Actually I've had this Raven Tour nearly a year, but so far had used it mainly for commuting (mixed tarmac and bridlepaths) in Surrey (so no real hills!) Then took it to the Lakes last week for its first real challenge. The following are all round Great Langdale/Loughrigg terrace/Kirkstone:
Absolutely loved it from the start and a year on love it just as much. It's a joy to ride and a joy to look at (almost by accident, I left the steerer tube uncut and turned the stem over, which mimics a trad quill stem, and I think looks nicer than a steeply up-sloping stem). I think it looks like exactly what it is: a bike that says “take me anywhere, ask me to do anything, and I’ll cope, I’m designed for it” - and I much prefer its practical, functional lines to half the carbonfibre playthings you see at the Box Hill cafe each saturday with two and a half spokes each and every tube bent into funny curves.
Particular pluses:
It will do anything I want. Not being a mountainbiker, I choose to get off on rough stuff well before I feel any qualms at the ability of the bike to cope, and not being a racer, it feels plenty zippy enough rather than sluggish on roads. For me, it is one bike for all purposes (see thread elsewhere). I love being able to go out on roads but be able to take a track if the fancy takes me.
It fits! I have long body/shorter legs and a back which objects if I bend too forward for too long, so I need higher bars than most. Most bikes I've had, I have to change the stem for something shorter/taller. The classic was our Roberts tandem. Chas himself fitted us for it and simply would not listen to our needs, specified geometry suited to a traditional drop-bar posture, and consequently the first thing we had to do was change the stems. At SJSC, no problem at all. I suggested I might need a short top-tube frame but with straight bars, which their literature recommends against, but as soon as they realised I knew what I was talking about they couldn't do more to help me get it right. Consequently this is about the first bike I've had that fits perfectly from the word go and with settings midrange rather than all at extremes.
The precision of changing of the Rohloff. I've commuted for ten years on a Sachs 7-speed hub so I'm well used to the concept of hub gears - but the ability to do instant changes uphill timed to the precise best point of the pedal revolution barely lifting off the pressure is a delight.
It didn't cost a fortune in extras/upgrades. My upgrades were confined to brakes, wider mudguards, and chainring guard. Pedals, inboard bar ends (cheap £10 metal jobbies much though I'm sure Thorn's carbonfibre ones are excellent), rack, mirror all came from previous bikes. Consequently, the advertised price was pretty close to what I paid. I'm sure you can get a better and better bike by paying more, but for my purposes, the basic package is in fact all I needed.
Reservations (there had to be some):
the paint job: the top red coat seems to chip off at the mere sight of a stone a yard away leaving the pinker under layer (and I temporarily held the cyclometer cable on with insulating tape, which lifted paint off with it, which I don't think should happen)
Lifting front wheel! I discovered this just last week on Hardknott Pass. I guess with the shorter wheelbase (my choice!) and absence of drops, the CofG starts falling behind the rear wheel at less severe gradients. Sitting in the saddle, I could not keep the front wheel on the ground on the 1-in-3 and only in the 1-in-4 by pedalling very smoothly (more smoothly that I'm capable of on those gradients). The final picture is our other Thorn on Hardknott last year ... just to prove, in a rather childish way, that despite having pushed this time I am in fact capable of cycling up it aided by a rather fit 8-year-old nephew.
