Author Topic: Danneaux's Nomad  (Read 229654 times)

John Saxby

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #375 on: August 12, 2013, 02:50:17 am »
Hi all,

Re:  Dull & Boring:  heard about this on the CBC a while back.  I suggested that they cut the Gordian knot by going on holiday to a place in the Eastern Transvaal (as was) which Andre will probably know, Dullstroom.  Lovely spot, exemplary pancake house and craft market, with nearby trout streams for those into fly-fishing.

J.

Andre Jute

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #376 on: August 12, 2013, 01:12:57 pm »
Dullstroom!

I woke up in the hospital there once after a motor car accident. Loveliest nurses on earth. I didn't think it was dull at all!

You know all the best places, John.

Andre Jute

il padrone

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #377 on: August 12, 2013, 02:43:41 pm »

 ;D



 ;D

Danneaux

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #378 on: August 18, 2013, 06:02:08 pm »
Hi All!

For day rides, I normally mount the Nomad by swinging a leg over the saddle, but not so on tours. With morning-cold adductor muscles and a load atop the rear rack, I tend to lean the bike over and "step through" between the saddle and steerer and there's a possibility of scuffing the top tube with my shoe.

Deciding it is better to be proactive than fix things after the fact, I carefully cut and applied a layer of protective tape to the top tube using the same Trim-Brite matte black windshield trim tape I use to prevent cable housing scuffs. It matches the Nomad's paint in color and gloss, has a low-creep adhesive to prevent furry edges, and is durable enough to withstand the flailing brushes of repeated automatic car washes. Best of all, it can be removed and replaced when desired. It comes in a 1-3/8" x 20' roll available from American auto parts stores and a number of online retailers, including these:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SLC-T9005/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00029XD62/?tag=newaug2012-20

The good news is, it is almost invisible (see attached photos) and should shield the paint from scuffs and sweat.

Best,

Dan.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2015, 07:02:34 am by Danneaux »

mickeg

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #379 on: August 18, 2013, 10:57:45 pm »
For when I lean the bike against a post for parking or locking it to something, I keep a short piece of pipe insulation on the top tube with velcro, as shown here.

jags

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #380 on: August 18, 2013, 11:06:54 pm »
Wow your well loaded up .

revelo

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #381 on: September 30, 2013, 08:51:19 pm »
The loaded bike weighed 138 lbs (bare bike was 45lbs, so the net wet load was 93lb) and the loaded trailer weighed 45lbs (bare trailer weighs 12lbs, so the net wet load was 33lbs). Total weight of all rolling stock was 183lb. Kitted out for riding, I added another 174lbs.  That is a lot of weight...

It certainly is. What are you carrying to have so much weight? My own max weight is 23L water, 7kg food, 8kg camping gear, 3kg bike repair kit and spares, 1kg books and maps, or about 42kg total. (I count the panniers and other carrying gear as part of the bike itself, but that would add only 3kg more.)

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The Picaridin-based insect repellent was brilliant. I ran into heavy mosquito populations as well as deer flies, and both hovered in clouds about my face but either didn't land or didn't stay to bite if they did touch down. They seemed confused. The smell was pleasant, it wasn't greasy, and no worries about damage to plastics.

Question for you: is this along the coast? Is the mosquito situation there similar to coastal California around Arcata? Because I was thinking of touring around there next July to avoid the heat in the Lassen area.

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• Chief among these was the Extrawheel trailer -- for my bike and use in these conditions. So, what was the problem?

I continue to think trailer is a bad idea, in so many ways. I still don't understand what you are carrying to require a trailer in addition to 4 panniers plus rack bags plus extra large water bottles in the bottle cages. As for mudguards, Andy Blance doesn't use them for touring: 'Nuff said.

Also, those Duremes should be replaced by 55-559 Mondials, you haven't spent enough time on dirt roads if you disagree.

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My MSR Dromedary 10l bags smell and taste terrible almost to the point of rendering the water stored in them almost undrinkable. I understand others have experienced this with Ortlieb water bags as well. MSR say this is not present a health issue, but when I decanted the water, it looked like it contained soap suds. I live about .75 miles south of a water-treatment facility, and my water has considerable quantities of chlorine and now bromine as well. The chlorinated/brominated water is known to react with these linings, and I followed the recommendation to fill the bags with baking soda and very hot water, let stand overnight, then decant and rinse, filling with clear water and allowing to dry. This worked initially, but when I took care to fill that Dromedary and another (virgin) example only with distilled bottled water, the "chemical" smell and taste became evident after only a few hours. I understnd the MSR Platypus water bags have no such taste/odor issues, but they are not as robust as the Dromedaries or the Ortlieb versions. This is a problem I need to resolve, as water stores are critical to my desert tours.

