Thorn Cycles Forum
Community => Member's Gallery => Topic started by: Andybg on June 04, 2013, 06:42:33 PM
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The card has been swiped. The money withdrawn.
Yet another Thorn bike wanders its way over to Bulgaria.
I have taken the plunge and bought one of the last of the old style Raven Tours in size 587s in Rosso Red with drop bars in a very basic build including rohloff hub and standard Rigida Andre rims.
Having hummed and harred for the last six months on what bike to replace my 587L Raven Tour with straight bars, I have gone for almost the same bike but just 55mm shorter and this time with a much lower and cost sensible build (yes the wife is considering seperate bank accounts if I dont kerb my bike buying adiction)
Fingers crossed on its safe trans european voyage heer and I will post pictures as soon as it is unpacked.
Andy
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Sounds absolutely wonderful, Andy, and I'm nearly as excited for its arrival as you -- can't wait to hear ride impressions and see photos.
Rosso Red! Man! It will be a beauty, for sure, and likely far more suited to your riding style and preferences. That is so very important; if the bike just doesn't feel "right", a person won't ride it as much. (yes the wife is considering seperate bank accounts if I dont kerb my bike buying adiction)
Hmm. Andy, I have the solution. Simply remind her this is...one of the last of the old style Raven Tours
...so it can't happen again! ;) <ducks and runs> Well, *this* bike won't happen again, right? ;D
All the best, and congratulations!
Dan. (...who never falls short when rationalizing a new ride)
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Andy!
Any word on the marvelous red bike? Has it arrived at your place yet?
Best,
Dan. (...who is nearly as excited as you and can't wait to see photos of it)
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Hi Dan
Bike arrived from Thorn to Marina's sister last Friday. Due for pick up from there today and arrival here in Bulgaria next Monday. I have been very well behaved this week with the only purchase for it being a Cateye Strada computer.
Dont worry as soon as it arrives I will get some good photos of it up
Cheers
Andy
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best of luck with the new baby Andy.
dont forget the photos.
jags.
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Live Update:
The bike was collected at 14:30UK time from Marina's siter's and she now officialy making her way over to Bulgaria. The seven day timer has now started. Better get a space cleared for her in the workshop and start explaining to the other bikes that a new one does not mean I love them any less....
Andy - who is going silently mad awaiting her arrival
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Hah know how you feel Andy ,always a great feeling to get something you really want.
pity my audax dream fell through but never mind one of these days. ::)
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*So* glad she's on the way, Andy. Now, if you can just manage to make it through the intervening days without pieces (yours) falling off...! That's always the way I feel at such times, anyway. There's a sort of high-frequency keening that goes through one's head and body. Checking the clock, the hands just.don't.move.
Ah, soon, Andy. She'll be there soon, with the other bikes waiting in welcome.
All the best,
Dan.
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A bit of bad news. The bike has been delayed delivery till Thurday pm and am due to leave on a long weekend on Friday morning so it looks like it will be next Tuesday before I get to unwrap her.
Andy
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The bike has been delayed delivery till Thurday pm and am due to leave on a long weekend on Friday morning so it looks like it will be next Tuesday before I get to unwrap her.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! :o
Well, time will pass, no matter how glacially, and when you return...Wow! What a thing to find on the doorstep!
Fingers crossed for a safe delivery, and best wishes your way, Andy.
Best,
Dan.
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Atlast my new bike has arrived (No fault of Thorn). Have got her unpacked. built up and out for a test ride. Everything running perfectly and very happy with her. Only small additions to her are spd pedals (am giving them a go after destroying 4 pairs of trainers this year from wear and tear on the souls) and a cateye strada computer. I went for the cateye strada slim which was a mistake because not only is the computer slim but so is the sensor. So slim in fact that it needs a 15mm spacer to get within sensing distance of the magnet. \definetly a short term solution.
A few pictures to digest
A very happy bunny
Andy
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Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Andy! What a beauty!
Just simply a gorgeous bike, and simple in its beauty as well, with a very clean build...just mudguards, bell, and computer, making for a very athletic appearance.
I keep coming back to see the photos again, and they're a pleasure to view each and every time.
All congratulations your way, Andy! What a ride!
All the best,
Dan.
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WOW love it Andy 8)
enjoy it looks like a bike that could tackle any kind of terraine in comfort. ;)
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Thanks Guys
Yes she sure is a beauty. I am sure before long she will get racked and stacked but for the time being I am just going to enjoy her as she is.
Well maybe I'll change the saddle.. And maybe a Carradice Super C Audax saddle bag and ......
Decisions, deciscions decisions...
Aint that just the fun bit
Andy
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Aint that just the fun bit
Yes!
...and hoping you'll take us along on the journey as she gets built-up "Andy-style"!
There'll be none finer, and she'll be truly yours!
All the best,
Dan.
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Brill Andy!
Its almost the same as mine, except I have a Alfine hub.
A burning question from me Andy......
You went from a L frame with straights to a S frame with drops, how have you found this?
