Author Topic: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?  (Read 5136 times)

CAX

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Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« on: January 06, 2018, 05:03:03 pm »
Hello,

Looking for feed-back on the Thorn Sherpa Step-Through frame.
My wife (164 cm) is unhappy with her current build which I made for her (based on a farradmanufaktur frame). As I happen to have a Sherpa 853 fork lying around I thought I might as well put it to use in a new build for her (it is with the correct off set). I'm carryring almost all luggage when we go on tour so she has no need for the ST fork. She learned biking as an adult so she is not a very good biker, hence I'd prefer to give her a step through/mixte frame where she can easy hop off the bike and reach the ground if needed (she has been biking for almost 20 years so it is unlikely she will become a good biker at this point).

any experience with this frame woudl be of interested, also pictures of finished builds.

Greetings from Germany!

jags

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2018, 12:05:43 am »
buy her a carbon race bike 8kl if your going to be carrying all the gear, better still a quality Ebike get her up those hills without any efford.
that's my tuppence worth.

Anto. ;)

CAX

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2018, 03:32:03 pm »
Ah, she does not want drop bars and e-bike is out of the quesiton as she commute to work with bicycle once or twice a week where she has to carry the bike up stairs occationally. Same for race bikes, we are not always going on roads suitable to a race bike.

jags

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2018, 04:14:52 pm »
i'm not a lover of 599 wheels to be honest or fat tyres .
i have conti hardshell 700x28 on my Audax  no problem on all kinds of terrain .
the sherpa is a good bike for sure but the front end is way to heavy the lighter forks will make it into a great bike.

anto.

Pavel

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2018, 04:40:24 pm »
I disagree with the thrust of Jags' post. The fastest bike is not the lightest bike in my opinion, but rather the most comfortable one.  Medium fat tires between 1.5 and 2.0" contribute immensely to that comfort and a step through, well fitted frame make a similar impact on the pleasure of riding. 

I don't have any experience with the step through frames and would be interested in feedback as well because my wife tried riding my Nomad but go so uncomfortable when having to stop that she refused to try ever again.  When she sees what we call a beach bike here, a balloon tyre, fully upright, monstrously heavy, step through - she often brings it up that "that" bike she could ride.  I'm almost drawn to the though of getting one.  It's so anti race bike, that I would consider it a public service to be seen on a bike for the common sense crowd. 


energyman

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2018, 08:29:05 pm »
They should make all e-bikes "step thru".
They are so top heavy that getting off & on can be a bit dodgy.
Also as one gets older getting ones leg over a cross bar becomes a bit of a problem.
« Last Edit: January 07, 2018, 08:30:37 pm by energyman »

mickeg

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #6 on: January 07, 2018, 08:37:05 pm »
I can't comment on the step thru type frames.  But I can say that if the problem is swinging the leg over the saddle that maybe a different technique is needed.  I bend my right knee sharply and swing my right leg over the top tube (my knee clears the top tube in front of the saddle).  Your wife might find that an easier way to get on and off a bike with a normal frame.

The reason I do it that way is because when I first started bike touring, I often had a big load of stuff on my rear rack and too many times I found myself slamming my shin into my stuff instead of clearing my leg over the saddle the way I would on an unladden bike.  So, I needed an alternate method.


Danneaux

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #7 on: January 07, 2018, 09:26:06 pm »
Quote
But I can say that if the problem is swinging the leg over the saddle that maybe a different technique is needed.
Agreed!

I'll sometimes lean my loaded tourers enough to step over the top tube, then tilt the bike upright.

Alternatively, I will sometimes find it easier to swing a leg over the handlebars and handlebar bag, as a front-split is easier for me then a back-split if there's a substantial load on the rear rack.

Best,

Dan.

Mike Ayling

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #8 on: January 07, 2018, 10:09:47 pm »

Also as one gets older getting ones leg over a cross bar becomes a bit of a problem.

I bloke that I used to ride with had this problem. He is in the advanced stages of cancer and does not have long to go now, but he could not cope with his e bike getting his leg over the bar.

Mike

Mike Ayling

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #9 on: January 07, 2018, 10:12:32 pm »
Probably heresy here but my wife and tandem partner decided that she should learn to ride a single  and settled on a nice red bike Friday!

Mike

j-ms

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2018, 03:43:23 pm »
My wife has a Raven Step-Through.  She is very happy with it.  She also re-assumed cycling later in life and feels more comfortable with the ST.  It's a very capable bike - we have completed almost ten thousand kilometers of loaded touring on it.  We are currently on the Carretera Austral in Chilean Patagonia and it is handling the infamous ripio with aplomb.  If you look at my account on Crazy Guy on a Bike you will find various photos of the bike in touring mode and others (https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/my/?o=1mr).

