Too many choices in a race to find space.

[BikeBuddha]

The time to get fitted has come.

I'm about to give over 4K for a bike with v-brakes, rohloff hub, dynamo, and a standard chain, fitted with ortibleb panniers and usb lights.

I'm doubting the v brakes, as surely disc brakes would be best on Himalayan roads. All that dust and dirt grinding the rims. But I also need to think about being in back end of nowhere, and simple, replacement parts.

I'm thinking, that guy on cycling about, Alee, and how he says drive belts are tehe way to go, as he rides his alluminum, not steel, koga world traveller. Why am I having a chain?

Admittedly, I envisage a long, continuous trip, without workshops and tech. But would a spare belt simply do? Or would a belt put more stress on bearings, and require more maintenance in other ways?


What happens if my rohloff gets wet when crossing a river? Another oil change? Should i instead go for a pinion gearbox bike? Or the derrailure system?

And what happens if I never leave the UK, and perhaps only go to Ireland? I'll have an expedition grade bike .... such expensive overkill. What size lock would I need?

So doubts have amassed, and it may be time to cancel the whole project. I've never bike toured anyway. I may not even enjoy it.

I had imagined touring the world, visiting buddhist monasteries, and meditating in my tent. Seeking enlightenment in the everlasting journey.


Thanks guys for all your help in imagining that journey.
.

Confused as ever.

BikeBuddha.

[Tiberius]

The very first thing NOT to do is give £4K to anyone until you've made your mind up, re where you're going and what you need.

[Bonefishblues]

That spec of bike has been arrived at by people who have done what you envisage time and time again - but you know that.

I think the key question is not is it the right bike spec., but are you still committed to the 'project'

[Jdsk]

I recommend that you do some touring somewhere on any bike that you can get your hands on before spending £4k.

Jonathan

[Bonefishblues]

I recommend that you do some touring somewhere on any bike that you can get your hands on before spending £4k.

Jonathan

TBF Jonathan, these issues have all been discussed at length on BB's earlier thread(s). I think we're in a go/no go scenario now!

[Stradageek]

The time to get fitted has come.

I'm about to give over 4K for a bike with v-brakes, rohloff hub, dynamo, and a standard chain, fitted with ortibleb panniers and usb lights.

I'm doubting the v brakes, as surely disc brakes would be best on Himalayan roads. All that dust and dirt grinding the rims. But I also need to think about being in back end of nowhere, and simple, replacement parts.

I'm thinking, that guy on cycling about, Alee, and how he says drive belts are tehe way to go, as he rides his alluminum, not steel, koga world traveller. Why am I having a chain?

Admittedly, I envisage a long, continuous trip, without workshops and tech. But would a spare belt simply do? Or would a belt put more stress on bearings, and require more maintenance in other ways?


What happens if my rohloff gets wet when crossing a river? Another oil change? Should i instead go for a pinion gearbox bike? Or the derrailure system?

And what happens if I never leave the UK, and perhaps only go to Ireland? I'll have an expedition grade bike .... such expensive overkill. What size lock would I need?

So doubts have amassed, and it may be time to cancel the whole project. I've never bike toured anyway. I may not even enjoy it.

I had imagined touring the world, visiting buddhist monasteries, and meditating in my tent. Seeking enlightenment in the everlasting journey.


Thanks guys for all your help in imagining that journey.
.

Confused as ever.

BikeBuddha.

The most comprehensive resource I know of (other than this forum of course ) is https://tomsbiketrip.com/

He covers everything!

[Bonefishblues]

The time to get fitted has come.

I'm about to give over 4K for a bike with v-brakes, rohloff hub, dynamo, and a standard chain, fitted with ortibleb panniers and usb lights.

I'm doubting the v brakes, as surely disc brakes would be best on Himalayan roads. All that dust and dirt grinding the rims. But I also need to think about being in back end of nowhere, and simple, replacement parts.

I'm thinking, that guy on cycling about, Alee, and how he says drive belts are tehe way to go, as he rides his alluminum, not steel, koga world traveller. Why am I having a chain?

Admittedly, I envisage a long, continuous trip, without workshops and tech. But would a spare belt simply do? Or would a belt put more stress on bearings, and require more maintenance in other ways?


