Another Nomad Mk II Review published

[mickeg]

I was doing a google search to find something and found this fairly new review that was posted on the internet, dated April 4, 2018.  I believe that he previously posted a review a few years ago, this appears to be an update.  He discusses a variety of issues he has encountered on several long trips.
https://www.bikehikesafari.com/bicycle-review-thorn-nomad-mk2/

I was away from the internet for about a week (for a bike trip) when that was published, if someone else already posted the link to his review, let me know and I will delete this posting.

[Andre Jute]

...if someone else already posted the link to his review, let me know and I will delete this posting.

I didn't see a link recently, George. If it was posted a long time ago, it might be better to leave this thread as the search function appears to be unreliable about vintage posts.

Very interesting reading. Feller knows what he's talking about: for instance, his report that a Nomad is more comfortable when loaded has often been pre-echoed here. And he's smart: he recommends the same components I do, such as the Cateye BM-300G bar-end mirror and the Pletscher ESGE kickstand.

He's also a pretty heroic tourer: I've been to some of the same parts of Alaska up near the Arctic Circle, by single-engined plane and by dogsled, for several of the 13 years I researched a novel called Iditarod: the greatest race on earth, and it's a dicey environment with zero margin for error or even just plain bad luck. Aspirational tourers and other innocents abroad shouldn't be misled by his matter of fact recounting style: this is a tourer among tourers.

Congratulations on finding a super link.

Now back to Andre's Credit Card World Tour of His Little Patch of the West Cork Coastline Sponsored by the Ever-Ready Taxi Rescue Service Operating Within the Radius of Twenty Kilometers.

[John Saxby]

Thanks for this, George.

He's put his bike (and himself) through the wringer, for sure, and both have come out well. Sweaty business, I should think, commuting to work in Darwin on a Nomad. Good on yer, maite.

I liked the Rohloff oil leak Rorschach test -- I saw a outline of the Korean Peninsula, but that may be just a result of my habit of scanning the day's headlines.

More seriously, I was impressed by his ability to climb steep hills with a loaded bike using a 38T front ring. OTOH sez this self-satisfied geezer, I noticed that he didn't include Nelson, BC, in his list of hilly places.

[mickeg]

I had my bike (the Long Haul Trucker that I got rid of later) at the top of a steep hill in San Fransisco, Lombard street I think.  I decided to walk my bike down the hill, I did not have the weight of my panniers to hold the rear wheel down and I was afraid if I hit the front brake too hard I would go flying over my handlebars.  Due to the tourist crowds, I think I walked down a different street.

I thought riding across the Golden Gate bridge was more fun than dealing with a tall steep hill.

***

I have noted a couple times before that I used my Nomad with a suspension fork on a couple mountain bike trips.  The others that had full suspension bikes had a better setup for those rides, but I thought that the Rohloff was a significant advantage on those trips compared to derailleur systems.  But not being a regular mountain bike rider, maybe I do not know what I am missing.

I was surprised that he did not run front panniers on his Nomad.  Once I was curious how the handling would be on my Nomad if I put all the weight on the rear, it did not handle very well compared to putting some weight up front.

[John Saxby]

Those steep straight downhills can be a bit scarifying. There's one just east of & into Percé on the Gaspé, somewhere betw 17 & 20%.  I bailed out on that, & decided to take the truck route, the bypass which takes heavy vehicles and uncertain cyclists around the main street of the picturesque wee village. Happily, the bypass meets the highway again just before an A-grade bistro and art gallery, created from a repurposed creamery.

Nearly 15 years ago, riding eastwards through the midlands of Kwa-Zulu Natal, we came to a steep downhill leading into Mooi River (Andre may know it). It was late afternoon on a brilliant December (early summer there) day, all green and gold with the sun behind us, we were alone on the hillside and we touched 60 km/h -- only to find a roundabout a hundred metres after a gentle bend.  Aaahhh, Jaysus, Mary an' Joseph!! -- we scrubbed off just enough speed (we had unladen bikes, this was a family-supported tour, thank god) to get through the roundabout, which for some reason had no traffic in it when we arrived.

On another, shorter-but-steeper downhill the next day, I feathered my brakes.

On our Aussie's big SF hill -- I was surprised that his front wheel wasn't lifting off the tarmac:  long Nomad wheelbase, perhaps?

[mickeg]

I was surprised how much of a non-event this hill was, my Nomad was quite heavily loaded but the CSS rims front and rear with the appropriate Koolstop pads worked just fine.  The hill was short enough I did not have to worry about hot rims either.