Andre Jute

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2018, 06:46:58 pm »
That leg-over business gets more and more undignified and fraught with advancing age. Significantly, Sheldon Brown, who thought deeply about all things bicycle, considered it altogether the wrong way to mount a bicycle. According to Sheldon, the correct way is to tilt the bike, put one leg over the top tube onto the pedal, and then to tilt the bike upright again. However, as Energyman has pointed out, an electrified bike can be heavy, and if the battery is on the rack, topheavy, which makes even the Sheldon-recommended mounting method fraught. It's probably smart to start with a low stopover if you're building or buying an electric bike. It needn't be ultralow; a mixte is already a huge advance on a big diamond frame.

BTW, as a schoolboy I rode a penny farthing from the local museum in a parade. The approved manner of mounting a penny farthing is to push the bike with your hands on the bars above your head, until you're almost running alongside it, then to climb with the far foot onto the step and swing the near leg over into the saddle. I didn't have time to learn this procedure so some mates and I devised an alternative. The crossbar in the rugby H (I grew up on South Africa, where rugby is the main  religion) goalposts is just the right height, so my chums would form a human pyramid up which I would run until I could grasp the crossbar of the goalposts, the pyramid would break away, and someone else who has been standing by with the bike would run up with it under me, I'd drop into the saddle and ride it on. The parade ended at the annual agricultural show where this Dance of the Schoolboys with Penny Farthing was mistaken for a gymnastic entertainment, and given a prize that should have gone to the choreographed swimming. Getting down from the penny farthing was as easy as stopping pedaling -- the thing is not geared and has no freewheel -- and falling over. The audience liked that part so much, we gave several reprises. The museum took the resulting damage to the period suit they issued me for the parade in good heart, but the next year asked me if I wouldn't instead of the penny farthing like to take their 1899 De Dietrich motorcar for a spin (they knew I could drive -- it was the current local scandal that I did 310 miles to Cape Town under three hours in a supercharged Packard). "Also," Miss Keays, the librarian who was on the museum board, said primly, "the clothes to go with the car are leather, beyond even your powers of destruction." I regret that I never got around to asking Sheldon the Bros way of dismounting a penny farthing.

Pavel

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #12 on: January 09, 2018, 12:45:35 am »
That leg-over business gets more and more undignified and fraught with advancing age. Significantly, Sheldon Brown, who thought deeply about all things bicycle, considered it altogether the wrong way to mount a bicycle. According to Sheldon, the correct way is to tilt the bike, put one leg over the top tube onto the pedal, and then to tilt the bike upright again. However, as Energyman has pointed out, an electrified bike can be heavy, and if the battery is on the rack, topheavy, which makes even the Sheldon-recommended mounting method fraught. It's probably smart to start with a low stopover if you're building or buying an electric bike. It needn't be ultralow; a mixte is already a huge advance on a big diamond frame.

BTW, as a schoolboy I rode a penny farthing from the local museum in a parade. The approved manner of mounting a penny farthing is to push the bike with your hands on the bars above your head, until you're almost running alongside it, then to climb with the far foot onto the step and swing the near leg over into the saddle. I didn't have time to learn this procedure so some mates and I devised an alternative. The crossbar in the rugby H (I grew up on South Africa, where rugby is the main  religion) goalposts is just the right height, so my chums would form a human pyramid up which I would run until I could grasp the crossbar of the goalposts, the pyramid would break away, and someone else who has been standing by with the bike would run up with it under me, I'd drop into the saddle and ride it on. The parade ended at the annual agricultural show where this Dance of the Schoolboys with Penny Farthing was mistaken for a gymnastic entertainment, and given a prize that should have gone to the choreographed swimming. Getting down from the penny farthing was as easy as stopping pedaling -- the thing is not geared and has no freewheel -- and falling over. The audience liked that part so much, we gave several reprises. The museum took the resulting damage to the period suit they issued me for the parade in good heart, but the next year asked me if I wouldn't instead of the penny farthing like to take their 1899 De Dietrich motorcar for a spin (they knew I could drive -- it was the current local scandal that I did 310 miles to Cape Town under three hours in a supercharged Packard). "Also," Miss Keays, the librarian who was on the museum board, said primly, "the clothes to go with the car are leather, beyond even your powers of destruction." I regret that I never got around to asking Sheldon the Bros way of dismounting a penny farthing.

Love that story Andre.  I spent my 17th and 18th year in Richards Bay, RSA.  I know what you mean by that religion called Rugby. 

Andre Jute

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Re: Experience with Thorn Sherpa Step Through?
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2018, 07:53:42 am »
I didn't add that at my House at Stellenbosch, rugby was compulsory, as indeed it was at my school, because most people without firsthand experience think I'm exaggerating or making a joke, and the dumber clowns, found on some other conferences, think I lie because they cannot conceive of anything that didn't happen on their street corner as possible.