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Thorn Sherpa Build

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mickeg:
I think the Sherpa is rated for 30 or 35 kg of luggage, counting handlebar bag and water bottles.

I pasted this from the Sherpa brochure, page 7, brochure Issue 6, May 2009.
In the table above, you will notice that the smaller frames are made with Thorn 969
standard oversized tubing, these smaller frames are more resilient but will not carry
such a large all-up load, 20Kg is the maximum load at the rear and 8Kg is the
maximum for the forks.
The larger sizes are made from Thorn 969 extra oversized tubing, these are used to
keep the luggage carrying qualities, of the Sherpa, proportional to its size. These larger
frames are stronger but slightly heavier, they will carry in excess of 25Kg at the rear
and up to 8Kg at the front.

That FB one is likely a Mk I or Mk II. 

I had 31 kg on my bike on the trip where the photo attached is from, photo was taken about ten and a half years ago.  The bike handled the weight very well, no shimmy.  I have size 610S.

I bought my frame and fork in 2010 used from someone in Canada.  (I am in USA.)  He really liked the Sherpa but decided that he wanted a different size bike.  I am not sure how old mine is, I suspect 2008 or 2009.

Danneaux:
Hi Steve,

I find that Sherpa to be a nice looking bike...and agree with all Paul said about it in particular and the Sherpa generally. I owned a lovely Sherpa Mk2 and later rode the equivalent RavenTour on a long loaded tour, kindly loaned me by a friend. Now I own a Nomad Mk2. Having ridden all three, I'd say the Sherpa/RavenTour are good, solid heavy-duty touring bicycles. I found the upper weight limit for good handling in my estimation on rough roads to be about 25kg/56lbs of cargo. I just needed a sturdier machine for my expedition tours where the bulk of my weight is in water and food to sustain my solo back-of-beyond expeditions where I can't readily get to stores for resupply. By far, my biggest weight for desert touring is in water -- 26.5l, consumed at 8.5l/day.

That said, the RavenTour I rode (Sherpa Mk2 equivalent in most respects except for the Rohloff instead of derailleur drivetrain) was absolutely BRILLIANT on the exceptionally poor pavement and dirt tracks of Eastern Europe with four panniers, a HB bag and rear rack-top load (one-person tent and a solar panel there). I had plenty of capacity to carry a couple days' food and as much as 8.5l of water (needed each day in the heatwaves I encountered in Romania and Serbija) and it rode beautifully. I'd call it the ideal bike for my needs in those circumstances, just not for the extremes of expedition loads carried in equally extreme circumstance.

I had a gap in my stable for a derailleur bike with characteristics and weight somewhere between the Sherpa Mk2 and my Nomad Mk2, a sort of bikepacking oriented bike that would still feel lively with fat tires yet was capable of carrying a "heavy" but not extreme load in panniers on pretty poor surfaces. Keying off Paul's good advice, about 6 years ago, I picked up a 2007 Diamondback Transporter that had been a rental bike, then sold off through a reputable pawn shop. Cost me USD$135 and I removed the used drivetrain for use on another project, substituting a full nearly new Shimano Deore drivetrain and some wheels (one with a SON dynamo) I had built-up and had on hand. I prefer drop handlebars and wanted a more compliant fork, so I sourced two Sherpa Mk2 forks from SJS Cycles to get the ride I wanted and bring the handlebars up where I needed. One resulted in neutral handling with 57mm of trail, the other provides a relatively low-trail geometry at 40mm and I enjoyed the handling provided by the latter so much it has stayed in place. I prefer drop handlebars, so I left the steerer uncut and with a short 60-70mm stem extension and compact reach/short drop 'bars, my hands on the brake hoods are within 1mm of where they were on the original riser handlebars with a longer stem extension. It looks a but odd with its tall steerer but works brilliantly and as mentioned, my hands end up where they were before but oriented differently. The top tube looks and is low but mid-tube standover comes at the same place as it does on my Nomad. The crown race-to-dropout measurement on each of the Sherpa Mk2 forks dropped the head tube slightly, making it and the seat tube about 1.3° steeper. It really paid to research it all in advance and this of course affected resulting trail and which fork I sourced from SJS Cycles.

I later fitted some spares from my stock or sourced cheaply...front Tubus Duo and rear Cargo Evo from Craigslist bargains (our version of Gumtree) and bought and fitted a new Thudbuster LT sus-seatpost I got on a stacked sale (factory reduction + store reduction + some coupons and finally store credit...as I recall, it ended up costing me $35 out of pocket). Mudguards came from some rehabbed spares recovered with permission from the LBS trash skip along with new stays from PlanetBike.

