New(ish) Raven Tour

[Hamish]

Here it is.  The replacement for my Catalyst:

[Bearbait]

Very nice.  I think I'm sold on the green.

[expr]

Looks great hamish, nice colour.

[Hamish]

Thanks guys.

The green does look good.  I wanted a red bike but they had run out.  I'm now glad I got a green one!

[jimmer]

Nice bike Hamish, but why did you opt out of the Catalyst club?

[Relayer]

Very nice bike Hamish. 

Did you remove the Rohloff stickers from the chainstays?  I tend to think they are an unnecessary attraction to potential thieves.

[Hamish]

Why did I leave the Catalyst club?

Hmmmmm - not sure really.  Well I often carry quite a load - for work (fieldwork) and touring.  I thought that the shorter chainstays and load limit made the bike less suitable.  Also, I wanted CSS rims having worn out 2 pairs of normal rims since getting the Catalyst.  I liked the idea of a Schmidt dynohub and also a black Rohloff- so I decided to get another bike to work voucher and sell the Catalyst and get a Raven Tour.

I thought that the Tour may well be more suitable to my use as I did not use the versatility of the Catalyst.
 
The new bike is very good - but not better than the Catalyst!  Just different.  In my opinion the Catalyst handles a normal touring load very well.  It felt more rigid than the Tour but the Tour has the edge on road handling.

Cheers

hamish

[Hamish]

Oh and the stickers - it came without chainstay stickers!  In fact the bike looks fantastic.