I struggled with the shorter top tube at first, even now I sometimes wonder if a Longer frame would have been more suitable.
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Hi Ian
I found them as different as chalk and cheese. Although am happy with straight bars with bar ends to get my wrists in a comfortable position I found the long frame just rode like a totaly different bike and felt almost bus like in comparison. Having said that I come from a roadie background and find anything with a long top tube (even my genesis mountain bike) feels a bit remote when riding. It was not so much the reach for me as this can be dealt with with different stems it was more the longer wheelbase made the bike feel slow. Excellent for a touring bike but when you are wanting the bike to do double duty as a heavy duty day ride bike it just did not have that alive feel.
Not sure if my explanation helps but fair to say there is a massive difference in feel between the two.
Andy
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Ye think I understand Andy, thanks.
Great looking bike :)
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I managed to get he new bike racked up and out for a good 60km ride. The second half with 40kg of frozen food in the panniers
Thank god for low gears on the climb back home
Am very happy with the bike - just playing with fit now. Have shortened the stm to 100mm and need to take out for another run to review
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The last picture was so good I thought I would post it twice - lol
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great photos Andy bike looks like it went through its paces on that ride.
just curious why didn't you go for a dynamo set up, as it looks like you do plenty of night riding going by the the 2 lights up front. ;)
anyway great set up enjoy.
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thanks jags. I do a lot of night riding but only for 2-4 hour rides so batteries work just as well. I may move to a dynamo at some point if I can find the right light
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Now that's a proper bike, with its feet dirty too. I do like those Carradice panniers, which ones are they?
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Andy!
The new bike is looking simply wonderful, and so good to see it in "fighting trim" with racks, mudguards, lights, bottle, Click-Stand, and a terrific set of Carradice bags ("Nothing says Expedition like Carradice" is what I always think when I see them!).
Did you trim the steerer a smidge?
Really, really nice, Andy, and a bike you can surely be proud to own. Fine, fine!
Best,
Dan.
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The steerer is as supplied. It is about the right height luckily but I would hav liked it longer so I could have put an accessory bar on above to hold my lights. One less thing to move over if I change to staight bars for snow riding. The bags are carradice super c and am very happy with them
Andy
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Cool. Whats the prop stand ? (per Dan, a click-stand). Do you have a link for these, and how do you carry it ?
It would look a lot better with full panniers mind.
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Yes the satnd is a click stand and the details of which can be found here:
http://www.click-stand.com/
I found their service and postage charges to Europe to be excellent.
Got the bike out for a run today unloaded and managed to find a new route to take, taking in an old disused jeep trail up to an old wood felling area. As I was coming back down, I was spending too much focus on thinking this would be a nice spot for a photo that I tried to ride up the side of the jeep tyre gulley and with the recent new sdp pedals a lovely fall an slide. Unbattered I took these two photos. We are lucky enough here to have thousands of km of these un mapped and free access tracks needing exploring.
On returning back home I told the wife I had had a fall - her first question - you havent scratched the bike have you? - A woman after my own heart - lol
Andy
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ah i love that woman fair play to her ;D ;D
gret pics andy keep em coming.
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Oh, what wonderful places to ride, Andy -- any Adventure cyclist's dream come true!
Sorry to hear you the spill, but so long as you -- and the bike! -- are both okay, it simply adds to the day's adventures.
Terrific photos, Andy, and a real pleasure to see the bike out and about. I'm wondering...could this be your new, definitive all-'rounder? I realize it still has the Novelty of New about it, but I'm ticking the boxes as you update:
• Fastish on the roads, and comfortable with your familiar drop handlebars
• Low-maintenance Rohloff drivetrain
• A competent (and then some!) carrier of loads and frozen foods
• A reasonable off-roader/Jeep trail-er
Hmm. Sounds like an All-'Rounder to me!
Best,
Dan. (...who thinks it looks wonderful and is begging for a proper name to call it by)
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A few pictures from todays ride:
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And a couple more:
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Just as a bit of information - these pictures were taken around and about Veliko Tarnovo which used to be the capital city of Bulgaria until the end of the ottoman rule in the early part of the 20th centuary.
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Andy!
The new red bike is looking wonderful in these shots, and I'm so glad to see it being used in such beautiful countryside. The view from the bridge in the first one is fantastic, and I love seeing the architecture in town with what appears to be many terraced buildings. Please, can you tell us the name of the city or where it is near?
How do you find the shifter placement, Andy? Is it proving convenient and ready to hand? Looks good!
Love the look of the lighting, and the bell placement on the left side of the T-bar.
All the best,
Dan. (...who thinks Andy narrowly missed being first to a scene of recent carnage in the last photo on the bridge! :o)
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Ah! Our posts crossed, Andy. Just stunning countryside! I've *got* to see this in person someday. No wonder you enjoy living there; hard to imagine any scenes more interesting or breathtaking on the whole.
All the best,
Dan. (...who thinks adding a red bike makes any scene that much better!)