The end result is what I call my "Enduro-Allroad" and performs brilliantly in its intended role; the all-'rounder of my fleet and one I find myself riding often because it is so versatile and pleasant. It came with some shallow dents and plenty of scratches thanks to its history as a rental bike, but none affect performance. I'd slot its performance as a tourer a bit above the Sherpa Mk2/RavenTour in terms of cargo capacity thanks to the enormous steel frame tubes, a 35mm top tube, 43mm(!) downtube, 19mm steatstays (same as my Nomad) and the compliance of the Sherpa Mk2 fork and TBLT seatpost. If I were to tour with a front-heavy load, I'd use the fork that provides 40mm of trail; with a rear-heavy or neutral load, I'd go with the 57mm of trail. Ideally, a rear-heavy load would have trail somewhere around 63-67mm. It is as happy with bags strapped to the frame.

Paul makes a very good point about how a seeming bargain often is anything but that once you get it personalized to your needs. If I hadn't already had the needed parts on hand (and a good place to put the ones I took off), the $135 I spent for what amounted to a frame only would have been the narrow end of the wedge toward spending upwards of USD$1,100+ more additional at online prices to get it working to my needs. So...a great project bike for me, basically a frame to hang parts I already had on hand, but something much "nicer" in appearance could have been had if I were spending retail. It also required a heck of a lot of work and thought to get everything working together; in the end I would probably has spent no more time cutting tube stock and brazing up a frame and fork from scratch (I'm a hobbyist framebuilder). The result works great, but it was in no way the integrated solution this Sherpa you spotted is, with all the geometry and basic parts designed to work together from the start. Andy Blance already did the hard work. Provided this Sherpa comes close to your needs, it could be a great bike for you but if it needs some things changed, swapped and upgraded here and there, then it'll get spendy real quick.

Best, Dan.

PH:

--- Quote from: mickeg on January 27, 2023, 07:52:47 pm ---I think the Sherpa is rated for 30 or 35 kg of luggage, counting handlebar bag and water bottles.

--- End quote ---
I know that sounds a lot, it's more than I'm ever likely to carry, and where you draw the lines is subject to your own interpretation.  The Sherpa is certainly heavy duty compared to Steve's Mercury!
I always equate heavy-duty as designed to do anything. The Sherpa had two heavier models above it at the same time, Nomad and EXP.  Thorn seem to have dropped the expedition level, maybe because the section of it not covered by MTB derived bikes is too small a market and best left to custom builders. I don't know, I'm just guessing. Even so, some of the current Nomad builds are rated to be 40kg+ and that's without bar bag and water bottles!

Danneaux:
When making my selections and perusing Thorn's catalogs, I tended to think of the bikes in American car-truck terms...

If we go with one brand, then...
Ford Mustang = Early Thorn go-fast derailleur bikes like the Cyclosportif or Brevet
Ford F-150, 1/2 ton pickup, standard duty = Audax/Mercury
Ford F-250, 3/4 ton pickup, heavy duty = Sherpa Mk2/RavenTour, later the Sherpa/Raven series that were downgrade slightly
Ford F-350, 1 ton pickup, Super Duty = Nomad Mk2

Put another way, if my Sherpa Mk2 was a WRC rally car on rough terrain, then my Nomad Mk2 is a Kamaz rally-raid truck.

Others may differ but for me, these comparisons helped me visualize the relative handling qualities, weight, and payload/cargo capacity for each of the Thorn bikes at the time I was buying.

Best, Dan.

martinf:
I did an old MTB conversion for my 2011 tour. Drop bars, lowest possible derailleur gears front and rear racks. Worked well on and off tarmac, except for muck on the drivetrain, mainly in bad weather.

I got a Thorn Raven Tour as replacement, after advice from Andy Blance at Thorn that I didn't need the heavier-duty Nomad for my intended use (cycle-camping in Western Europe with some use of tracks and paths).

He was right. The Raven Tour has been OK with large rear panniers, medium front panniers and, when necessary, more stuff strapped on the rear rack.

The Rohloff gearing, Chainglider, Thorn brand tubular steel front and rear racks were all improvements on my conversion.

The Nomad would have been a better choice if I had intended doing mainly off-road rides, the maximum tyre size on the Raven Tour is about 55 mm with mudguards.

AFAIK Sherpa is the derailleur equivalent of the Raven Tour. More recent Raven frames are slightly lighter duty than Raven Tour.

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