Hi Pavel,
Great photos.
In one of your earlier posts you shared a photo of a TSR with a Rohloff hub. Are you the proud owner? If so I'd be interested in any comments you'd care to offer, even though this a Thorn Forum.
Being of the derailleur persuasion, I have a TSR30 as well as my Thorn.
Cheers,
Peter, that is a topic that I'd be interested in YOUR opinion on. It has been much on my mind. The two halves of my head our out, deadlocked as to what the verdict is, so far.
My sense of the TSR is that it is at almost the polar end of the spectrum from the Nomad, and that would for me be a good thing if there were not a number of issues which I've not yet been able to test out.
Grab a coffee .... this is a long tale!
For a start, I got the Moulton last August because I wanted to go on a trip last November and the Thorn which seemed to jump of the page and say "I'm the one - look at no others!" had the problem of a two+ month delivery schedule. So I got something that I thought would go with my awful Fuji touring bike.
First impressions were very good though the ride was a preliminary ride. The dealer is located almost two hours away from me and I had to decide after than one substandard ride as Moulton's are very hard to get at times. I disparage people who buy Leica's and then keep them in a case instead of putting them to the task they were born for, but if ever a bike was visually pleasing enough for that ... the Moulton would be it. I still like to simply sip coffee, plan 30 year trips and just enjoy the look of the lines of the bike. However, for that positive to be actualized I'd have to wash the dang thing of all the road dust .... so never mind that particular positive.
After that one ride, the strange man who runs the store took a tape measure, ignored my words that I would like to get fitted when the bike arrives and when the bike came to be picked up he used those measurements. Ugg. Nice for twenty minutes but I was in too much a tuck for any leisurely ride. Here is where I get into issues I can't yet answer. I think the bike is set up wrong for me, but also that it may be that due to the relatively short virtual top tube and short fork stem (gotta love Thorn for that and the way they fit you) means this bike may never be able to really fit me. I should say that it does fit me after a few mods, but not in a dutch bike, 8 miles per hour way - which is what I want.
So I've been doing some tinkering and after I realized that I needed to strech out more and got a longer stem the bike has really changed for me. Still though only in a very sporting way, which now with the Nomad in the house is finnaly fine. I have a 17% 120mm stem on right now. It is good for an hour or so before my hands and neck get numb. The original stem, 35% and 90mm got me higher up but didn't work because I was too cramped and got even worse pain that way. So now I wonder about a 40 degree stem 170mm long. Oh wait ... there is no such thing. Grrr. See I feel I'm close,but don't know how to get there.
So I have a bike that is a poor fit and I was ready to put it up for sale. The Nomad makes me more fond of it though because now it can be my zip around bike. And zip is what the Moulton seems to excel at! I find that after I put the longer steerer on that the Bike settled down by a remarkable degree. Before that it was simply too twitchy. Now it is fast and responsive and a joy to ride, as long as I am hard on the pedals all the time. Otherwise I get hand, arm and neck pain. The Moulton is remarkable to me in how fast it responds! I wonder now about putting some lighter wheel and lighter and skinnier tires on it. My wheels could support an elephant, and I'm seeing that there is no free lunch and am starting to dislike puncture protection in tires. It seems to deaden the tires.
So I have this thoroughbred natured bike, and am just starting to, hopefully, work around to getting it to run the way it shines, rather than making it into a coal-cart pony. I'm not sure, of course - as you can tell by my ramble.
To early to say.
Other details? The way the rear luggage works is brilliant! It its heavy but I trully appreciate being able to pack things with no worry about balancing the rear load. The weight limit is plenty but I can't get a lot of volume. I put bungie a medium size Ortlieb dry bag on top of the rear carrier and that works well and the front rack, meant to support the smaller Carradice bags also works with the larger sportpacker Ortliebs, so then I have all the luggage capacity I need for, say, a two week trip. I can carry it all .... and then better focus hard on the road. It is way to responsive set up like that, for my tastes and abilities.
If however I put the small carradice on the front and only the rear rack and keep the weight down to 1/3 that of what I need on a long trip - then again the bike changes personality. It is in its element. Hmmmm, perhaps I have here a very good Audax bike, except for the weight? That is more of a question, rather than a statement. How do you find the TSR?
I had drilled out the front bottle cage, which is also brilliant in it,s design so I can mount a light there. I prefer a light on the steerer tube rather than the fork crown. It lessens the darting about of the light. But if that were not the case there is no way to mount a light at the fork crown, only the handlebars. It works very nicely and I like having that watter bottle in front of the bike. I like the way the bike breaks apart even better than the way it is done with the S&S couplings and the bike looks like it can be stowed in the back of my miata (have not tried it yet) if I take the wheels off. In any case it is really handy being such a tiny package when broken down. The breakdown as you know takes only two minutes.
The last things is the rohloff hub. I'm still out on that because it is a bike with only 27mm rear dropouts (if I remember right) and that is all you have to take up slack. So paradoxically, the main strength of the Rohloff is negated by the lack of a proper Rohloff design and I would not take it on an exotic expedition. Who wants to mess with a limited adjustability. Mine has no chain tensioner but I think the bike would work better with one for long trips. I've had no issues with the chain so far ever jumping off, though. I also find the torque arm works but that there is a small part I've almost lost once (on my front porch) when a zip tie fell off and I'd hate to be in the andes and worry about that.
In short I have been trying to use the Moulton in all the wrong ways, perhaps. Horse for courses they say? I've been riding a cheeta through the desert, thinking the taped on hump would solve all.
The thorn Nomad is the camel. It is nice to have one. What am I to do with the cheeta? Any ideas?
We have a baseball park about 26 miles away from here. They are called the Mudcats. Last year I did't know what the rules of baseball were, but I went to see a few games and just sit there vegging out for three hours. I found it marvelously relaxing. This year I still don' know the rules much better but am really looking forward to wasting a LOT of time there. 26 miles done in about an hour and a half, three hours rest and then 26 miles done in two hours - seems like the perfect Moulton sort of thing. I think? I'll let you know!
And where do they make 40% 170mm steerers ?
(sorry about the long winded post. I just woke up and I think I NEED that coffee!)
pj