What happens if my rohloff gets wet when crossing a river? Another oil change? Should i instead go for a pinion gearbox bike? Or the derrailure system?

And what happens if I never leave the UK, and perhaps only go to Ireland? I'll have an expedition grade bike .... such expensive overkill. What size lock would I need?

So doubts have amassed, and it may be time to cancel the whole project. I've never bike toured anyway. I may not even enjoy it.

I had imagined touring the world, visiting buddhist monasteries, and meditating in my tent. Seeking enlightenment in the everlasting journey.


Thanks guys for all your help in imagining that journey.
.

Confused as ever.

BikeBuddha.

The most comprehensive resource I know of (other than this forum of course ) is https://tomsbiketrip.com/

He covers everything!

The bike BB's getting is a direct descendant of Tom's bike, as seen in the shots and built by OBW in Oxon.

[simonhill]

Life's what happens while you make plans.

I'll carry on touring while he continues to plan.

[Mr.Benton]

I had a similar discussions with myself when I was choosing my new bike for my big South America Tour.
In the end I spent £600 on a second hand deraileur geared bike, and kept the remaining £3600 from my budget in the bank.

Yes it would have been nice to have a new bike, but I though having £3600 in the bank was a better option as it could pay for a new bike if mine was trashed or stolen, pay for emergency flights home, or even another 3 months on tour.

My advice, If you want to spend £4,000 on a bike, then do it and stop worrying about component X vs component Y.
The sooner you buy it and start to ride it the sooner you will start enjoying it.

[al_yrpal]

Read this guys book. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riaan_Manser

Are you just a dreamer?

Just do it....

Al

[bikepacker]

Life's what happens while you make plans.

I'll carry on touring while he continues to plan.

+1

[tatanab]

About 5 years ago, a local couple took about 8 months out to tour on a Rohloff with chain equipped tandem. They set off through Scandinavia, across Russia (i.e Gobi desert), into China, then New Zealand and home across North America. As I remember, they had the hub serviced by a specialist just once in the trip, plus a new sprocket. Brakes - rim brakes.

However, these were very experienced cyclists who had a good idea what equipment they could use, even if they had no previous experience of a trip of that scale.

[rareposter]

The time to get fitted has come.

I'm about to give over 4K for a bike with v-brakes, rohloff hub, dynamo, and a standard chain, fitted with ortibleb panniers and usb lights.

I'm doubting the v brakes, as surely disc brakes would be best on Himalayan roads. All that dust and dirt grinding the rims. But I also need to think about being in back end of nowhere, and simple, replacement parts.

Reading this post and some of your earlier ones, I'd be honestly surprised if you ever make it outside Scotland!

What happens if my rohloff gets wet when crossing a river? Another oil change? Should i instead go for a pinion gearbox bike? Or the derrailure system?

IME, it'll grind away for a bit then need sending away for an expensive service during which time you're without a bike. I know some people swear by Rohloff for their supposed indestructible nature; my experience with them is they're far more trouble than they're worth - the advantages of sealed gears fair outweighed by the lack of servicing options, expense, weight and completely custom nature of the bike. If you ARE going somewhere remote, you've got zero chance of ever getting that fixed.

So doubts have amassed, and it may be time to cancel the whole project. I've never bike toured anyway. I may not even enjoy it.

I had imagined touring the world, visiting buddhist monasteries, and meditating in my tent. Seeking enlightenment in the everlasting journey.

Well everyone needs a dream but most people tour by doing small stuff local to home on whatever they have, working out what they need, what they would like and building from there with an eye on where they're going and the facilities available. The weekend away becomes a week-long tour becomes a week-long tour with a couple of days bikepacking becomes a week-long full bikepack and so on. All through that you're learning what works, what you need to carry and how to pack/unpack it all.

Try reading One Man and His Bike by Mike Carter. He did a sort of spur of the moment tour of the UK, riding around the coastline, the book is a good example of all the stuff he learned from simply "setting off" one day without much of a plan other than keeping the sea to his right. The advantage was that he learned all this in a familiar country, didn't spend a fortune on a bike, he just used what he had. That way he quickly learned what he'd need, what worked and so on.
What he didn't do was spend £4000 on a custom bike that he'd compiled from internet posts and books!

