enjoy it whatever you choose. 8)

Salsa Fargo. Great do it all bike. 🙂

Had exactly the same thoughts earlier this year, I wanted a bike to do 3-4 day trips fully self sufficient and capable of fairly rough off roading. I have built an On One Scandal with horizontal slotted dropouts, an Alfine 11 hub, with Stans Tubeless Rims, 100mm Reba’s up front, with a rear rack, full mudguards, a frame bag from Wildcat and a home made mounting system for a 10l dry bag from Alpkit on the handlebars. It’s now done 140 miles along the Pennine Bridleway and the Welsh Ride Thing and apart from some initial bedding in issues with the hub, it’s not missed a beat. It handles well laden as the weight is spread about the bike and hasn’t cost a fortune, about £1,300 all in. Unfortuately the frame is no longer available but I think a new version is imminent, the whole setup is waterproof and robust, I’d post photos but haven’t got a hosting site organised yet.

http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/mountain/io-/io-id-alfine-11/ ?

Don’t be scared off by proper sized wheels as they do roll nicely when loaded up and work fairly well as tourers and you will have the option of mist touring tyres as well. I currently use an on-one ti29er for this sort of riding but keep having a serious look at the singular gryphon, unfortunately they are not back in stock until November…
Singular peregrine might be worth a look at for you, closer to a traditional touring bike then mountain bike but has the ability to run conventional or hub gears, as does the on-one slot dropout frames at the other end of the price spectrum.

Some good info coming up here folks, cheers 🙂

I’ve had similar issue to Ton on the On-One 29er front, currently using one with an alfine8 as my winter bike and put a rack on it for the summer to stick my wee girl on the back in a limo seat. I’m also considering the difficulties of picking up spares for 29ers when in the back of beyond.

Surly LHT – yep, they do seem lovely, just think I could do with disk mounts.

That Genesis looks good, though I have a bunch of components (bars, brakes, s’post n saddle, cranks etc) that will go straight on my choice of frame, so no real need to a full bike. Also quite choosy about build options.

Pistonbroke – your scandal sounds great…. Stans rims too? Do you run it tubeless for touring?
Also, what gears you running on the alfine (rings and sprocket etc) and how’d you find it for ratios/gear spread? I know my 8sp alfine doesn’t have quite enough… feels like it’s missing 1 or 2 gears.

Tubus racks look lovely, my pal has them on her Surly LHT that I mentioned. Like the idea of one for suss forks… increases my options.

Poison Bikes in Germany do a 26″ steel frame with sliding dropouts, v-brake and disc compatible. Euro 199. No idea what the quality’s like ‘though.

Racktime are made by Tubus but in aluminium, not steel. A lot cheaper ‘though.!

A Trickstuff exzentriker would allow you to use any suitable steel frame.

http://www.tout-terrain.de/2/products/touring-bikes/silkroad/index.html

Thorn Sterling

Well, if we’re talking complete bikes then the hands down winner is anything by Fahrrad Manufaktur.

They put Thorn and their tiresome, our ‘opinion is fact’ bullshit to shame.. A lot more affordable too.

Tout Terrain are lovely but just too expensive.

I run Maxxis tubeless on the Scandal and find that a 32/20 combo gives a good spread of gearing to climb most things laden and spin out at about 24mph, fine for the short sharp climbs of the PBW and the longer fire road grinds of mid Wales. It’s quite a liberating experience riding with all you need for a 3 day adventure. The Wildcat bag holds all my cooking stuff and food, the tent sits nicely behind the seatpost and sleeping bag and spare clothes in dry bags on the bars and rack. I’ve steered away from panniers to maintain agility and to stop hitting things on singletrack.

I’d want an eccentric bb/vertical dropouts rather than slotted dropouts especially if you’re using mudguards or vees. Pissing around trying to get everything ‘just so’ is a royal PIA when fixing the inevitable…

Personaly I’d also go for BB7’s for discs and probably rigid forks both for simplicity and the fork due to weight, but opinions do vary.

I couldn’t find a ready made frame that did all you are (and I was) looking for.

Zion Rohloff?

26″ MTB frame, rack mounts, eccentric BB. You could easily run it with 700c wheels if desired.

Thanks for the heads up on the slot dropouts with mudguards issue ! not thought of that.

Was just looking at the Surly Troll, which looks good… Slot DO though.

So, leaning toward a Thorn Sterling with Surly Troll fork just now.

Will look at the Zion.

Ahhh. The Zion is a van nic to frame… Lovely, but way beyond my price range. Think I’ll stick with Steel.

Another option could be a Kona Explosif frame.
Sliding drop outs for easy hub gearing, not sure about Vbrake bosses on the latest ones. I think “charlie the bikemonger” has some in a discount sale at the mo.
Or might be worth looking at orange too, P7 or R8

On one were doing the Van Nic Zion for 50% off i think…..