Not sure what is going on here. Water from my Dromedaries always tastes very clean coming out if it was clean going in. (Water in Reno is clean mountain water, as is all the water in Lassen, whereas water down near the lower Colorado river near Bullhead City, for example, where I'll be heading later this year is horrible tasting with chemicals.) I use 6L Dromedaries (better than 10L because you can spread 4 bladder among 4 panniers to get 22L capacity, since the actual capacity for field use is only 5.5L/bladder) and I have no problems with smell or soapy bubbles, even though they have been used for hundreds of days of backpacking and bicycle touring, and the ones used for backpacking have had untreated water put in them. Up to now, I've been throwing a Micropur clorine-dioxide tablet into each bladder every couple of weeks, to keep them fresh. Each of these tablets is intended to purify only a single liter of water, but I figure if the water itself is already clean, the chlorine dioxide should mop up whatever bacteria has accumulated on the bladder fabric.  REI has replaced Micropur with MSR Aquatabs, which is some sort of chlorine compound, which should work similarly. Another possibility someone recommended to me is denture cleaning tablets.

Note that I had to replace one of my MSR dromedaries due to a pinhole leak from a cactus or other thorn during one of my tours, which is a good reason to have many smaller bladders rather than a single large bladder.

Where I have had problems is with my Nalgene bottles that I carry in the bike cages. I had to put 30 drops of MSR Sweetwater solution (sodium hypochlorite, or standard bleach absent the perfumes they put in laundry bleach) in each .6L bottle to clean them, even though the instructions say on 5 drops per full liter. And even having cleaned them, they still start to stink again very quickly. I only use these bottles for washing (rinsing my face of salt, cleaning up after defecating, brushing my teeth, cleaning the bike chain), so the smell doesn't worry me too much. That crazy "tired of i.t." guy also had problems with this brand of bottle (but then he has problems with everything, including busting several Andra rims, busting his spokes, busting several click-stands, etc). I like these bottles because they support the MSR 3-in-1 cap, which I also use on the Dromedaries, and so are spares if the 3-in-1 cap fails (I had a failure during a hiking trip in Spain this past spring).

And yes, water is the key to desert touring.

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The area where I traveled has essentially no cellphone service. Verizon has easily the best coverage here, but there was nothing available from the time I entered the coast range until near the city limits of Waldport, on the Oregon Coast. That meant my 4G LTE hotspot wouldn't work either. The data bytes I purchased for it were only good for a week with no rollover and so were wasted on this trip. It worked great at home. Visiting owners of GSM phones be advised: Verizon is a CDMA network, incompatible with GSM. Forum member John Saxby advised me he had very limited use of his AT&T GSM phone west of the Missouri River and really limited use away from population centers in the rural West. I need to look into a sat-phone and its operating costs.

Is there a reason you need phone service outside of towns?

For visiting GSM owners: You have to get the more expensive contract ATT service to enable roaming with all the smaller networks in the small towns. The prepaid ATT service only works on ATT's own network, which focuses on the larger towns. And there is never ATT (or other mobile) service outside of towns, other than along the interstate highways.

Somewhere else I noticed you mentioned Alvord, Oregon. Very bad idea to tour in the Great Basin other than in September/October. Ideal time is centered around September 30. However, you will need to watch the weather, because there can be early season storms even in early October. But the snow won't last long. July will be miserably hot. Really bad idea. Worse idea than that trailer even.

Danneaux

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #382 on: October 01, 2013, 07:32:07 pm »
Hi Frank!

We all have our own ways of cycling and touring, valid for each of us.

Yes, there are mosquitoes, deer flies, chiggers, and ticks here in much of Oregon; the mosquitoes can carry West Nile Virus and the ticks can carry the Lyme Disease, Ehrlichiosii, and Bebasia I contracted. Heavy concentrations or all exist along the coast and especially near Bandon, where a marsh has been re-created as a wildlife habitat ( http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/08/bandon_mosquito_infestation_ha.html ). The swarms of biting insects are proving a real challenge for local residents. A good part of the Coast range is habitat to mosquitoes, and the Calapooyas and wetter/snowier parts of the Cascades are, too. My father returned home from a trip we took covered with over 400 chigger bites, despite using DEET to ward them off. The Malheur Wildlife Preserve and a good part of the Hart Mountain Preserve's lowland areas are homes to many mosquitoes, and West Nile virus is well entrenched in Grant and Malheur counties.

