Help with which Thorn Model to many choices!

[SimonL]

Hi to all you Thorn Riders.

Can you help with some advice please.

At the moment I have three nice bikes. A specialized 2008 Stumpjumper FSR Elite, A lemond Maillot jaune (853 tubing) road bike and a Kona Jake the snake Cyclo Cross Bike. I have always had a leaning to cycle touring and as I am having a mid life crisis after just separating from my wife I would like to take up touring and the odd Audax ride.

I would be cycle camping in the UK and Europe and dont want to just stick to roads, so some of it will be offroad. My ultimate tour would be across the US .

I live in a Hilly area of Dorset and am concentrating on getting fit to be able to do some long rides.

Comfort on the bike will allow me to do some long runs. Apart from my Lemond, none of my other bikes are what I call really comfortable and would struggle to do more than 3-4 hours on them.

Can you recommend a Thorn model to suit my needs? Also if I had a new Thorn would you suggest to keep my Lemond and Jake the Snake as the Thorn might do it all! (it would also help fund some nice extras!! I have no experience of Rohloffs but being a gadget man they seem to be a sensible choice.

I have a budget of £2.5K

Your help would be much appreciated

Thanks
Simon

[geocycle]

Tricky decision, I'd say it is a toss up between the raven tour which has all the load carrying properties you'll ever need and the raven sports tour which is a little more sprightly.  If you kept the lemond for audax then the raven tour would certainly extend your cycling into loaded touring.  The nomad is another possibility if you want an expedition bike you can take apart.  Take a look at Stutho's table comparing thorn bikes.  All these bikes are good offroad but are tourers and would not replace a full-on mtb.

[julk]

What a nice problem to have - which Thorn to buy...

As gc says the main choice is between the Raven Tour, Raven Sports tour and Raven Nomad S&S if you want to go down the Rohloff route. Cycle camping can involve carrying small to large weights of gear, depending on the amount of comfort you want, cooking capability and wet weather space in a tent.

The Raven Sports Tour has the liveliest ride but also has a shorter wheelbase than the other two so it is recommended to keep the load down to 12kgs/5kgs rear/front to handle well, or use a luggage trailer. The widest tyres which can be fitted with mudguards are 1.75"

The other two will be more suggish to ride, but will take almost any load you care to carry, will take wider tyres and will also be a bit more stable off-road.

As you live in the south of England, why not book a weekday session at SJS in Bridgwater and try them all out.

[SimonL]

Thanks for the response guys.

I would not use my Lemond as an Audax bike as its a pure racing bike and wont take anything more than a 25mm wheel so would probably end up using the Thorn for that. So it may be prudent to sell the Lemond as well (will be a shame as its a nice bike but dont have the space anymore!) Will defo keep the Stumpy but will sell the JTS.

I think I am narrowing down to either the Nomad or the Thorn Tourer. I need to make my mind up soon as I am losing too much sleep researching the web haha.

Simon

[julk]

If you are selling both the 'road' bikes and getting a Raven Tour or Raven Nomad S&S then you are going to notice the ride is not as lively.
For cycle camping I would recommend some strong 2" tyres, Schwalbe XR?, for comfort and off-road capability. The Thorn & Tubus racks are excellent for your camping luggage.
To lighten the ride for Audax, the new bike will feel faster if you change to light tyres, say 1.5" or 1.75" Pasela TGs.

[PH]

I wouldn’t spend big bucks on a touring bike until I’d done a few tours.  There’s no way of knowing what you’ll enjoy until you try it.  As julk says there are many types of touring and although you can do any on just about any bike, the best one for you can only be refined by experience.  So my approach would be to get touring for a reasonable amount of money.  Based just on the information you’ve given, I’d get a Thorn Audax frame and fork and move the components of the Snake.  You’ll have a good bike for Audax and be able to tour in comfort with up to 20kg of luggage (Which is plenty for anything short of expedition stuff and more than I’ve ever carried on my Raven) Then decide what you want to spend the other two grand on when you’ve done a few tours.

[inspectorman63]

Sorry to hear about the midlife crisis. I bought a Raven Tour some 4/5 years ago - and never looked back. Touring with 2 panniers or a trailer - exactly what it was built for. No messing about with gear trains - the Rohloff just works. One friend with a Raven Tour and a racing bike says its about 95% as capable as his racer, too. I had my doubts about spending the money but never regretted a penny. Offroad is OK on 1.75 Pasela TGs but I might consider 2 inch and suspension forks if I did a lot of it. C2C? Around Sutherland? The Hebrides? All fun and all done.