Cycling UK Forum

I just bought this viewtopic.php?f=16&t=36102

....largely as a result of doing 450 miles in 9 days on road on a Carrera Kraken MTB. I did fit Schwalbe Land Cruiser tyres(semi slicks), and rode with the forks locked out to prevent bobbing. After that I got an old Dawes Galaxy and did it up, but, such a bike is far less versatile, no good on tracks at all and lacks comfort, thats why I am back to the MTB/Thorn expedition bike format - comfort and versatilty



If you want to do touring change the tyres to semi slicks, fit some decent grips, bar ends, a comfortable saddle, not a MTB 'perch' and a MTB type rack and off you go

Happy touring

Al

I did 450 miles touring around the Outer Hebrides with panniers on road on a MTB on these http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... iser-32121

They have a continuous centre bead so the rolling resistance is exactly like a slick....... but...... they have knobbly sides, so when you go off road, an rough tracks, over tree roots, even into mud, you get plenty of grip

A great compromise (and very cheap) tyre

Al

As for rolling resistance - I have recollections that 26" wheels and tyres lose a rider a couple of minutes over ten miles. Barely enough to give the 700c rider enough time to make a brew before his/her 26" wheeled companion(s) catch up after the first 20 miles of a morning's ride. I can't cite the source but the data is out there waiting to be Googled

2 minutes over 10 miles is just about what I found touring with a pal on his Galaxy and indeed Googling threw up quite a bit of info too. As I am fairly ancient I will gladly sacrifice that two minutes for the increased comfort.

Around here we have a village bike ride on one evening. Most people ride MTB's and its mostly on the road, but about a quarter off road. I tried taking the Dawes on that and it was absolutely awful. You cant ride over tree roots and down steep pebbly hills on a bike like that in safety, as well as being scary you just keep getting punctures and buckled rims, not to mention the jarring and vibration. The Galaxy was generally great on the road and I enjoyed riding it, but in this area at least, because of very poor surfaces and potholes everywhere it lacks the comfort and safety that double walled MTB rims with eyelets and 26" x 1.6" tyres offers

Al

Kintyre

Vapour trails over Bix Bottom

The Big I'll - North Harris

The Cullens Skye

Tarbet Harbour - Harris

Appin

Beached trawlers at Salen, Mull

and... last but not least.....


Aaah.... thats better - the 15p luxury award winning toilet on Rothesay

Al

keyboardmonkey wrote:Hi, al_yrpal. Good buy. Which canal(s) are you cycling in France?

Err.. My pal is doing the route I think they are somewhere in the Vendee heading north. We ,(4 old blokes) are cycling from Roscoff down the French coast to La Rochelle , and then back by an inland route further East taking two weeks in all, at about 50 miles per day,mainly staying in Logis. The canal part is on the way back in the Cholet/Montrefort/Nozay/Malestroit region. He gave me a list of places and I was planning to plot them on a mapping application so that I could study the route, but I haven't identified the canal sectionsyet.

The others all have 700C wheels, and one has a Giant SCR 3, if French towpaths are anything like ours I think they will get vibrated to a point where they will want to go back on the road. I had an SCR 3, it was like riding on a slab of plywood, you felt every stone chip. I tried my Galaxy on tracks on the Isle of Wight with 1 1/4" Paselas on it and it just wasn't really suitable, thats part of the reason that I have changed to a 26" wheel with a 1 1/2" tyre, its just far more versatile. I have found that there is only a very slight disadvantage in rolling resistance on 26"'s, which makes a small difference in speed, but you get a more rugged machine that can go places that anything with 700C's can't.

I would be very interested to know if anyone has made rolling resistance measurements between 700C's and 26"?

Al

If you fancy a gastromic treat the restaurant France et Fuscias in St Vaast la Hogue is well worth a visit. As its a Logis the price is very good too

Al

Tour the Isle of Mull, get the ferry from Oban. just right in 3 to 4 days

Al

A long trip in France is coming up with a bit of rough stuff on canal banks and tracks. The thought of 27" wheels, with just 5 sprockets and an ancient Suntour on the back - My old friend the 1971 Dawes Galaxy finally had to go. I shant miss the Brooks saddle or the downtube shifters.
As a pensioner relying on income from savings, the interest rates and dividends have shrunk so a Thorn was out of the question, but... a close scrutiny of their 16 page Sherpa brochure confirmed that Thorn and I have very similar views on what makes a decent touring bike.... except for their view about comfort bestowed by steel frame material (a load of tosh), and Thorn's absence of disc brakes. The important thing was an off the shelf geometry kindly to my aged frame, and 26" wheels, discs and fairly chunky tyres. Thorn also like flat bars with those terrific Ergon GP-1 grips and Ergo bar ends. For me they are the dogs...
A tour of LBS's drew a blank with lots of bikes on offer, but not many suiting me in comfort terms, whilst those that fitted were often being punted at ridiculous prices. So on a wet afternoon I ended up in Halfords. I have had a Halfords bike before, a Carrera Kraken MTB. With Schwalbe Landcruisers fitted I did 450 miles in the Hebrides in reasonable comfort, although it was bit heavy with suspension forks. In the end, as a basis for my new tourer I chose a Halfords Carrera Subway 2 commuter bike. A stiff alloy MTB frame, MTB wheels with powerful Tektro cable operated disks. steel forks. A Truvativ chainset, SRAM X5 deraillier, ratios Cassette 11/32T, Chainset 42/32/22T, Kevlar reinforced smooth tyres, and what has turned out to be a very comfortable saddle, with all up weight 14kg - all for £300.
I have raided the old Dawes and fitted Ergo Bar Ends, and Ergon GP-1 flat grips to spread the load on your palms. I already had a Topeak MTB carrier that accepts the slide in quick release portable bag, and things like a bottle cage, and my Aldi Bikemate. I may swop the pedals for the SPD's on the Dawes. Fitting the mudguards was quite difficult. Halfords guys said only MTB mudguards would fit, but with a bit of enginuity and persistence and the mudguard fitting that none of them knew about inside the rear stays, I succeeded.

