To add to my ride on the 920 above; it made my ride home on a 26″-wheeled hardtail mtb seem every so nimble in comparison!

That Ridgeback Ramble on the previous page looks great to me!!

Hey Peter, have you got any pictures of the rear stays, showing the tyre clearance please?

Blimey. Not looked at the sequoia. This has done my nut now. Been riding a kenesis T5 for about 6 years now. Even with heavy tires full guards and rack. It flies. Feel I want disks now and just getting that new bike twitch. Been looking at allsorts and feel that stuff I really like the look of vagabond, four corners and awol are going to be really disappointing slugs.
Had rode home tonight thinking, sod it, will stick with with the T5. How much longer can it go?

Hey Peter, have you got any pictures of the rear stays, showing the tyre clearance please?

Happy to oblige:

Thanks fella….I reckon a 2.0 max is beaver would go in there…..!

It’s all coming together :0)

I’d say you’d get a 46-48mm tyre on but no more. Personally I really like the OE tyres and I doubt I’d change them

bloke there suggested the Genesis Tour de Fer. Reynolds 725 frame, identical to Croix but for rear triangle, sold complete with hub dynamo, f & r lights, f & r racks, guards… £1500. Obviously more of a traditional tourer than the 920, Sequoia, etc, but should – probably – have some mild off-road capability too, though I don’t think it can go bigger than 38s with mudguards. Quoted weight is off-putting at 15kg but presumably that includes those racks, etc, etc. Whether it’s worth £500 over the basic Sequoia though? I guess that depends how much you value those racks (I don’t, I have spares at home) and dyno (I do) and of course how it rides for you.

This is gonna sound a bit odd but I’ve go’t got a Tour de Fer too!
It’s a different beast to the Sequoia. It’s an old school tourer. Not fast. Not light, but a nice ride.
It will do LIGHT off road, but it’s not got the smoothness or off road manners of the Sequoia. I’ve done 2 tours and a total of 850 miles on my TdF and I love it. It fits what I need from a tourer almost perfectly the Sequoia is more versatile and bang on trend as an adventure bike, but it doesn’t have the range of gears or the power in the brakes to haul a big load. It’s for modern style bike packing luggage and a bit more off road orientated.

Think I might investigate a lighter wheelset for my Sequoia… I’m heading out to the ManCave with kitchen weighing scales; I suspect that the weight of the wheels (and tyres) will be considerable!

Let’s see it, househusband!
Have you got the plain black entry level one? That’s the one I am thinking of getting, and would like to know total weight as well fella :0)

Me too.
Mrs S bought an AWOL yesterday.
Interested to see the real life weight difference.

It’s a great bike btw, rides absolutely beautifully.

I assume most of the weight saving will be from the carbon fork on the two more expensive models. Interested to know for sure though… The wheels that came on my Awol Comp were actually pretty nice – lightish rims and the hubs have been fine so far.

I think that’s true….apparently carbon fork is 500g and steel version is 1400g!
It’s a big difference, and I think asthetically, the bike has been designed for the (larger) carbon jobbie…I still think I want the steel though!

Right…

Mine is the 56cm Sequoia Elite. Used kitchen digital scales for wheel stuff and digital scales for the bike:

Bike itself: 12.2kg
Front wheel incl. tyre, tube and rotor: 2020g
Tyre (Sawtooth 2Bliss): 600g
Inner tube: 210g
Front wheel incl. rotor: 1210g
Rear wheel incl. tyre, tube and rotor: 2600g

Assuming that the rear tyre and tube are the same and the Sunrace cassette is circa 400g I reckon that the rear wheel incl rotor would be 1390g or so.

The rear wheels are bombproof and probably overkill for most things apart from laden off-road touring so I’m, in the long-term, thinking about a much lighter wheelset.

Interesting.

I’ll pop out and get some batteries for our scales in a bit but a quick heft suggests the (small) base AWOL is about the same as my MTB, which comes in at just over 27lbs.

Very impressed by the AWOL.
No toe overlap on the small with the standard tyres.

Feels very similar to my Disc Trucker tbh, but with more standover.
Both stable but fun to ride.
Not tried the AWOL with a load on, but it’s typically Spesh – excellent handling and some slightly dodgy finishing.
🙂

Just realised a typo but too late to edit; mine is the 58cm Elite, not the 56cm.

What kind of seatpost does the Sequoia come with?
The AWOL has an absolutely crazy two bolt design, one for each saddle rail!

