Just been sniffing around on the web looking for a tourer/cx/gravel type road bike.

Came across the Thorn Cycle’s website.

Now there is a lot of information on there, physics, engineering, tests, all sorts. It just comes across all a bit mental, random capitals, terrible type setting and an almost evangelical approach.

The bikes may be well made, with good materials and components but they seem to have managed to make a £3000 bike look like a £100 BSO.

Anyone bought one or dealt with them?

Not recently but my sister has one from a good many years back and it is a solid tourer, designed and built more for durability than speed. Seems to have lasted well.

edit: we also bought our first proper tandem off them, not a thorn but they were (and still are) one of the main tandem dealers. Had no problems and they also honoured a warranty problem well.

When I was in the market for an MTB orientated tourer with a rohloff and asked if they had any plans to do a raven MTB or a sterling with modern geometry for 29er wheels and clearance for actual tires at the back.

Got told that this was all a fad and that we would all be back on heads down arse up out and out xc bikes before we knew it and that they were not changing their bikes at all….

Looks like the curmudgeons were true to their word looking at their current range.

I think that Thorn are one of those bike brands where if they make exactly what you want/like in a bike, e.g. a 26″ tyred Rohloff tourer, then there will probably not be many alternatives. Incidentally it looks like that many/most of their bikes only have a rear disc brake and a V brake at the front, which seems an odd combination and may not be what you want for cx/gravel use.

In your shoes, I would be looking carefully at the equivalent bikes made by Shand (much better frames and designs, custom built in the UK), and I would not even consider the Thorn unless it was at least 30% or so less than the Shand allowing for a similar specification.

Also, have you looked at Spa Cycles’ offerings?

I have done many thousands of miles on my Raven Tour and also enjoyed some rather excellent customer service. Best of all, it fits like a glove.

Sadly it’s ugly as hell.

You pays your money…

I think they have a thing about front dusk brakes.

Having to sign a waiver to NEVER cut the steerer puts me iff

Having to sign a waiver to NEVER cut the steerer

I think they may have specced a fork with a little flexibility for riding quality, and believe that a disc will overload it under hard braking.

i borrowed a thorn audax bike for a month a few years ago. it was very nice, but it cost twice the amount of my dawes galaxy at the time.
so nice but pricey.

there are some great tourers around at present.

My cousin rode hers to capetown and back from leeds…

Thorn/SJS are one of the actual touring specialists in the UK (along with Spa Cycles) and have been making (ugly) but very functional bikes for touring for years and years, in that world (touring and expedition) they have a very good reputation for longevity and proper functional design. If you want a bike for actually going to the back of beyond then you can’t go far wrong with them really, although yes their promotional material is an acquired taste!

If you want a modern CX/touring/Gravel omni-use bike then they’re probably not really what you’re after…

I think they may have specced a fork with a little flexibility for riding quality, and believe that a disc will overload it under hard braking.

That’s understandable, but I don’t see the sense then in matching it up with a disc at the rear. It makes no sense having a more powerful rear brake than front brake. A V brake does offer benefits, especially for touring, of low tech simplicity which is very easily and cheaply maintained and adjusted and is very tolerant of abuse and not being set up absolutely correctly, so why not use a V brake on the rear as well in that case?

My 26 rigid steel mtb was a horror show on my canal/river commute, the aluminium cross bike however was perfect. I’ve now got a plug 5 waiting for me.
I shattered my clavicle last week, so it’ll be a while.
Small wheels are just not as good at going over little bumps. Hitting a pot hole at speed whilst high on that uncut steerer is bonkers.
£2500 for the plug 5 ti in 1×11 hydro is a great deal. Hargroves shipped next day, v pleased and mine was shop soiled so only £1500!
No visible soilage either.

Never heard of them before and just had a quick look at their site.

Pretty interesting actually. They really don’t give a rats rear about aesthetics did they? Quite refreshing actually! 😀

They really do seem to be aiming their bikes at people that want to ride them round the world or ride them to work till… well, forever really.

Sorry, totally off topic. Just nice to see a bit of British eccentricity still going strong in biking. 🙂

jkomo
Small wheels are just not as good at going over little bumps

Can’t argue there! 🙂

I reckon they point to the availability of 26″ wheels in developing countries (or anywhere I guess)as part of their reasoning?

Yeah, hard to argue that one of your just commuting to work though. Horses for courses I suppose. 🙂

i always thought it odd that after designing and building their own frames each bike has at least half a dozen headspacers to bring the stem to the required height. Design fail?

Having crashed mine so hard that the forks bent, just a little, I was impressed the frame just shrugged it off. And the wheels.

Come to think of it I don’t think I’ve ever trued them.

I should add I do actually have a raven xc or what ever the pre sterling bike was. Hateful thing.

but I don’t see the sense then in matching it up with a disc at the rear

Works as a drag brake, a bit like on a tandem.

I like their attitude. Always fancied an original Audax, which they were making long before the resurgence of popularity in road riding. They know what they do, they do it their way and they do it well.

It’s clearly a formula that has kept them in business.

I picked up their Rohloff-equipped hardcore hardtail that was on demo at STW Towes once. Heavier than girders….

I have a 10 year old Thorn Sherpa tourer in the garage. It has its own gravitational field it is so heavy and needs a full rebuild but only because I’ve worn all of the components out including a set of wheels. The frame and fork could survive a nuclear attack and still look brand new despite many hard miles. Its a very comfy bike and is surprising stable at pretty much any speed; despite being ugly and unbelievably heavy it is very well designed.

