Author Topic: Dreaming of Touring, Few Questions! All Opinions Greatly Appreciated!  (Read 15760 times)

jags

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Re: Dreaming of Touring, Few Questions! All Opinions Greatly Appreciated!
« Reply #30 on: February 16, 2016, 01:03:18 PM »
Another great find from you guys! Thanks again haha. The Sherpa guy has stopped replying to me, and seems a little shady honestly, I'm not sure he's legit anymore. The Raven looks perfect also, I'm going to contact that guy now.

About the Rohloff, I'm guessing that means less gears - harder to get up hills but less chance of something going wrong?

Also about the tent, I haven't even looked into tents yet but i'll give your link a look, thanks for all the help everyone!
most of the guys here are on rohloff  for a very good reason i reckon but i like something i can fix easy enough  and i can afford, rohloff hubs are fierce expensive .if you get that raven for under a grand buy it the rear wheel is near enough worth that alone.remember this a smaller frame is way better that a larger frame ,a big frame is way to hard to fit properly  IMHO.the raven would be a super buy.

mickeg

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Re: Dreaming of Touring, Few Questions! All Opinions Greatly Appreciated!
« Reply #31 on: February 16, 2016, 03:12:53 PM »
I think that the decision on Rohloff vs a derailleur bike is less important than getting one that fits well and has the type of handlebars you want to use.

I have a Rohloff bike (Thorn Nomad) and a derailleur touring bike (Thorn Sherpa).  I also had another derailleur touring bike (LHT) until recently.  Both types have advangates and disadvantages.  Maybe you should read, or at least skim through the publication living with a Rohloff before you form too strong an opinion on that.

http://www.sjscycles.com/thornpdf/thornlivingwitharohloff_lores.pdf

...
About the Rohloff, I'm guessing that means less gears - harder to get up hills but less chance of something going wrong?
...

It can be easier to get up hills, it all depends on the gearing on the bike.

StillOld

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Re: Dreaming of Touring, Few Questions! All Opinions Greatly Appreciated!
« Reply #32 on: February 16, 2016, 05:47:13 PM »
You mentioned fear.....I'm sure you mean "butterflies"  ;)

Perfectly normal and something to be faced in order to challenge oneself. I have done a lot of motorcycle touring (before trying it without a motor) and have often sat there having planned the trip, my mind ticking off the "what if's". From a simple puncture in the middle of nowhere to injury in a strange land.

I always wanted to cross the Sahara. However since the sale of orange jumpsuits has gone up, that's off the list.

You can still have adventure without crossing war torn regions. It's great reading about those people who have circumnavigated the world over several years, but is that what you need to do to have fun?

You could tour Europe now and then head off to Australia /New Zealand for their summer. Whatever you decide I think it helps to have an aim, and whatever you decide....have a shakedown trip before you go anywhere with your new gear. I did a Scotland trip last year....look out your window...you are already in a fantastic country to explore!

macspud

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Re: Dreaming of Touring, Few Questions! All Opinions Greatly Appreciated!
« Reply #33 on: February 16, 2016, 07:38:32 PM »
There are links to Historical brochures including the Raven Tour here: http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=6975.0
There are also links to magazine articles about the Raven Tour there too.
Keep reading through the vast number of threads on this site, it is an education in itself.

martinf

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Re: Dreaming of Touring, Few Questions! All Opinions Greatly Appreciated!
« Reply #34 on: February 16, 2016, 09:05:26 PM »
I now have a Rohloff-equipped Thorn Raven Tour, which is a very good bike for most sorts of loaded touring.

But I have done most of my tours with bikes that were not really designed for loaded touring, having great fun in the process despite occasional mechanical problems, which I always managed to sort out.

My most recent longish tour (3,300 kms from Brittany, across northern Spain and just into Portugal, then back, mostly on roads but with some use of tracks) was on a 20-year old steel frame mountain bike, adapted with racks, drop bars, fat semi-slick tyres and the lowest possible derailleur gearing I could get with the cranks and wheels I had (24,39,44 chainrings and 13-34 7-speed cassette).

This was adequate for the job. Main drawbacks compared to my Thorn were :

- the racks, mine were Karrimor from the 1970's, far less rigid than Thorn racks but still adequate for carrying a month's kit.
- the derailleur gears, which needed frequent cleaning and chain replacement.
- the odd U-brake arrangement under the bottom bracket (fashionable in the early 1990's) which made the transmission wear issue worse by spraying muck onto the chain.

Apart from this, the bike was nearly as much fun to ride as my expensive Thorn, and because it wasn't worth all that much I worried less about leaving it locked up.

So though having a bespoke new bike is nice, it isn't absolutely essential. A good compromise would be a second-hand bike if you can wait till the right size turns up.

In the Thorn range Raven/Raven Tour with Rohloff, or Sherpa with derailleurs should be OK for most touring, but if you intend carrying really extreme loads or doing lots of off-road riding with heavy loads a Nomad would be best.