As for the bike, it rides like a dream. You are closer to the ground with a lower c of g. It floats over bumps and bad surfaces with 65 lbs in the tyres vibration through the saddle and grips is banished. I am amazed by the comfort. And those gears - excellent fast changing with barely a pause for the chainring. Plenty of ground clearance. As for the braking, long steep descents no longer provoke fear of not being able to stop, and the stiff MTB frame and chunky tyres means no more death gyrations. My only reservation is top speed with only a 42 top chainring, but I tour for the sights and places, not speed or distance. A good looking bike made of less expensive, but pretty durable components. I wouldn't trust it through the Himalayas, but I am not going there anyway.

Anyone looking for a 1971 Dawes Galaxy?

Al

workhard wrote:Slow Tourer, for me, equate to any bike at all I can bear to ride for six hours whilst carrying a bit of luggage
YMMV

Spot on! If its a choice between enjoying the cycling, scenery and the surroundings, and pelting along to an impressive distant destination, my votes for the former

Al

Those are OK for road but would be useless in a bit of mud.

These..... http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... iser-32121 however, will roll just like your choices on the road because they have a continuous centre bead, AND will cope with muddy stony tracks with ease. I did the outer hebrides Skye and a bit of the highlands on these, mostly on the road. And, they are a fraction of the price

Al

nirakaro wrote:My antique Magellan Meridian has a black & white screen the size of a stamp, crappy out-of-date maps, 64Mb memory, and no route planning capability. And it weighs half a hundredweight. BUT. It runs on AA batteries, which for me is priceless, as it means I’m not dependent on a regular fix of mains electricity. Anything on today’s market that would replace it?

My Road Angel Navigator 7000 has a massive screen, its a sat nav. It has road maps and sat nav guidance for bikes, you can load road Atlases and Memory Map OS sheets (great for spotting bridle paths and off road routes). I have South of England and Central England maps. On my forthcoming French trip I'll be loading the £30 French Road Atlas. The battery is internal, but I have an Energiser mobile phone auxilliary pack which takes AA batteries, thus you can never run out of power! It also stores pictures and plays MP3's, although my phone is better at that and has a radio too.

But, they don't make 'em any more, but you can still get them.

For the heart rate and other cycling statistics I have a £12.99 Aldi Bikemate bike computer!

Al

skin wrote:Wow, thanks for all the advice/views etc, what a friendly and knowledgeable forum, the more i read the less likely it seems that a paltry £1500 will get me the bike of my dreams, unless i take a crash course in bike construction
i think at this stage the sensible thing would be to bite the bullet and perhaps settle for a more conventional approach......nah
Right i am off to weigh up my options, keep the advice coming and many thanks

Some has the Shimano 11 speed and shifter to preorder for £410 which is shedloads less than the Rohoff. So even with a specially built wheel you could get what you want for a lot less than £1500.

I'll be seeing how it performs reliability wise ( the 8 speed was fraught with problems) and after a year or so when bugs have been ironed out I will consider a retrofit. I would also expect Rohoff to react to this and drop prices. I expect what now is probably 'made in germany' to gravitate to China

Al

On the Rohoff web site, theres this.... http://www.rohloff.de/uploads/media/Her ... .en_01.pdf

It reveals that only Thorn is doing Touring Bikes with Rohoff in the UK, but there are loads of German and continental manufacturers. There is also a very handy thingy on the site that works out if you can fit a Rohoff to an existing frame. I would think that it would be quite easy to adapt some bikes with a rebuilt wheel, but why not buy from Germany?

I have gone for a slightly adapted Carrera commuting bike to get discs. As it has Truvativ/SRAM gears, I am dead happy with that having had them on a previous mountain bike adapted for touring.

How about this? http://www.herkelmann-fahrraeder.de/pageID_5236184.html

Al

I have just bought a commuting bike that I am converting for touring. It will end up like a Thorn Sherpa, but with an aluminium frame and disc brakes. Its only £300 http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165534

The quality of components isn't on a par with the Thorn or with what you are looking at but I had one of their MTB's with the same groupset, wheels, hubs and brakes for nearly a year, and really hammered it off road and did about 600 miles touring with it on slicks. I sold it for £10 less than I paid for it because I got it in a sale.

Why not go the other way round?

Al

531colin wrote:I'm pants at computering, but if you work at my post of last night, you can see pictures of my current project, which is self fitting cheap discs to a cheap non disc frame to make a rough stuff bike. I have been using rim brakes for half a century, but I like to think I am open to new ideas, like SPD. Mucky rims and rim wear are a problem off road, and I want to know if discs will deliver the improvements they promise. But I wouldn't go all out and fit discs to my treasured made to measure Bob Jackson!

I will type more eg. mechanical specifics, when I get time, and try to port more/better pics. If you click the pics, you can get them bigger.

Colin, Well done! I think its great and hope to see many more road bikes altered like this. I think you should try putting one of those links in your post using the Img button to get the pictures directly in

I note that you have a rising stem and the drops well canted - as an old, less flexible bloke I have given up on drops and use flat or riser bars with bar ends, they are much more comfortable. I still have the original drops with the Dawes engraving on my old Dawes. They will be fitted when I sell it

Al

Al