It isn’t to everyones taste but I can’t see myself ever getting rid of it.

Works as a drag brake, a bit like on a tandem.

Ahh, so that’s the reason. Normally a tandem has a drag brake in addition to the main rear (and front) brake, so I would be interested to hear experience of using it like that on a solo (incidentally, I would have thought that the potential heat build up using a disc as a drag brake on a heavily laden tourer descending an Alpine mountain would have made it preferable to use a large rotor).

Don’t own one but I like Thorn. They know what they think works and are uncompromising in it. If I wanted a bike to ride in remote places going around the world and durability and relibility were key, I would look at Thorn. Plenty of folks over on crazyguy riding Thorns.

Small wheels are just not as good at going over little bumps

Yes that’s why no-one would have ever considered using them for off-roading 🙄

Don’t think there would be many problems using a rear disk on a single, even loaded, so long as the rider was reasonably careful. Many tandemmers manage fine with them. One each of disk and rim seems a reasonable compromise, a front disk brake puts a huge load on the tip of the fork blade.

Yes that’s why no-one would have ever considered using them for off-roading

Okay tc I should’ve said IME, if all I was doing was a bumpy bit of canal, a 26er with low pressures and wide tyres would be great, but for mixed road/off road, I prefer 700c with 35mm.

Stuck in a time warp but doing well enough , much as above frames will outlast you but at the cost of weight.

Round the world for a year or two , thorn rolhoff . Nothing much to match it

Thorn are certainly idiosyncratic. When I bought one of the first Raven tandems from Thorn I had to phone Robin and persuade him that I was a competent wheelbuilder and bike builder before he eventually agreed to sell me a frame and Rohloff 🙂 You don’t tend to hear complaints about their customer service, though. Quirky they may be, but not in a bad way.

When they shifted production to Taiwan they certainly made sure the quality was sorted. It’s one of the highest-quality frames I’ve seen: I’ve seen plenty worse welds from artisans in sheds. The tubing is wisely specced, it comes rustproofed, and you’re certainly not left wanting for braze-ons.

I think the OP is kind of on the money: the whole approach is very opinionated and is emphatically function over form. But if you agree with the opinions and you value function over form, then the products really are very good.

Having to sign a waiver to NEVER cut the steerer

What? Can you explain more?

I downloaded the large brochure from here http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/bikes

There is some very interesting stuff in there on brakes, tyres weight etc. This Dave guy really seems to know his stuff.

However, it’s almost unreadable.

I mean what is all this about???

^ brilliant isn’t it..

When i was looking for a touring bike a few years ago, Thorn was one I looked at in great detail.

I also had a look at:

Spa cycles,
Rivendell (USA)
Oxford bike works.

All four had similar options on running a disc on the front. Not needed over a v-brake. Fork compliance came into that as a disc brake needed a stiffer fork. Also they are more complicated than a v-brake. All the independent brands seem to take this approach. I’m guessing touring bikes with disc are aimed at different market to the high end v-brake ones. Two main types of people are going to look at a tourer. Commuters/short tourers and those that will head out on mega long distance expeditions.

I came very close to buying a Spa, until a local bloke put his ridgeback up for sale. Which I bought.

For the money I really think Spa are hard to beat,

I have a Thorn Audax, made from Reynolds 531c in 1996 (by Lee Cooper). It’s exceptionally comfortable and will probably outlast me. I did LEJOG on it a few years back and it’s just about the perfect bike for that sort of thing.

I bought a second hand thorn xtc about 10 years ago,still use it for about 500 miles every month(only have that and a full suss),as well as fully loaded tours in Europe,it’s more than a bike its a part of me,yeah ok it is only a bike but I really like it ok:)

For the money I really think Spa are hard to beat,

I’ve been looking at them as well.

Some really decent looking Ti stuff at a good price.

However, I wonder of that’is the reason that Dave from Thorn slags cheap Ti and basically says “you will die”.

I have just bought a very nice Genesis tour de fer tourer.
very nice spec this year.
and £200 voucher back from Cycle Surgery.

Having to sign a waiver to NEVER cut the steerer
What? Can you explain more?

Google image thorn cycles.

The steerers are either superlong with a stem on top or superlong with a stem halfway up and a mountain of spacers on top.

It would appear at casual observance that thorn owners don’t cut steerers.

Couple with the refusal to stick a disk brake on a tandem* i was suggesting their curmudgeonly approach might extend to a waiver regarding steerer length.

It was an attempt at humour.

Nothing against thorn in the slightest and sjs are great aswell.

It was an attempt at humour.

Sorry I missed it. It’s just with the madness of the rambling in the brochure, the hatred of discs and double chainsets, I was entirely convinced it was possible.

They do this, which looks robust as, but restrict the allowed disc diameter…

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/forks/48-26-650b-thorn-nomad-disc-fork-matt-black-powder/

They were quite insistent on speccing my brakes and rims for me when I enquired about a Sherpa.

I got the impression if I didn’t agree I’d be sent to the naughty corner until I’d reconsidered.

I had a late 90s 531 Audax (quill steerer) which I ran as a flat bar tourer – good for knocking out 100 mile days back to back so long as you didn’t overload it. Not sure I’d buy one now.

@Rusty:

What brakes rims and hubs do you have then?