John Saxby

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Re: Dreaming of Touring, Few Questions! All Opinions Greatly Appreciated!
« Reply #35 on: February 23, 2016, 12:53:35 AM »
Hi there naive, I'm writing from Down Unda, where we're visiting family. Welcome to the forum -- you've come to a good place, where people have a lot of knowledge & experience, and are good about sharing that.  Sorry to hear about your folks' breakup, with your house lost in the undertow, but as the saying goes, one door closes and another opens, and you seem to have turned a problem into an opportunity.

There's a lot of good commentary & advice on your Sherpa, so I'll not duplicate that.  Let me add a couple of observations:

1)    First, there's a guy here in Oz, Graham Smith, who posts regularly on crazyguy, who's ridden his Sherpa far & wide, and has written about it on crazyguy. Graham also posts here now & again, as "Vintage tourer".

       I ride a Raven-mit-Rohloff, which I bought 2013. As part of my research, I exchanged some emails with Graham.  He was very complimentary towards Thorn bikes, saying that they're robust to the point of maybe being overbuilt for most purposes. Certainly he's taken his Sherpa across rough terrain in Oz.

       I haven't tested my Raven in the same tough conditions, but it's robust and very comfortable, and does everything I ask of it.

2)    I switched to a Rohloff after having a lot of adjustment problems with a variety of Shimano derailleurs over about 10 years on my Eclipse ti-framed touring bike.  My difficulties (they were hassles and recurrent nuisances, no catastrophes) seem  to have been uncommon -- certainly lots of other riders have had very good luck with Shimano and SRAM.

       One thing I did learn from my decade of experience with derailleurs, is that I needed gearing for loaded touring that was lower than standard manufacturers' offerings, and often lower than that recommended by bike shops.

       You might want to experiment a bit with different types of touring, to find out what you like best. Is it camping, and if so, lighter, or more loaded?  The weight you carry, plus your fitness, and your preference for pottering or pushing it -- all these things affect, and are affected by, your gearing.

       (There's a whole discussion about the range of gear-inches as a way of indicating the lowest to highest gearing on your bike.  It can get quite involved, and a bit mind-boggling until you're familiar with it. Here's an online calculator -- you enter your front chainring and rear cogs info, plus your wheel diameter, and watch what happens, bemused, befuddled, and ultimately hooked: http://www.gear-calculator.com/)

        On my Eclipse, now a day-ride bike, I finally was using a 12-36 Shimano Deore cassette at the rear, with a 24-36-48 Deore triple at the front. That bike has 700c wheels, with 32mm tires. My lowest gear on the bike (24 at the front, 36 at the rear) was 18.5 gear-inches, if memory serves. I found that ratio just barely OK for climbing a 12 - 14% grade with a camping load. (My Raven now has two gears lower than that, and I am much happier on the steep grades.)

         Your Sherpa has 26" wheels, with probably fatter tires--maybe 26 x 1.6" Supremes?  I'd guess that with the 26" wheels, you could run an 11 - 34 cassette at the rear, and a 24-36-48 triple, and still have a low gear which is a bit lower than the 18.5 on my Eclipse.  If I had such a Sherpa, though, I'd probably put a 22T small ring onto the front triple. I'd keep the 36T middle ring, however.  I found that ring to be very useful on my Eclipse -- I did about 80% of my loaded riding on that ring.

         Some people would find those ratios too low, others just right. You could get 2 or 3 different small chainrings for the front, say a 22T and a 24T (plus perhaps the more common 26T) and see which ones you like best, according to the terrain and the gear you're carrying.

Good luck in any case, and enjoy!  We'll look forward to your stories & fotos.

Cheers,

John

mickeg

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Re: Dreaming of Touring, Few Questions! All Opinions Greatly Appreciated!
« Reply #36 on: February 23, 2016, 03:39:29 AM »
...
        On my Eclipse, now a day-ride bike, I finally was using a 12-36 Shimano Deore cassette at the rear, with a 24-36-48 Deore triple at the front. That bike has 700c wheels, with 32mm tires. My lowest gear on the bike (24 at the front, 36 at the rear) was 18.5 gear-inches, if memory serves. I found that ratio just barely OK for climbing a 12 - 14% grade with a camping load. ...

With a 12 to 14 percent grade, I am off the bike pushing it up the hill.  I have a minimum speed that I need to maintain to stay upright, I can't keep my heart rate low enough at that speed at that grade.  Congratulations to those that can.

Templogin

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Re: Dreaming of Touring, Few Questions! All Opinions Greatly Appreciated!
« Reply #37 on: March 04, 2016, 03:35:29 PM »
Whilst Thorns are described as long distance touring bikes, many of them are bought by people who get rid of them having travelled very low mileages.  There was nothing wrong with the bike!

If you can get a Rohloff equiped bike then go for it.  One cog at each end on the outside, a straight chain line and all of the complicated bits tucked away in a hub running in oil.  Or you could have a derailleur setup - no contest if the budget can stretch that far.

Although due to sad events, this is a wonderful opportunity.  Go out there and do it before you get trapped in a marriage, with a mortgage and kids, and bills coming out of your ears.  As Bikerta said - you'll spend more time regretting what you didn't do.  Added to that, you will get fit and come back a hero with tales to tell.  Either that or it will be like Deliverance!  Just joking, you'll meet lots of great, very kind people on the road, but take some lube just in case you meet some bad guys!