New Bike! Beardy touring content – Genesis Tour De Fer

Looks to me like:
http://www.madison.co.uk/products/cycling/accessories/pannier-racks-carriers/fmp-front-mountain-rack-with-platform-alloy-black/

mine has survived a 20 stone pilot and double loaded panniers on many tours, hence I think you are talking shyte.

Did you read my comment? The LHT can’t take a kickstand. http://surlybikes.com/info_hole/spew/kickstands_on_long_haul_truckers or google ‘lht kickstand’

I love the front rack but it is a bit weighty so I’ve taken it off again until I need it.

That’s intersting about Surly LHTs and side stands. Their snotty reply is also quite telling.
That really is glaring omission on a bike intended for such a purpose, as anyone who’s ever tried to park a fully loaded tourer will tell you. I couldn’t do without the Pletscher rear mounted stand I’ve got on my Inbred. Trying to park a loaded bike + trailer outfit is a nightmare without it. Walls aren’t much use.
The other thing you need is a Velcro strap to lock the back brake on with. 🙂

When I sorted out Ton’s Surly I didn’t think it was particularly well made. It was perfectly adequate but not at the price level they sell at.

I had to retap all the threads on the frame as every one had overspray (actually powder coat) into the threads quite deeply. Don’t they even mask off the threads when they paint the frames?

Pedals are on…… I have to trim the rear brake hose before pictures are taken, I couldn’t stand the abuse if they were wrong!

All finished! Had to wait for a Shimano olive to shorten the brake hose.

So how does it ride? Well, err, like a bike. Rode it round the block a few times and it felt like it accelerated pretty well, handled nicely – not too twitchy and not slow, great for commuting as well as touring – and felt sorta nice. Was comfortable straight away it seems which is a new for me.

Spec is (apart from standard)
Mavic XM319 on XT/Exposure Dynamo hub
DMR v8 Mag pedals.
Flat bars
Deore hydraulic trekking brakes
Deore 9sp trigger shifters
ESI grips
Specialized Overends bar ends
Custom leather covered SDG Bel Air saddle
All bolts changed to stainless steel from black where I could including cleaning threads.

My custom SDG Bel Air

Looked far better with drop bars IMHO.

Teetosugars – Member
Looked far better with drop bars IMHO.

I’m way past going on fashion and what looks good. Comfort and being fit for the job is the best thing- makes you enjoy the riding and therefore go further.

I like that. Where are you off to on it?

I’m way past going on fashion and what looks good.

With you 100%.

Comfort and being fit for the job is the best thing- makes you enjoy the riding and therefore go further.

Again, with you on that too.

Like I said, IMHO…

very nice indeed. 8)

I’ve ordered the Dynamo lights too. Top of the range B&M ones at £100 the set.

I’ll take better pics when the light is better, just had a look on the PC and the ones above are awful!

I love that bike, definitely on my short list for my next purchase.

My frameset arrived this morning! Going to be a slow build but looking forward to it 🙂

Gotta love Genesis bikes – they are just so well made.

@Simondbarnes, good to see you’re still getting on with building/riding bikes – how’s the recovery going?

I’m not recovering from anything other than a touch of manflu. Do you mean the other chap with a similar name to me?

Made a start building mine up. Going 9spd Dura Ace bar end shifters, xt 44/32/22 chainset, XT mechs, cassette & rear hub, SP Dynamo hub, Mavix XM719 disc rims, TRP Hylex brakes. Still a few other things to decide on 🙂

I may possibly be building myself a touring bike… by simondbarnes[/url], on Flickr

Love it!

Posted this on the touring gearing thread:

Clearance – my TDF has the standard fit Schwalbe Marathon tyres on at 35c size or 37-622 as labelled on the tyre, mounted on XM319 rims
The front end has around 7mm either side of the widest point of the tyre to the fork and around 1cm to the underside of the mudguard. The rear has about the same, maybe a slight touch less maybe 1mm less but I only had a floppy tape measure on me!

So a 37c touring tyre will be ok, maybe a 40c with my mudguards. It would depend on the profile of the tyre on the rim you use but if a 45c tyre is exactly 10mm wider than my 35c (should be but we know that doesn’t always work!) then it should fit a TDF. If that’s important to you I would make sure you test a bike in person first.