Traveling the desert in the midst of summer, I do need to take more than the usual amount of water, particularly if I am to be away from resupply for some time. The trailer does provide a way to carry extra while allowing me to also take the larger food stores I need to remain independent of resupply and in the back-country longer than would otherwise be possible.

True, Andy Blance doesn't use mudguards, but I prefer them long and fitted with very long mudflaps, finding they keep me and my drivetrain much drier and cleaner and longer-lived than without. Yes, they can sometimes clog, but I've found them particularly handy in talc-fine playa and again when the playa gets wet and sticky.

Similarly, I toured the same areas for many years on 700x32C and narrower road slicks and came to prefer them for pavement, dirt roads, gravel roads, fire and logging roads and true off-road use cross-country  (where they are often kinder to trails and cause less erosion than knobbies); much depends on riding technique. On everything except wet grass, I found they provided adequate tracton while minimizing pick-up of mud and wet playa. The 50mm Duremes are the widest tire I've used and have as much tread as I'd like; I can see some Supremes in my future for use in the same kind of terrain. I started riding "with intent" in the days before mountain bikes when cyclo-cross bikes made dandy off-roaders.

The greatest benefit of smooth(ish) tires, mudguards/fenders, and generously long mudflaps for me has been a clean drivetrain, even with derailleurs. This has proved a winning combo for me in desert touring as well as in Europe, where my touring partner ran without mudguards and the contrast was stark: My open drivetrain was virtually untouched by water, mud, dirt, manure, and the sand of Dutch off-road tracks, while his drivetrain, gear and clothing was thoroughly crusted. Because the drivetrain stays cleaner, I have to clean and lube far less often than others who eschew 'guards. On balance, this combo has worked well for me. I have periodicaly tried touring and cycling with and without 'guards and have always quickly returned to using them again.

Since I come to cycling from road bikes (and used them off-road as well), I also swim upstream against the current MTB and Trekking influences by continuing to prefer drop handlebars. I'm no iconoclast, just sticking with what has worked well for me or 35 years of touring in the Great Basin and American West. I like the extra hand and back positions drops allow and prefer them in the frequent headwinds I encounter.

The best water bottle I've found to date for my needs is the Zéfal Magnum, with 1 liter capacity. Despite its volume, it fits securely in a standard cage, doesn't leak if the top is screwed tight, has a tight-fitting but soft stopper, and has never imparted a smell or taste to my water. I use the black ones and have no experience with the translucent version.
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Is there a reason you need phone service outside of towns?
Yes, there is. I spend considerable time away from towns and services and ride alone. I find it useful to have phone service in the event I am hurt or injured and need assistance. At other times, cell service is useful to provide an internet connection for my 4G LTE portable wifi hotspot so I can continue to do my work while on-tour or to upload photos or installments for a blog. I have found Verizon provides the best cell-tower coverage in the areas I ride.
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Very bad idea to tour in the Great Basin other than in September/October.
For the most part, I've had good success touring the Great Basin in High Summer, provided I plan carefully and take extra supplies of food and water. Of course weather is the ultimate determining factor, and it caused me to cancel my plans this summer, due to a period of unusually high temperatures and wildfires that would have hemmed-in my route and rendered air quality very poor. Alvord is a matter of timing. Go too early or late and much of it is a shallow lake. Hit it right -- usually in High Summer -- and it is very ridable and the shadow of Steens Mountain makes it practical to ride much of the day.

So, different strokes for different folks; we all have our preferences and get there in the end with whatever works best for each.

Best,

Dan.
« Last Edit: October 01, 2013, 11:18:03 pm by Danneaux »

revelo

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #383 on: October 02, 2013, 12:58:05 am »
Whatever. I think it's sort of sad when you take an absolutely superbly designed and built bike (the expedition-level Nomad) and then sabotaged it with a trailer. Because you are forum administrator, prospective buyers might get the impression that your method is the wise way to do things with a Nomad when carrying heavy loads, and thus wonder why bother with an expensive Nomad rather than cheaper bike. Whereas the truth is that a trailer is simply a low-cost option for people who've already spent a lot of money on a lightweight touring bike and can't afford a bike like the expedition-level Nomad which can carry huge amounts of weight on the bike itself.

