Danneaux's Nomad

[Danneaux]

My Nomad continues to work well for both unladen day rides as well as heavy loaded touring when I expect to be away from stores and ready sources of water. Here is the bike outfitted for a recent two-week self-supported tour of Oregon's Coast range, mostly on logging roads, singletrack and cross-country. Load was on the heavy side because of Oregon's continuing drought making water largely unavailable on the ridge-tops. Also, cool weather (-5°C to -6°C in the morning) required warmer clothing, sleeping bag and pad.

Best,

Dan.

[jul]

Awesome expedition bike and always very very well maintained 

[Danneaux]

Many thanks, Julien!

So is your Camel. 

All the best,

Dan.

[mickeg]

Those cobbles really remind me of the back roads in the Iceland interior.  When I saw something in the road, if it is was smaller than a tennis ball, I did not even try to miss it.

[Andre Jute]

Those cobbles

Ha! To a European a cobble is a smooth round stone firmly set in the roadway, not likely to jump up and hit you in the face or, worse, hit your treasured bike's precious paintwork. There are still cobbled roads left over from a Napoleon's time in some French cities. In the early1950s Citroen DS's hydraulic suspension was specifically designed, among other functions, not to chatter at speed (by which they may have meant 50 or at most 60kph) over cobbled roads.

Those stones in Dan's photo looks like a firebreak with a load of pre-gravel sized rocks spread across it to make it passable for logging trucks in the rainy season.(Dan does say it is a logging road.) Not that loose gravel is much better, from a steel bike's viewpoint.
***

Dan, no reply required if you're touring; we can take it up later: I've noticed how far forward your mudguard (fender) covers the front wheel and now understand why you need such a long mudflap. I have the short (SKS calls them "Sports") P65s, mainly because the long ones weren't to be had for love or money at the time*, and if you set them far enough back to keep your feet dry and then ride enthusiastically in the wet (and who doesn't, when you're cold and miserable and just want to get into a hot shower), wet stuff isn't always all caught by the front mudguard's top, though the official SKS P65 rear flap, which is short and shaped, does the business. I solved the problem by fitting a stiff rubber rear mudflap to the front as well. I don't imagine you have that kind of trouble.

*And I thought I'd get the long ones when I trashed the first set of short ones, but the P65s turned out to be tougher than they appeared on first acquaintance and ten years later are still going strong.

[Danneaux]

To a European a cobble is a smooth round stone firmly set in the roadway

<nods> I know these well from my travels in Belgium over the years and especially in Flanders, where they're really rough and yes, firmly seated.

Those stones in Dan's photo looks like a firebreak with a load of pre-gravel sized rocks spread across it to make it passable for logging trucks in the rainy season.

This is "medium" ballast, Andre; the "big" stuff uses rocks the size of shoeboxes. It is that large to cover the exposed dirt and mud left by the first pass of the Caterpillar bulldozer and so provide all-weather traction for the log skidders and such that come later and pull and winch the logs to the trucks for transport to distant mills. In many cases, such ballast never has need to be covered with ordinary (say, "3/4 minus") gravel on limited timber sales.

The bike goes as well over such large ballast but it requires more time, patience, and bike-handling skills to do so and speed drops as a result.

I've included some photos below showing a bit more of the kinds of roads I can expect here in the mountain ranges. The weather can change drastically when you cross the passes and hit the incoming moisture of coastal weather systems at altitude -- in this case, I summited to find myself in snow on the other side. Someone was not so lucky in parking while hunting deer the year before -- a tree fell on their truck and then it then burned, making for a nasty surprise on the owner's return.

I've noticed how far forward your mudguard (fender) covers the front wheel and now understand why you need such a long mudflap.

