Welcome, Janie. I trust you'll find the forum a helpful and courteous place.
I've had a Raven for four seasons now, from early 2014. I use it for touring (mostly on tarmac, maybe 5 - 10% on gravel), and it's one of two day-ride bikes. My bike has about 12,000 kms on it. When I'm not touring with it, I take off the front and rear racks. This makes a surprising difference in weight, so that the Raven feels quite a bit lighter, though "nippy" isn't the word I'd use.
The Raven weighs a few pounds more than my derailleur bike, which has a titanium frame, but the Raven fits me better, is more comfortable, and over any day ride of more than an hour or two, my times on the two bikes are similar.
Some thoughts and observations on your questions on components:
1)
Rohloff: I hadn't ridden a Thorn nor owned a Rohloff until I bought my bike. No regrets at all on either count. I had had a lot of troubles with the various rear derailleurs on my other touring bike (now used for day-rides only), and it's hard to describe the relief that comes from never having to wonder if you'll get the gear you want on a steep climb with a loaded bike.
The Rohloff is low-maintenance rather than no-maintenance, but with the annual oil change, you get to do a regular annual ritual.
There's a Forum thread on gear ratios which can be maddeningly technical if you're not so inclined, but briefly: I started with a 38-tooth front chain ring and a 17-tooth rear sprocket. I changed that to a lower ratio, switching to a slightly smaller 36-tooth chain ring. I found that this small change (between 4 & 5%) made hill climbing
much easier.
One point to note: with certain ratios between your Rohloff hub sprocket and your front chain ring, you can fit a Hebie Chainglider, which encases your chain. This is a trick plastic clip-together German device, which doesn't fasten to your frame, but floats over your chain when the bike is moving. The 'glider radically reduces chain maintenance and helps extend chain life. (More details available on fitting the 'glider if you're interested.)
2)
Brakes: I use the garden-variety Deore V-brakes, fitted with Koolstop salmon-coloured pads. These have worked very well in rain and in dry conditions, including a 4-week tour in the Rocky Mountains in June/July 2016.
3)
Wheels: I have used different rims on my bike. The one I'd recommend is the Escapade, made by Velo Orange. (I live in Ottawa, Canada, and for cost reasons bought frame and forks from SJSC, sourcing other components elsewhere. Velo Orange is a firm in the U.S.) I use Marathon Supreme 26 x 1.6" foldable tires. These are very good, but I'm considering moving to the 2" variant when my current tires wear out. The 2" ones are a bit heavier, but people like the comfort their extra volume offers.
(You didn't ask about mudguards, but I use very spiffy alloy ones from Velo Orange.)
4)
Charging, lighting, etc.: I have a SON28, and it's been troublefree. It's hooked up to a Sinewave Revolution charger. At first, I set up the hub with 2 circuits, one for charging, one for a headlight. But, I found that because the headlight has first claim on the current, charging any device or storage batt took forever. And, since I rarely ride at night, I need a headlight mainly for being seen. A flashing headlight would give me the conspicuity I need, but my European headlight had no flashing feature. (It had a couple of other problems too.)
So, I now use only one circuit, which I use to charge an Anker 5200 storage battery when I'm riding. I then use that in the evening to recharge my Cygolite headlight (which has a very nice flashing feature), and/or phone, camera, and batt-powered tail lights. Rarely do I need to charge more than one device at a time, so the Anker is doing its job for no more than 2-3 hours at a time, and I rarely use more than 50% of its capacity. The SON recharges the battery in 2-4 hours, depending on how low it is after its recharging exertions.
4)
Bars: No opinion on the Jones H-bars, though I have seen lots of praise and some criticisms, the latter saying that there are not many different hand positions, once the rider has loaded the bars with all the things we use.
I use Velo Orange randonneur drop bars. These are nice and swoopy and come in several widths. I mount them
above the nose of my saddle, so that (i) when I'm riding with my hands on the upper/outer part of the bars, there's little strain on my 70-year-old back
, and (ii) the drops are easily reached.
5)
Frame pack, etc.: I use a Revelate Tangle frame bag, attached to the top tube of my Raven. (I have one for each bike, a large and a medium). These carry a lot of stuff--my rain gear, for example--and you can fit two water bottles beneath them. I use the third cage fitting on the Raven (forward of the downtube) for a fuel or water bottle.
(In dry conditions, such as you'd find in Western Canada or the US, I carry an MSR Platypus as extra capacity.)
6)
Stand: On tour, I use a Click-stand, a nice folding device which weighs just a few ounces. It comes in a four-piece or a five-piece version. The segments on the 5-piece are shorter, and this variant would fit in your handlebar bag. The slightly longer and thinner 4-piece lives in my Revelate bag. Here's the link:
http://www.click-stand.com/Hope that's helpful, Janie. Enjoy your winter project of research/planning/dreaming, and we'll look forward to hearing/seeing the results.
Cheers, John