For selfish reasons, I'd like to see both Thorn and Rohloff thrive. I'd love to have a Thorn and Rohloff distributorship/service center here in Reno, for example. And I'd like to see more people bike touring dirt roads, so that they continue to be open to bike touring and bike touring becomes considered a vital part of the economy, similar to RV'ing (caravaning in Britain). Which is why I get a little ticked off when I see someone right in my neighborhood, riding the same Nomad bike as me in the same types of environments as me, doing things in a way that is pretty much guaranteed to cause problems. People reading about these problems who don't know better will start to think Thorn's design or build is the cause of these problems, rather than blaming the modifications to Thorn's standard expedition configuration.

JimK

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #384 on: October 02, 2013, 02:25:00 am »
bike touring becomes considered a vital part of the economy

One of my goals is to see long distance multi-day rides become a vital part of the transportation network, a perfectly normal way to get from point A to point B.

Here: http://kevinanderson.info/blog/hypocrites-in-the-air-should-climate-change-academics-lead-by-example/ is a related essay on travel modalities.

I appreciate Dan's hard work at keeping the spammers away etc. when he wears his administrator hat and also his many insights based on lots of experience as a forum contributor. Yeah, some of his ideas are a bit wild... but he's hardly the only genuine character here! Maybe he should have two user IDs to keep the roles separate... but I suspect there is not much confusion.

You, Frank, are certainly another person with an amazing depth of experience and insight. I have spent a lot of time on your website! I hope you can contribute a lot of your thinking here, too! I am working toward vaster expeditions... inch by inch! It is great to get the differing points of view and the various angles pro and con whatever. I am trying to use the controversies to development some contentment with what I have - since there is no consensus that any other set-up is better! Spend less, ride more!

 

il padrone

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #385 on: October 02, 2013, 07:17:21 am »
Whatever. I think it's sort of sad when you take an absolutely superbly designed and built bike (the expedition-level Nomad) and then sabotaged it with a trailer. Because you are forum administrator, prospective buyers might get the impression that your method is the wise way to do things with a Nomad when carrying heavy loads, and thus wonder why bother with an expensive Nomad rather than cheaper bike. Whereas the truth is that a trailer is simply a low-cost option for people who've already spent a lot of money on a lightweight touring bike and can't afford a bike like the expedition-level Nomad which can carry huge amounts of weight on the bike itself.

I took my Nomad around Central Australia..... along the Mereenie Loop Road, out to Uluru, then across to Finke and along the Andado Track. With an Extrawheel trailer. It extended my carrying capacity notably for food for up to 8 days, and water for up to 3-4 days. 23L of water and about 12kgs of food on top of the normal touring load. I reckon I had up to 60kg on board at times and the trailer spread this over 3 wheels (not insignificant in very sandy tracks). It also reduced any potential load stresses on my pannier racks.





Russell Worthington also used a trailer (but not a Thorn, a Fatbike I think) for his 10 DEserts Tour, through evry desert in Australia




I don't really see any significant problems or downside with touring with the trailer. I've done two expedition tours with it - one of 5 weeks and another of 12 weeks. On both of these the trailer ran almost faultlessly. I certainly cannot see how using a trailer for expedition touring will somehow damage Thorn's good reputation or worsen their support as a high quality bike supplier.
« Last Edit: October 02, 2013, 08:59:14 am by il padrone »

Danneaux

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #386 on: October 22, 2013, 07:46:07 pm »
Hi All!

An idle Danneaux is a terrible thing to contemplate, so when I've had a few moments, my thoughts turned to redundant systems for my solo, self-supported adventuring in the back-of-beyond.

Although Rohloff failures are few and far between, it would be nice to have a bailout option in such circumstances. Peace of mind and all that.

I already checked and confirmed my ProblemSolvers universal emergency derailleur hanger ( http://problemsolversbike.com/products/universal_derailleur_hanger ) will indeed fit my Nomad. It is supplied with two anti-rotation studs; you just remove the unneeded one and secure the hanger in place of your hub quick-release nut. With one of these little hummers, a standard rear mech and 135mm OLN cassette hub could be substituted for the Nomad. The needed cable housing could simply be zip-tied to the chainstay and downtube, and friction shifter clamped to one of the T-bars for continued use as a 9-speed until a sick hub could be returned to service. A standard 11-32 touring cassette would give me 9 gears in a range of 29-85 gear-inches; not bad for a general use emergency derailleur setup.