The extended front mudguard is not originally a front, but instead is a repurposed rear 'guard. See:
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4523.msg23847#msg23847
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4523.msg23939#msg23939

It ends with a lot of ground clearance. You see, when I ride on singletrack and cross-country, there's obstacles such as downed trees that require I dismount and lift-roll the loaded bike over them. If the 'guard ended too close to the ground, the rigid mudguard blade would snag and either distort or crack (both have happened in the past), so I deliberately ended the 'guard high -- and then attached a flexible mudflap so it can provide good coverage against spray and still easily bend rearward if it hits an obstacle. The "flour scoop" sort of mudflap is also too rigid and will damage the mudguard if it snags going over a log or down into a roadside drainage ditch or heavy brush.

The longer forward curve of the repurposed rear (now front) mudguard contains and directs water down and forward so it exits with less velocity, rather than straight ahead where I run into the spray thrown forward off the top of the tire.

On my more road-based randonneur bikes (the ones I regularly take on 300-400km day rides at greater speed on pavement), I have more ordinary SKS or similar front mudguards with very long mudflaps so even at speed, the spray zone is directed below the entire lower chain run of my derailleur drivetrains. As a result, I enjoy long intervals between chain cleanings even after extensive rain riding -- relubing alone will do nicely as there is almost no thrown road grit that ever reaches the chain. I'm a huge believer in long mudflaps especially for my desert tours, where they work as nicely in the dry to prevent alkali desert soil from being thrown onto the chain, keeping it cleaner much longer.

Best,

Dan.

[geocycle]

Fantastic to see your pics Dan.  I am always in awe of what you put your bikes through!  I think when you see the kind of expeditions you make it is clear why there is a distinction between a heavy tourer like the Raven and an expedition bike like the Nomad.  When viewed through a UK lens it is less obvious on why you would need something as robust as the Nomad.  I guess Andy B's south american experience comes through in this design. Looks fantastic loaded up!

[bobs]

300 - 400 km day rides that's impressive.

[mickeg]

Those cobbles

Ha! To a European a cobble is a smooth round stone firmly set in the roadway, ...

To a Geological Engineer in USA, a cobble is 64 to 256 mm across.  But elsewhere they might use the ISO scale of 63 to 200 mm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_size

Whether or not it is firmly set in a roadway or not has nothing to do with the size of a particle and the geological definition of grain size.

[Andre Jute]

Thanks for the explanation, Dan, and the links -- I remember those interesting threads now: so much good stuff on the forum. Your photographs are stunning. We have a small section of unmade track like that, without the rocks, waterwashed, that would cut about 200 yards off a dangerous secondary road from one of our figure-8s on the generally safer tracks. A couple of times a year we ride up to where it begins, look down it (it runs very steeply downhill, which is part of what makes it dangerous for my companions with lesser brakes and narrow tyres -- we'd never bother with it uphill because that particular ride runs only one way), and decide to brave the traffic on the dangerous road.

George, you kill me. I didn't know -- though I should've guessed -- that there would be an engineering standard scale for gravel-to-mountain sizes of rocks.

[John Saxby]

Mmmm...looks like a late-night load'a cobblers 

Cobblestones, you say?  Check those in Paratí, Brazil, below -- and with a bike nearby, too.

(Full disclosure #1:  This is not my photo, tho' I have several from December 2013--it was just quicker to pinch one from the internet. FD #2:  I wouldn't ride a bike over these -- it was difficult enough walking on them.)

[leftpoole]

Of course, photographs of any one persons bicycle, in most cases on here, Thorn cycles, is like 'choosing' a wife or husband (no gender bending?). It is the person who owns the bicycle that choses to 'ask' by displaying photographs, for others to offer an opinion , many times surely to convince new owner that they have done to 'right' thing both in choice of model and of course colour (color).
So any opinion is correct.
I hate yellow bicycles and love red. But I expect that yellow bicycles are as good as red ones.
The reason for this very late post on this particular thread, is simply this- why do we all need some of these extra long responses? It is in some cases that the writer is possibly of a narcissistic nature and is hoping for glowing responses. It cannot be because the writer simply loves writing can it?
Or possibly because the writer is controlling?
My opinion only of course. Nobody can criticise another's opinion surely?
John