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Hi Dan
Yes the shifter placement works well. I need to trim the attachment for the cateye light as the extra bit of tab makes seeing what gear you are in tricky but apart from that it works very well.
I have been struggling with a sore back for the last week and on todays ride I played with the saddle position and found that I had to raise the saddle by nearly 2cm to get it to the sweet spot. I set the saddle up to mirror my Nomad so I am not sure if this extra height is due to moving to spd pedals and shoes or is down to some slightly different frame geometry.
The stange thing is that my back never hurt on the bike but just generally for the rest of the time. I always set my saddle height to have my saddle as high as I can get it without my hips rocking and have never had any discomfort before.
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It has been a busy year this year moving forward with work on the house so not much time (or energy) for either cycling or forum participation. For some bizarre reason 8 years ago I bought a derelict 30 room school and started rebuilding it. I am now 8 years into a 10 year project so hopefully soon I will be able to give my cycling a bit more attention.
I have still been predoninetly riding my old derailleur Nomad in preferrnce to the Tour but with winter just round the corner I have been getting the Tour ready to take over duties as soon as the weather turns.
I do not know what makes the Nomad so sweet to ride but it is proving very difficult to replicate.
There has been a few changes made to the Tour and some other options still on the table.
I have converted to straight bars. Although I prefer drops I struggled last year to control the bike in snow so have moved fromm 44cm wide drops to 55cm straight bars. To replicate the reach and my position on the bike I have fitted Ergon GP5 barends which I have used before and like.
Tyre wise I am still tuning a final setting for it. Currently it is fitted with 26X2.0 Marathon Deluxe which are so nice to ride that I have earmarked them to change over onto the Nomad to replace its standard 1.75 wide Marathons. I have bought a set of Marathon extremes in 2.25 for the Tour which should hopefully give me good grip in poor conditions and the ability to go investigate some tracks. As the weather detiorates to snow and ice I will be fitting the Schwalbe Ice Spiker 2.1 which I used to great effect last year.
To make changeover between bikes easier I have fitted mounts for my cateye lights across the fleet and have also installed a carradice sqr uplift system to allow me to move my saddlebag around. I have also fitted monkii nuts to each of the bikes which allows me to move my bottles/cages between bikes.
Saddle wise I have decided on the B17 narrow. I have tried the B17 standard and tried to settle with it as I have two of them but have firmly come to the decision that I am going to have to replace them with the narrow version. Have done this on the Tour (How special does it feel to unpack a new brooks saddle mmmm) but the tandem and the audax await similar treatment.
I am still considering going to a surly front ring and chainglider but decided to get my use out of the front chainring and see how she copes with the weather this year.
Will post some photos this weekend when I get a chance to get out on her in the daylight.
Cheers
Andy
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Really interested to read of your new setup, Andy, and all the details. The Tour is a lovely bike, as is your derailleur Nomad.
Seems to me you're making a wise choice to sort of standardize the most-used members of your fleet or at least make the fitting similar to ease transfer of your most-loved accessories.
I did something of the sort with my own bikes and found an unexpected positive side effect: When the goodies transferred over easily -- or each bike had their own -- I was far more apt to ride a given steed than if real time and effort was required to "make it right" before a ride. Amazingly, swapping an underseat bag, bottles, and pump were often enough to make me select another bike where such things were already installed.
Very much looking forward to photos of your new setup, along with some ride reports going forward.
'Sure is fun to refine the existing rides...amazing how each little change can freshen the whole as you hone in on what's perfect for you.
All the best,
Dan.
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Andy you bought a 30 room school house wow that sure will keep a fella busy,so is it nearly completed or what stage is it at. the bike and countryside looks stunning hope you start getting the miles in the legs you sure need a good holiday after that project.
btw is the school going to be turned into a hotel.
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Andy, looks as though you have all your cycling needs pretty well covered, subject to very minor tweaks. Maybe just as well you have the house renovations to keep you busy once your bikes are totally A1. ;)
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Thanks for the comments guys and promise to get some photos of the bike - even if the weather here is a bit miserable at the moment. The house rebuild is "almost" done. I am currently working on the library and hoping to get it complete before the end of the month. After that there is just one more room to do which should take me 3-4 months as it is a big room and is going to have a lot of exposed beam work which takes a lot of work. No plans to turn it into a hotel but you are welcome to drop by jags if you are passing.
I think am getting there with the bikes. I will know better after the winter how the Tour has lived up to its reputation.
pics to follow - promise
andy
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I did not manag to get out on the bike during daylight hours but a few photos of the bike in the garage once I got back.
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Wonderful photos, Andy!
I really like your battery light setup; it is a great balance of "see and be seen". Seems this would allow either a big blast of light or the opportunity to use them sequentially to maximize lighted run-time. I like the bilateral symmetry very much!
The wrapped seatpost is a nice match for the rest and done very nicely indeed.
The SQL uplift surely makes for a neat and tidy means for securely carrying your bag, and this is a hallmark of the whole bike: Very tidy and nicely presented with real care evident throughout.
All the best,
Dan.
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lovely set up andy best of luck with everything.