I had to do a fair bit of bumpy canal tow path riding (quite technical in places!) on my last ride and the Marathons coped very well with good grip on the wet and loose surfaces. The shock absorption was fantastic, I’m certainly not looking to get any bigger tyres than my 35c Marathons.

The frame and fork will also take a wider guard than the standard one fitted.

Personally I think if you are looking at 45c tyres and above a touring bike isn’t really what you need, you need a 29er MTB!

I didn’t report back about the handling!!

Went on a couple of rides over Easter. First was a gentle 25mile pootle around Huddersfield on the roads. Second was a 45 mile pootle over the moors to Lancashire and onto Congleton before getting a train home – mixture of rough roads and old railway lines and some proper rough towpath/off-road bits which weren’t expected!

I have the standard build apart from new wheels and flat bars with Deore shifter and brake setup. And a full SP/B&M lighting system.

First of all – this is not a light bike. It feels heavy to pick up and doesn’t accelerate very well. This is compared with my Kinesis Racelight which is the only other road bike I’ve ridden so draw your conclusions from that – my kinesis is probably 8lbs lighter with wheels which could be half the weight!!

However what it does do it make you sit back and enjoy the view. It doesn’t like you racing around and sprinting up hills. But that’s not what it is for, is it?

What I found my self doing is clicking down a couple of gears and spinning slowly up hills admiring the view and not getting out of breath or getting knackered. Which suits me fine! I managed an average 10mph on the very bumpy 45 miles to Congleton with its energy sapping tow paths which isn’t too bad being as I was feeling awful (touch of sunstroke after 30 miles).

What I did notice is that you do seem to sit “in” the bike rather than perched on top of it. The BB is lower than a CDF and the headtube longer which might be why. It feels comfortable, never jarring, and smooths out crappy road surfaces very nicely indeed. Also the handling does not feel slow at all but is very stable. I realised at one point I was riding down a fast downhill town centre potholed road one handed without realising it – even with a load on it seemed easy and sure footed. I could imagine it being a very welcome bike to be riding after 8-10 hours on the go on a long tour.

Changes – I’m going to try some of the Marathon Supreme tyres in a 35c size. I’m not going to be doing loads of heavy touring so the 300g weight saving of the Supremes per tyre will probably make a huge difference – they are very expensive tyres though and I can see why most people stick with the standard tyres as they are so good. I just can’t help myself though!!

I have also changed the seatpost to my favourite post ever – 1990’s (I think?) X-lite Metal Matrix layback post. This post is so comfy and 100g lighter and more importantly looks great in silver!! I’d love all silver finishing kit so I’ll look out for cheap silver stuff to change to if I can be bothered.

Use Marathon 368’s from Spa. Lighterer than the current crop and £16 per. Perfect.

I have also changed the seatpost to my favourite post ever – 1990’s (I think?) X-lite Metal Matrix layback post.

Got one of those in the cupboard, of course it’s only 200mm long now and quite rough around the bottom of the tube, might stick it on a kids bike.

Nice looking bike that, looks ideally suited to the job. As with teeto I prefer drops for long rides but each to their own. Have fun on it!

@robdob. What width/make flat bar did you put on your TDF Am thinking of a possibly similar conversion

I have since changed the seatpost back to the standard one as the layback was way too much on the X-Lite one – felt like I was riding a recumbent……

Recently did the Way of the Roses C2C – awesome route. I had a lot of back pain before the ride so put some PC Fleegle bars on with a high rise stema and thick foam all over to get lots of hand positions.

To be fair I was thinking the £5 foam grips from Halfords would be crap but they were really comfy. Stuck on well with hairspray too. I wanted to have an extra position to hold the bars around the stem for cruising and this would have worked but the forward sweep of the bars at the stem pretty much killed that idea as it was just weird, bending my wrists the wrong way.

As you can see from the pic I have changed the shifters to thumbies now – but as I am 9sp I couldn’t use my favourite Deore thumbies so I had to (its a hard life I know) get some Paul Component shifter mounts and some Dura Ace bar end shifter to mount on them. Oh my word they shift beautifully!