Cycling UK Forum

On On Inbred is a good choice for a cheapish expedition touring frame. I toured with one in a similar area (Sikkim).
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=31627
I believe old steel MTb frames like an Orange P7 are also a good choice.

If you're planning on getting into the mountains (which is probably unavoidable in Nepal), I'd strongly advise against buying a local bike there unless you really like a challenge - they'll be very heavy and with minimal gearing - you'll see loads of bikes down on the plains, but almost none once you get into the hills. Obviously it's possible to tour on anything, but you'd be better sticking with your present bike + trailer in that case.

The older frames came with two sets of bottle mounts, so again better for touring.
(but the new colours are really nice).
I haven't checked ebay lately, but I presume 2nd hand prices might have dropped a bit with all the new ones.

I loved cycling in India, I think people either like India or they don't - it was my third visit (though first cycling), so had a good idea of what to expect. Also I was mostly in the Himalayan foothills which have relatively light traffic and calmer people (thuogh a lot of hills). I did some cycling down on the plains and that's certainly a lot more stressful due to the heat and traffic. On the other hand, while it's chaotic, people on the road tend to be a lot less aggressive than in London... you just have to accept that you give way to anything larger than you.

pascoa341 wrote:Thanks for the photos! Some more questions: Did you have any issues with your heels hitting the panniers with the Sherpa rack and what size were the rotors on your disc brakes?

No problem - I remember spending a lot of time searching the web for photos of similar set-ups when I was building this bike and worrying about whether it would be capable of dealing with Sikkim. There are plenty more photos of the bike in my flickr account.

No issues with heel clearance and I've got size 10 feet. They'd have hit if I'd mounted the panniers right at the front of the rack, but it's long enough that you can slide them back until they clear your heels (unless maybe you've got size 15 feet or something).

Rotors were the standard 160mm and worked fine, even on some very long (approx 2000 metre) descents.

Where are you thinking of going?

some more detailed photos (when it was still relatively clean)

pascoa341 wrote:hmm... could it be that the original inbred suffers less from flex than the other frames. I am getting more and more tempted just to try it out. which racks fit best on the frame seeing that it has some strangely positioned rack mounts.

I used Old Man Mountain Sherpa racks, front and rear, mounted off the brake bosses. They're expensive, but had no problems with them and they gave me clearance to run disc brakes (Avid BB7s, which are superb). I don't think the new Inbred frames have rear v brake mounts anymore (I could be wrong about this) though.

If you don't mind quite lot of climbing, cycle touring in the Western Ghats would be amazing. I Backpacked through there a few years ago and kept thinking I'd like to be on a bike. Once you get into the hills there's far less traffic and the scenery is beautiful. The smaller villages (which see less tourists than places like Munnar) in the hills are also some of the friendliest places I've been to in India.
Kerala's great down at sea level as well, though I don't think traffic's any lighter/less crazy than the rest of India.
Amazing food as well of course.
Finding good/accurate maps is pretty hard though, particularly once you're in the hills.
I can probably reccommend various specific places around Kerala/Tamil Nadu if you get further in your planning.

pascoa341 wrote:Thanks for all this info, really great. I am also a bit worried about the length of the top tube. My current bikes have a 57 and a 59 top tube and to be honest, I already find the 59 a bit of a stretch. Have you noticed you are hanging on for dear life on your bikes or can you maintain a fairly upright position?

I've got long legs and short arms and found it fine (18" frame with the seat up pretty high).
As for brakes, I've got the older model frame with V-brake mounts, however I used avid BB7 disc brakes and found them great - can't recommend them enough for touring on bad roads with a lot of long, steep descents. But I got some of the older steel inbred forks (off ebay) because they had V-brake mounts which I needed for my front rack.

One thing I'd say is that on one stuff seems to have fairly good re-sale value, so if you found you didn't like the frame you could probably sell it again without too much of a loss - annoyingly I had to buy my frame and forks off ebay for not that far off the price of brand new ones as on one didn't have any in stock at the time. I'm quite envious of all the nice new coloured frames they've been releasing.

I rode an inbred frame round Sikkim & West Bengal for several months earlier this year, worked very well for me with a pretty heavy load front and back. Used a pretty similar set up to that one on crazyguy, but with less spacers, a steeper angled stem and bullhorn style handlebars. I'd certainly recommend it.



There's a bunch of notes about my bike about halfway down this page from my journal.
http://adriancyclingtosikkim.blogspot.com/