Unfortunately, where I go there are *no* bike shops to acquire a replacement wheel, so I've been thinking about alternatives. My Nomad has the disc-capable Rohloff hub and the disc BCD s 64mm -- the same as a standard 4-bolt inner chainring. I figured fitting one of these would give me the option to run Fixed if need be and for little weight penalty; the emergency chainring/cog would self-store on the hub in place of a disc. Adding a short length of chain with two quick-links and adjusting the EBB would see me on my way again quickly. With my 36T chainring and 26x2.0 tires, I'd end up with a 43 gear-inch combination; not bad as a compromise gear for all conditions and it would surely beat pushing the bike Out in the extremely unlikely event of a Hub Emergency. With my hummingbirdlike cadence of 110-120RPM, I'd top out at a touring-reasonable 15mph/24kph or so and the bike would have brakes, unlike most Fixies I've ridden. Perhaps not pleasant, but a welcome alternative to being afoot with bike-as-wheelbarrow.

With these thoughts in mind, I snagged an unused stainless 22T chainring with plain, tall teeth on eBay for USD$6.41 postpaid and promptly etched, then shot it with a two-part catalyzed polyurethane in satin black to match the Rohloff's anodizing and keep with the all-black scheme. Of course now it is painted, I find the lower part of the 'ring's mounting bosses interfere with the disc mounting lands on the hub, so the "cog" will require some milling to achieve a fit (see photos). Basic clearances look good at this point for achieving a proper chainline, but I'll remeasure to confirm.

Just thought I'd post photos for those who might be interested in the latest Danneaux Project In Progress.

Best,

Dan. (...who wants a ready ehm, "Fix" if he finds something Broken  :D)
« Last Edit: October 22, 2013, 07:49:07 pm by Danneaux »

brummie

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #387 on: October 22, 2013, 08:47:51 pm »
Dan, How do the two chainrings line up for your 'chainline' ?
 

Danneaux

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #388 on: October 22, 2013, 09:12:33 pm »
Quote
Dan, How do the two chainrings line up for your 'chainline' ?
Brummie, I'll need to check for sure once I mill the cog for clearance, but it looks encouraging for a 54mm chainline according to advance measurements and calculations.

If you're contemplating this, hold off till I confirm. It is a work in progress, and I will have to back-burner it for a couple weeks due to the press of work/other tasks. I may have to move the main chainring to the outer position on my 4-arm, 104BCD Deore crank, in place of my bash guard. We'll see.

Two-way torque calculations for the resultant 43in low look within spec to match braking forces for a mounted Rohloff disc, but I will check this as well.

A big concern on my test rig was to get a chainring with deep teeth and no indexed tooth profiling that could lead to derailment when used as a cog if chainline were slightly less-than-perfect. I used to use chainrings as low-gear cogs on my freewheels back in my earlier gearhead/climbing nut days. Freewheel cogs made dandy chainrings, too. The combo meant lows of 10-12 gear-inches and high torque loads that resulted in some very tightly screwed-on freewheels 'til I discovered crushable aluminum spacers and molybdenum disulphide paste as a high-pressure thread lubricant.

At the moment, I'm getting a lot of play/fun in return for my USD$6.41.  ;D

Stay tuned.

All the best,

Dan.

Danneaux

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Re: Danneaux's Nomad
« Reply #389 on: October 22, 2013, 11:03:37 pm »
For those who have written me to ask...

"Dan, what does your Nomad look like when you run 1.5in road slicks with the mudguards set to generously clear 2.0in Duremes?"

...I answer: "Like a gawky adolescent going through the 'difficult' teen years". Pic attached below. Lots of clearance, for sure.

Result is a bike that feels and is a little bit faster to accelerate, thanks to the reduced rotating weight of the smaller, lighter Bontrager SR1s ( http://bontrager.com/model/09094 ). The change in tire profile results in a bit less trail. Lots of fun to try, but the need for 55psi pressures (as opposed to my usual 29/34psi F/R) makes it a tradeoff, as the ride is less comfortable. After an enjoyable trial, they went onto the tandem to replace an older pair of the same. Just about perfect pumped to 85psi F/R on the Double Bike's 72in wheelbase, which soaks up a lot of vibration and includes a sus-'post for the stoker's comfort.

Best,

Dan.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2015, 07:03:31 am by Danneaux »