Sherpa or Raven Adventure Tour???

[Jitensha]

Hi everyone,

So myself and my partner are trying to decide between these two bikes and we need some opinions. We'd really like to hear from any Sherpa owners out there. We've read a lot about bikes like the Nomad, xTc etc. and how excellent they are, but we can't find anything about the Sherpa anywhere. Also how good is the Raven? After speaking and exchanging one or two emails with Robin we have no doube that both bikes are good. We've just got to decide if the Raven and therefore the rholoff hub are worth the extra \\\.

We cycle mainly on dry off road tracks and lots of hilly roads in between. Also wefre going to do some 2-3 week camping tours. Wefll have to bag the bikes regularly to carry them on trains, so we need pretty light bikes. Wefre looking for bikes that will carry pretty heavy camping kit for those 2-3 week tours and even heavier luggage for a longer (up to 6-month) tour we hope to do in the future.

If anybody out there has experience using either of these bikes we'd love to hear from you

all the best

[hoogie]

If you can afford it, defintiely go for the Raven!

[luceberg]

If you're familiar with deraileur gears, have learned to service them, and don't mind tinkering, the rholoff seems less attractive, though I'm sure I'd like one if it was thrust upon me!

The Sherpa is pretty much the same as a year2000 531st framed Nomad. One significant difference is the frame sizes available. I would have bought a Sherpa frame recently if one had been available in my size but got a better fit with a Nomad so had to fork out the extra cash..groan!!

[Jitensha]

yeah it's basically down to whether we want the Rholoff or not. We've never really had problems with deraileurs but cleaning them etc. is a pain. Also a major turn off with deraileurs is the tendency to keep adding more cassetts. I'm sure the next thing will be 4 chainrings with a 10 or 11 sprocket cassette, just wait! Anyway going to think about it some more and then make a decision. If anybody else has any experience with either of these bikes we'd love to hear about it. Thanks in advance

[marcg]

The Raven.

maintenance free.  Use a full chaincase and even the chain and sprockets become maintenance free and everything including the rider stays clean.  Smooth gear changes up and down except for the famous 7/8 glitch where you have to lay off the power for a moment.
Only criticsm is that the embossed nuumbers on the changer aren't highlighted.

It seems that even the British police are starting to use them.  That's good enough for me.

[femmcommuter]

I had the Nomad and really liked it, then sold it as I wanted the Raven.  The Raven I found slightly different at first and thought the weight on the rear wheel slightly heavy as I use a light Audax type bike daily.

However I had minor adjustments handlebars etc changed. tried the Trekking bars and couldn't get on with them. Changed to Moustache bars so SJS fitted their new stem grip for drops for the gear changer and I have used it for a really hilly long tour with loaded panniers and found it so stable and comfortable and didn;t even notice the weight that i had thought originally. I think it was more to do with the unhappy positions of the trekking bars rather than the bike itself.

First i did find the hub noise slightly irritating, but this has settled down so I no longer notice the tick. Only time it is apparant now is the 7/8th gear change. I have done 600 miles on it and already it has bedded in as Thorn state, and it feels smoother to change and ride.

The gear change is no problem just ease up and it doesn't jump. first ride I did manage to find that nuatral gear which is more what i was doing. Since getting used to a different bike it has not happened again.

For touring and general cycling I found the gear range was superb for me. Low gears made climbing hills effortless whilst remaining seated.
Top gear I did find that after 24mph you may as well stop pedalling and enjoy the cruise. though this I guess is more to do with what gear range suits me and fit for purpose as I described when discussing the order. Top speed I managed to hit was 35mph with loaded panniers on mountain roads and there was not a wobble!

Only bug bear I have at the mo is the black numbering on the shifter although after 5 days I started being able to gauge my speed and where I was in the gear range.

There is a real bonus in changing at a standstill as well. i had always thought my road bike was my fav for commutes but used the Raven and found that I was enjoying riding that more.

My fav used to be the road bike, but after using the Raven for touring and givingit a go for a commute, i started wondering if I should sell off the road and just keep the Raven.

[] go for the Raven - you or the wife will not be sorry.