My new Touring bike. (one for the haterz? ;) ) – Page 3 – Bike Forum

PeterPoddy · 2016-03-17T14:37:20Z

Right, I’ll get this bit over with, I hate touring on drop bars. I’ve tried it and it was horrible. Also, I have some rather specific requirements as I shall explain…! For our first tour I used a Carerra Subway and that taught me I needed lower gears and better brakes, so I built my 853 Inbred into a tourer to replace it and that was pretty bloody good. Until it cracked last year :( I quickly rebuilt my Croix de Fer into a flat bar tourer prepared to find It wouldn’t cope too well, but it did that job very well indeed. But it was a bit short and toe overlap has always been a problem with it for me, but I was sold on 700c wheels…. I was actually going to go the full custom route as virtually nobody made a bike that fitted all my (odd, I admit) requirements, which were: Flat bar geometry. Nice and upright but not short. Steel frame. A strong one. Nice sedate geometry and plenty of heel clearance and all the braze ons. Disc brakes. 180mm Disc brakes VERTICAL dropouts. I must have these as a fully loaded trailer would pull the rear hub out and changing a flat with rack, ‘guards and horizontals is a right royal pain in the ass. Stand mount plate But then Genesis launched the 2016 Tour de Fer and I figured it was 90% of what my full custom would be and a grand cheaper! It’s taken a while to get hold of a frame and source all the bits (Odd requirements again…) but I enjoyed the process. I did a proper fully geeky/OCD build on it too. I reckon it’s taken well in excess of 12 hours to get it built including building the wheels. BB was faced and chased, every bolt replaced with stainless items, including the little one in the mudguard clips and disc bolts, but not the brake calliper bolts. I trust Shimano with those! I’ve had to cut and file most of them to length and also make some small modifications to get front disc clearance, sort the rear rack and , MOST importantly, hide the dynamo wiring away from critical eyes (Mine!) I think wiring the lights up took 2 hours or more! It was worth it though as it’s super neat. The drivetrain I already had, but I chanced on the immaculate LX cranks for £20 and the new old stock SRAM X-Gen front mech. (Best, toughest 9sp front mech ever made IMO) I chose 9sp as it’s cheap, tough and the same as Mrs PPs bike for obvious reasons. Brakes are LX Trekking with 180mm SLX rotors. BB is a gold Token one with ceramic hybrid bearings fitted. I ordered the wrong ‘guards by mistake but these are wayyyy better than normal SKS stuff, they are more solid and look far neater with the single black stays. Rack is a stainless steel Raleigh item I already had. Very tough. Seatpost and bars are Shimano Pro Koryak items, 27.2 inline, and a low rise bar cut to 660mm. Grips are XLC trekking style. Stem is Bontrager Elite with Blendr mount for the Bontrager computer (Neatness, NEATNESS!) Cages are old Bontrager Sideswipe ones in alloy which can’t be bettered. Saddle is a Brookes Swift titanium I got in exchange for a favour…. :) Pedals are Shimano Saint. I can’t think of a better touring pedal. Bell was a present from my brother, centre stand is a Pletscher item Lights are Busch and Muller Luxos U on the front (with USB charging on the bars) and Toplight Plus on the rear powered by an Exposure/SP dynamo front hub. All the wires have been painstakingly hidden through the rack tubing and internally in the fork. The rear wire is shrink-wrapped to the rear brake hose and any visible wires have been shrink wrapped and tucked away. You have to look to realise it's got a full dynamo set up, put it that way. :) Rims I struggled a bit with. I needed tough, black, disc specific and 32h front 36h rear. Those DT Swiss ones were a chance find on Rose bikes and about £12 each. They’re designed for E-bikes. They’re perfect. Spokes are DT SS DB, obvs.. ;) Rear hub is XT, tyres are Schwalbe Marathon Mondial, lots lighter than Marathon Plus and more capable on tracks and paths. I’ve got Vaude panniers and matching click fix bar bag I’ve done about 50 miles to see how it rides and it’s spot on. A solid and smooth ride. Not fast, but it just handled a trailer full of shopping with ease. The front is high but I’ve got a decent reach. It’s really good. Absolutely spot on. A proper old bloke bike. [urlby [urlAtkin[/url], on Flickr [urlby [urlAtkin[/url], on Flickr USB charging, permanently fitted, huge spread of light, and also out of the way of a bar bag! [urlby [urlAtkin[/url], on Flickr Very neat mudguards. The spacer there is the alloy tubing fitted to instead os a saddle on a new seatpost! [urlde Fer[/url] by [urlAtkin[/url], on Flickr A few flashes of gold here and there. 3rd set of bottle bosses now holds my pump [urlde Fer[/url] by [urlAtkin[/url], on Flickr Freebie! [urlby [urlAtkin[/url], on Flickr e-Bike rims [urlde Fer[/url] by [urlAtkin[/url], on Flickr Hiding the wiring [urlby [urlAtkin[/url], on Flickr Shrink wrapped for neatness. And that's the trailer hitch there [urlby [urlAtkin[/url], on Flickr

simondbarnes

Posts: 6581

Free Member

Camping is where it's at for touring 🙂 (and drop bars)

[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5651/20910748521_841abe73f7_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5651/20910748521_841abe73f7_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/xRP41V ]Anglesey-26[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/simondbarnes/ ]Simon Barnes[/url], on Flickr

Posted : 19/03/2016 8:36 pm

trail_rat

Posts: 39735

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[img] [/img]

Camping on tour is crap.....

Posted : 19/03/2016 8:40 pm

PeterPoddy

Posts: 19914

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Topic starter

Simon, I think we carry a bit more kit than you.... 🙂

[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5505/14189149928_e4a263654c_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5505/14189149928_e4a263654c_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/nBR6W1 ]IMG_3849[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/peter_atkin/ ]Peter Atkin[/url], on Flickr

[url= https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2909/14374315242_929e6226ba_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2909/14374315242_929e6226ba_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/nUd88q ]IMG_3845[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/peter_atkin/ ]Peter Atkin[/url], on Flickr

Posted : 19/03/2016 8:43 pm

trail_rat

Posts: 39735

Free Member

You carry more kit than i do when im car camping 😉 that said i did splash out recently on an msr kitchen delux kit. Recently.

Game changer.

Posted : 19/03/2016 8:48 pm

simondbarnes

Posts: 6581

Free Member

Simon, I think we carry a bit more kit than you

LOL, yes! Although I have a front rack & panniers arriving at the shop on Monday. I probably wont carry much (if any) extra but it'll let me spread the weight around and leave some space for shopping (beer / wine)

(I am jealous of your chairs though)

Posted : 19/03/2016 8:56 pm

PeterPoddy

Posts: 19914

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Topic starter

Those chairs are ace. We've had them 15 years. They're the kits to convert your sleeping mat into a chair, so not too heavy or bulky. I've never been able to sit on the floor in comfort, it hurts, so I need something and those are perfect. We can sit in the tent all night playing cards and drinking beer in comfort if the weather is poor.

Trail Rat - I bought that MSR kitchen kit for Mrs PP for Christmas. She loves that sort of thing and has been planning what else she can fit in the case - Sauces, herbs, cutlery etc.

Posted : 20/03/2016 4:02 pm

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