Let’s see it, househusband!
Have you got the plain black entry level one? That’s the one I am thinking of getting, and would like to know total weight as well fella :0)

They aren’t in the country yet

Ah…good knowledge :0)

It’s been like pulling teeth trying to find any info on the black one….that explains it!
Thanks househusband, very informative. I’d be going tubeless straight away,vso that would save a bit of weight….I’m in a dilemma though, as the drivetrain on the Elite is much better than the base model, but I want the black one…..but then again, that much lighter fork and 105……!!?

I’ll wait till I’ve had a chat with my LBS, and see if there is anything he can do.

I also like the gumwalls better….but on a black bike!

Bugger….first world problems!

I’d say you’d get a 46-48mm tyre on but no more. Personally I really like the OE tyres and I doubt I’d change them

bloke there suggested the Genesis Tour de Fer. Reynolds 725 frame, identical to Croix but for rear triangle, sold complete with hub dynamo, f & r lights, f & r racks, guards… £1500. Obviously more of a traditional tourer than the 920, Sequoia, etc, but should – probably – have some mild off-road capability too, though I don’t think it can go bigger than 38s with mudguards. Quoted weight is off-putting at 15kg but presumably that includes those racks, etc, etc. Whether it’s worth £500 over the basic Sequoia though? I guess that depends how much you value those racks (I don’t, I have spares at home) and dyno (I do) and of course how it rides for you.
This is gonna sound a bit odd but I’ve go’t got a Tour de Fer too!
Not odd at all – just enviable! Jammy GIT! 😉

It’s a different beast to the Sequoia. It’s an old school tourer. Not fast. Not light, but a nice ride.
It will do LIGHT off road, but it’s not got the smoothness or off road manners of the Sequoia. I’ve done 2 tours and a total of 850 miles on my TdF and I love it. It fits what I need from a tourer almost perfectly the Sequoia is more versatile and bang on trend as an adventure bike, but it doesn’t have the range of gears or the power in the brakes to haul a big load. It’s for modern style bike packing luggage and a bit more off road orientated.

Odd about the range of gears cos according to the specs I’ve seen the Sequoia has a bottom gear of 32 x 36 = 24″ and the TdF has 30 x 32 = 25″. Specs might have changed of course, or my calculations might be at fault…

Odd about the range of gears cos according to the specs I’ve seen the Sequoia has a bottom gear of 32 x 36 = 24″ and the TdF has 30 x 32 = 25″. Specs might have changed of course, or my calculations might be at fault…

I bought a frameset and built my own up. Bottom gear is 22/34 (22-32-44 and 11-34) on mine. This is because I tow a loaded trailer when we tour and I need the low gears and 180mm rotors front and rear to get the whole shebang stopped!
Sequoia wouldn’t take our trailer and I don’t like drops for touring, and I’d fry those brakes…. I’ve fried brakes before in South Wales!

Not odd at all – just enviable! Jammy GI

🙂
It’s just that I seem to have had or have every bike on this thread which seems too convenient!

TDF in touring mode…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/KZVmiD]Untitled[/url] by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

You don’t do it lightweight, do you! I make that a 17″ gear, but if I towed all that I reckon I’d need about 7″. Chapeau to you!

Lightweight? No. what’s the purpose of that..? 😉
We tour for our holidays 10-14 days at a time. We like some comfort and we like to cook most nights. Some of our kit is expensive and lightweight (MSR tent for e.g.) but we do carry some luxuries. A folding table to cook on and play cards at night. I have half a real pillow (seriously) as I sleep a LOT better with it. And you can’t get away with only cycling clothing for 2 weeks. So our panniers are just clothes and sleeping bags, trailer has tent, cooking stuff, roll mats, table, chair kits, at least 3 gas canisters, any food we didn’t east last night (eggs go in Mrs PPs bar back) which could be 2 days worth of vegetables at times….
I’ve towed that up to the Tan Hill Inn, put it that way!
We rarely do more than 50 miles a day though and we don’t rush. Average speed is usually about 10mph. We love it!

Well this is turning out to be a timely thread as some c*nt stole my AWOL last night 🙁 As long as my insurance pays up I might be looking at the Sequoia elite instead of another Awol so would be interested in your thoughts once you’ve spent a bit of time on it!

Arsebiscuits! :evil:^^ Hope the insurance pays out full and quick, the thief gets to find that stone walls and iron bars do make a cage and, er, it doesn’t happen again.

Thanks, 8+ years in London and never had a bike stolen, 6 weeks in Norway and got complacent about locking it up properly… Lesson learned.