Many years ago when I first got into MTBing, I had a basic bike (decent enough for its time) and I'd be reading all these MTB mags of top end kit and suspension forks that cost £££ and carbon was just coming onto the scene and I'd be sitting there thinking "if only..." and dreaming about my custom bike build. Then I realised that I'd have far more fun simply riding my existing bike around the woods with my mates.
I don't mean this to sound harsh but you're just chasing a dream waiting for the next best thing and the "best" bike for touring with the "best" parts, all compiled from a background of a few posts on here. In the 2 years that you've spent thinking about it, you could have done some amazing rides and tours and learned far more than you ever will on any internet forum.

As others on here have said: life is what happens while you make plans.

[BikeBuddha]

I once had a car. I was about to climb every munro and have six months off. A pipe broke in the car. Suddenly, I wondered whether i should sell the car or repair it.

The decision went on and on for weeks, even after i got the pipe fixed. Is it best to keep the car, or sell it? I could see no logic in any choice. In the end, the anxiety surrounding decision became so painful, I decided to buy a bike.

I settled on a daws galaxy, found a stockist, and went there with the intent to buy it. They didn't have it in stock, but tried to convince me to buy a gravel bike. Lots of brochures. More decisions. More fractal choices.

Meanwhile the car decision remained.


By now, I was stuck in the bike decision, and saw a guy touring Canada on YouTube. I had never seen a touring bike before. I grew excited.

So I read Tom Allen's book.

I contacted OXB.

But then I sold my car, then headed into the scottish mountains in a fit of depression. Then Covid happened.

Two years later, i find myself on the verge on buying a bike with the intent of going around the world... in a pandemic....

And the OCD remains. As does the severe personality disorder. And after a life time of misadventure, I stand on the precipice.... and wonder, am I doing something nuts?

Everybody here has made excellent, logical recommendations. I wish I had time to follow some of them. I wish i had seen that daws galaxy.and gone riding.

But, there's no turning back. All I have to do is buy a bike, put my bum on a seat, and know that that steel-framed beauty doesn't ruminate about the past, doesn't fear the future, and gives an endorphin rush better than any pill. I may never make it clear of scotland. But at least, after two years, I finally would have made a decision, for good, or for worse.

With our thoughts we ride the world.

Bike Buddha








Then i discovered I have OCD procra

Five months later, after much procrastination, the car got sold. I did not go off on my trip.

[DevonDamo]

This morning, I'd typed out a reply to your question but then decided not to click on 'submit' as what I'd written was inevitably going to be the same as what everyone else was going to write - i.e. 'the bike isn't the issue here - it's getting out and using it' - and I didn't want to be part of that pile-on.

So a revised answer... I know very little about OCD, other than apparently it's a much more debilitating condition than the popular trope of repeatedly going back to check you've locked your front door etc. However, I wonder if it's possible to use an interest like cycle touring in a therapeutic way, e.g. by changing your objectives from something unattainable, i.e. the perfect bike set-up, to something attainable, i.e. getting on the road at the absolute minimal cost? My thinking here is that it might be a bit like me on the rare occasions I drive my car - I've been able to move away from the idiotic 'must overtake everything' mindset to something a lot less antisocial by switching my focus from getting there fast to fuel economy. It's a lot easier to change your mindset by focusing on a positive thing to strive towards rather than a negative thing to avoid. If you were to switch your focus to touring on the absolute minimum budget possible, you'd inevitably start to come across stuff that works just as well, or better, than trendy stuff that costs vastly more, and that's always a sweet victory - especially when you get to annoy people by pointing out how much more value you've had out of your bargain-basement junk compared to their 'look-look-shiny-shiny' purchase.

I tour on a bike which would be considered crap by most, but which I've turned into the perfect tourer. It fits me, it's comfortable, it was cheap to buy, it's cheap/easy to maintain/fix (even abroad), it won't get nicked and it regularly carries such ridiculously heavy loads that passers-by give me the sort of comments you get on YouTube videos of people in far-off countries doing house-moves on a moped.

Apologies if I'm being naïve about your condition here. If you are genuinely compelled to strive towards perfection in terms of kit, then that's a clinical matter for which I think you'd probably need advice from a therapist rather than a bike enthusiast.