Why do I keep both my Nomad Mk II and Sherpa? I will try to keep this short. But first, I have enough storage room that I do not feel a need to get rid of any bikes. And financially if I sold one, that money would just go into savings, I would not spend the money on something else, so there is no financial reason to sell one.
I worked in a bike shop in the early 1970s. By 2004 I had decided I needed a newer bike, my newest bike was a 1972 Raleigh Grand Prix I bought at the bike shop under employee discount.
Here is where the story gets long. I have thought of bike touring for decades. When looking for a new bike, I did not see a lot of touring bikes available. Looked at a Trek 520, looked at a Fuji, chose to not spend a lot on one of the custom bikes out there. Ended up buying a Surly LHT which had good reviews, that was its first year of production, they only sold frames, not complete bikes. Built it up. Since my level of bike knowledge was three decades old, had to learn about indexed shifting, cassettes instead of freewheels, threadless headsets, etc. But this new invention called the internet helped greatly. And I had not laced up a wheel for a few decades, the internet was great in that I learned a lot about wheel building that I had not previously known.
Unfortunately, got a defective frame, very soft due to bad welding, would shimmy like crazy. Surly refused to warranty it, said my description was "normal". Tried to do a couple tours on it, gave up, put the frame in the recycle bin. No more Surly bikes for me.
Before I bought the Surly, I had traded a few e-mails with SJS about the Sherpa, and from that knew the size I wanted. I asked them a question by e-mail, they did not respond. Investing a lot in a bike that you have never seen to be shipped from overseas means you need a lot of trust. If they chose not to respond to my e-mail, that was enough to make my trust level dip, I decided not to buy it. Bought the Surly instead.
I saw a Sherpa of my size on Ebay. Seller was in Canada. I did not like the parts on it and it looked too expensive, so did not bid. But I checked later, was curious about the price it went for. It did not sell. I sent a message to the seller that if the frame and fork were available, I was interested. I bought the frame and fork from him. (He also included the fenders.) Built it up. Compared to my Surly, it handled like a dream, I could load it up and it worked great. Also rode nice unladen. This was in 2010. Did a bike tour on it that year, and one in 2012, and in 2013. Used it with 50mm tires on predominantly gravel trips, 40mm on pavement trips.
I was interested in an S&S coupled bike, and also in a Rohloff. Considered the Nomad Mk II and the Co-Motion Pangea. The Nomad won on cost, even when I had to pay customs duty on it. (The Co-Motion is made in USA, no duty.) Bought it in 2013, built that up for heavy touring. In 2014, a friend organized a mountain bike trip in a neat location. Others that I knew were also going. I decided to go too. The ones in the group that did not own mountain bikes rented, I instead decided to try my Nomad, and since it could take a 100mm suspension fork, I bought a Rockshox for it at a great price on Ebay. Was very happy with it. That was unladen, no panniers, simply mountain biking.
First tour I did on the Nomad was in 2016, Iceland for a month. Worked great.
Comparing the Nomad with the Sherpa, the Sherpa is much lighter. The Sherpa was rated for 30 or 35kg for luggage, the Nomad rated at 62kg. And with my derailleur drive train (3X8) I had wider gearing with more gears on the Sherpa than the Nomad. The Sherpa is half step plus granny gearing. So, if I am planning a fairly flat trip, I would much prefer the derailleur gearing on a lighter bike. And a trip mostly on pavement with narrower tires, then I see an advantage to the lighter bike. But if I need to haul a couple weeks of food on the bike or go on very rough terrain, then the Nomad is the preferred bike.
In 2017 did a tour, pavement, fairly flat, narrower (40mm) tires, took the Sherpa and it was perfect for that trip. I would have felt that the Nomad was unduly heavy if I had brought it, and the wider gear spacing would have been a disappointment on fairly flat ground.
And the Nomad Mk II has S&S couplers. If I am flying, that is the bike to take.
I have always wanted a Titanium bike. No, I did not need one, but it was just one of those things you lust over. I got lucky in 2017, saw a titanium touring frame, brand new on Ebay, company is Lynskey. Did some research on it and the company. Learned that the company that made the frame, that when they got a frame returned from a dealer, they put it on Ebay instead of back in inventory. It was brand new and my size. I decided to bid a hair more than half of new price, and I won the auction. The fork for it was not included, they wanted $300 for the fork. But I still had my LHT fork, and that was nearly identical to the specifications for the fork that they sold with the frame, so I could build it up without buying their fork which saved me more. So, got a great titanium touring bike at a fantastic price. I really liked my Sherpa drivetrain, 3X8 with half step and granny, so I replicated that on my new titanium bike.
Typically I think of a titanium touring bike as pure bling, a titanium frame which cuts a few kg off of the weight is not a cost effective choice for touring because your bike is going to be heavy anyway. So, I would never dream of buying a full price titanium touring bike. But, in total I probably paid less for the titanium bike than I would have paid for a comparable fully built steel bike. Plus, I picked the specifications, so it was custom to my needs.
So, I consider my titanium bike to be my light touring bike, the Sherpa to be medium touring, and the Nomad for heavy touring.
I did a bike tour in 2019, brought the Nomad because I flew with it, that is the only bike I have with S&S couplers. I think the Sherpa would have done as well, but the couplers was the key decision maker. I liked the sequential shifter of the Nomad on that trip, but I think that the derailleur drive train would have worked well too. Part of that tour, I carried over a week of food on the bike. For that reason, if I brought a derailleur bike, I think I would have preferred the Sherpa over the titanium bike.
Did a tour with a friend in 2023 and a solo tour in 2024, both with the titanium bike. Grocery stores were frequent enough that did not have to carry a lot of weight in food. And both of these tours were reasonably flat, so the titanium bike with 700c wheels which meant a slightly higher gearing than the Sherpa with 26 inch wheel was not a problem.
I think that explains why I keep three touring bikes in the fleet. I have not used the Sherpa since I built up my titanium bike. But I started to plan a tour for this summer and planned to bring the Sherpa on that. But, to make a long story short, canceled my trip for this year.