Odd about the range of gears cos according to the specs I’ve seen the Sequoia has a bottom gear of 32 x 36 = 24″ and the TdF has 30 x 32 = 25″. Specs might have changed of course, or my calculations might be at fault…

That is rubbish isn’t it. They could easily have use the 34-11 cassette or even a 36-12. (might have needed a 9 speed MTB rear derailleur but no excuse they were doing that last year)

Looking at Peters pictures Specialized have use a 36 with just a 105 rear mech’. Is there a trick here like the derailleur being mounted lower than normal; or can you do it on any bike?

I didn’t even know the Sequoia existed, I like that a lot

I like my Arkose but really it’s my commuter and is used on the road mainly. That Sequoia would be high on my list if I was buying again

Looking at Peters pictures Specialized have use a 36 with just a 105 rear mech’. Is there a trick here like the derailleur being mounted lower than normal; or can you do it on any bike?

Indeed… there was a bit of discussion on exactly this a while ago:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/explain-this-to-me-then#post-7897190

Mrs S bought an AWOL yesterday.
Interested to see the real life weight difference.

All the weight differential is in the fork and finishing kit, the frames are very similar.

My AWOL weighs a ton now, but thats because it’s got full guards, and racks fitted at both ends and lights and whatnot, If you tried you could build one well < 25lbs and still be useful, so I recon with the carbon fork of the Sequoia and and similar build you could have a sensible sub 23lbs bike that is very versatile.

If the Sequoia had been available when I bought my AWOL I would have had a very difficult descision to make, as the Sequoia would be perfect for 80% of the riding my AWOL gets, and would probably cope with the other 20%, but the AWOL copes better with that 20% so as I say would be a hard decision!

As always with Spesh and the other big players, there will be other options available elsewhere with better on-paper spec, but it’s the whole package that you need to look at and they often get the overall balance, and especially handling, spot on. I can overlook a lower spec derailleur here and there when the overall bike is so good.

Looking at Peters pictures Specialized have use a 36 with just a 105 rear mech’. Is there a trick here like the derailleur being mounted lower than normal; or can you do it on any bike?

Apparently you can do it on anything. I was skeptical myself, but it works perfectly

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/explain-this-to-me-then

I was talking to a bloke that fitted a 36t cassette on an Ultegra Di2 mech the other day….

Every day is a school day on Single Track 🙂

Yup. It’s often my first point of reference these days! 🙂

Yeah, the gearing really is not low enough for their intended uses. One of the attractions of the Surly Trucker (oh no! mentioned another bike in this thread!) despite it being a bit pricy is the stock gearing is already right there. It’s something like a 22 ring and a cassette up to 32. Different style of bike from the Spec of course but you’d have thought the Tour de Fer could have been given something similar.

Order placed :0)

I’ve gone for the Sequoia, base model, and they are expected in about three weeks (27th October)….I’m very excited and am counting down till new bike day!

In the meantime, what are the best tubeless valves right now? I need to gather the bits!

Went down to Spec-stocking LBS today, more in vague hope than expectation, and to my surprise there was a Sequoia on display. The middle-range, £1500, model. Had a short test ride. 😀 It’s great. Doesn’t feel like a slow-steering, solid touring bike. Nothing, in fact, like the Trek 920 I had a ride on a while ago. Much nicer. V tempted but need to compare with reality first. Would go for base model as a) middle model colour is bleurgh! b) 9-speed transmission and cable brakes should be perfectly good c) £500 extra to spend on dynamo lighting etc.

Nice one….
In an ideal world, I would have liked the black one with a carbon fork, and the sawtooth tyres in gumwall flavour!

I really need the gumwall tyres, but they are not for sale separately at the moment….

Oh my giddy aunt, I’ve only been and gone and put down a deposit on a Sequoia! The black one, base model. It was realising that in bike maths 32 x 36 = 24 that helped; that and the intercompatibility of 9-speed road and mtb components.

I think you’ll like the bike

But road and MTB is compatible in 9 speed….

Thanks. Yes, it felt just right when I had a ride on the one in the shop. And yes, road and MTB being compatible in 9 speed is what I meant; intercompatible, not incompatible. Bike should be here mid-November. Ooh, that’s going to be a long four weeks!

Oops my reading was duff

Enjoy. I couldn’t believe how lovely the Elite looked in the flesh. But with a heavy heart I realised I wanted something more road orientated

So I bought an Arkose yesterday. Far less soul…