Touring on Spa Cycles steel bikes

[Dbradley]

My wife and I have just taken our new Spa Cycles steel tourers around Lake Geveva, camping at 3 locations along the route. I would like to say how good these machines have been. It took some getting used to the weight of the bikes fully loaded with front and rear Ortlieb panniers and a tent on my rear rack but I guess this is the case for all tourers. We specified a hub based lighting system which also charged our iPhones on the go inside our Ortlieb bar bags. The bikes felt sturdy and well balanced. The brakes and gearing worked well. After some initial cock-ups with the build (Spa managed to build my wife's bike one size bigger than specified) all was forgiven after we had a wonderful trip around the lake. Next year we are planning a 2,000 mile trip around Europe and I am now sure we have bought the right bikes. Would be happy to advise anyone thinking about specifying one of these bikes (size, gearing etc).

[rotavator]

What chain set and cassette and number of teeth did you select and how did they perform?

I ask because I have been eyeing up their Stronglight chain sets as well as a Shimano Tiagra triple with an 11-34 cassette as possible ways to get lower gears on an audax style bike without resorting to bar end or downtube shifters or MTB gears with a flat bar bike. I am struggling to get up the steepest hills around here.

[Dbradley]

My bike is 48-38-28 and 11-34
My wife's is 48-36-24 and 11-34
But we were pretty heavily loaded.
On my own road bike I have just swapped out the rear cassette and derailleur to give me 11-32 rather than 11-28 and with that I should be able to get up anything.

[teamonster]

Hiya,
I've been thinking about a Spa cycles tourer, be interested to know more about charging system, does it charge I phone direct or do you have another device in line such as E-werks or a chat battery ? Adrian

[Dbradley]

The hub dynamo charges the IPhone directly via a supplied cable. You just need your usual USB to iPhone cable. It charges up really well - even when the lighting is on. One neat thing about the lighting is that the hub detects when you apply the brakes (the wheel rotation rate reduces) and increases the intensity of the rear light. So brake lights !

[horizon]

And now for the million dollar question:

What colour were they?

[teamonster]

Thanks for info re charging, sounds like I could equally stick a battery pack on there to charge as well. If it charges I phone it must be knocking out decent current, they are a bit temperamental when charging. Rear "brake" light sounds good