Another Raven is born

[Steve Lord]

http://www.adventurecyclinghandbook.com/stevie/raven.htm

Straight bars, racing green, no shocks. A most handsome beast now in London/SE but WLT travel.

With comments and opinions as to the Thorn shopping experience....

[Procyon]

that is a very very beautiful bike, and a thoughtful
explantion of your decisions, and the qualities of the
machine.   thank you for taking the time to share the
images and explanations.  i plan to re-read it numerous
times.

procyon

[stutho]

Very nice bike.

What brake pads are you using – are they ceramic specific?  The dust you are seeing is probably form the brake block rather than the rim.  I am using cool stop salmon pads on my 717 ceramics and get lots of salmon coloured dust on everything – all the way back to the bottom bracket.  The front block is nearly spend after just 2 months (aprox. 600 miles)

I am going to get ceramic specific next time!

Good luck with the book and happy cycling

[Sarah Perry]

I like the bike - the brown Brooks saddle looks good with the green paint and cork grips.  Which model of Wellgo pedal did you choose? I collect my Thorn Raven in early April and I struggled to select a pedal, you have just the ones I am looking for...

[PH]

Welcome to the club[]

my bike

[graham]

My Raven with ceramic rims and XTR brakes also had a very squealy front brake at first. You can toe in the pads a bit with XTR, but obviously can't do too much because the pads are quite thin in the first place. I tried toeing (and even heeling), and couldn't get rid of the noise.

Thorn apparently like to fit normal blocks to ceramic rims because they give 'better modulation'. After talking to the nice man at Madgetts in Diss, I bought and fitted some Shimano ceramic pads which are a harder compound, and the squeal disappeared. I know what Robin means about the 'modulation' thing, the normal blocks are nice and progressive and probably ultimately more grippy. But the ceramic pads are much quieter, and I can trim the levers to increase braking force if I feel the need (not happened yet), so I'll be staying with ceramic pads from now on.

[Sarah Perry]

Thanks[] The red frame is stunning - the colour was the hardest decision for me, so I stuck with safe black.

[Steve Lord]

Thanks for the brake tips= someone in the US suggested I fit a kind of arch/bridge to the brake, I don't know what they're called but they look like horseshoes. My XTR's, I assumed, would have been fitted with stock Shimano pads, it never occurred to me that SJS might fit non-stock pads just because they liked the modulation at the expense of considerable noise. It's something else to check into, anyway.

The pedals are Wellgo LU939 , available from Wiggle for £23.49.

Yes that's a nice red. I didn't see any red bikes when I went to Bridgwater.

[freddered]

To Steve Lord.

I really like your bike...I wonder why.

http://www.geocities.com/freddered1/bike2.jpg

Although I have some Drops on order.  

Below is an image purely done in Photoshop to see what Drops would look like.  My brain tells me it looks more like a proper bike.  Will wait and see what the body says when they arrive.

http://www.geocities.com/freddered1/RavenDrops.jpg

[stutho]

Freddered:
What model of frame pump is that?
Thanks

[stutho]

Freddered:
What model of frame pump id that?
Thanks

[freddered]

It's the Zefal HPX as mentioned as an option in the Raven Tour Order Form.  Seems quite solid.

[stutho]

Thanks

[ahconway]

quote:Originally posted by stutho

Freddered:
What model of frame pump id that?
Thanks

I highly recommend the Zefal pump - as my one act of restraint when  ordering my Raven I decided against it, but I ended up getting one in the end when my mini-pump failed.

Also, the point about the brake pads is an interesting one - I also got ceramic rims but the standard pads - I wish I'd been advised to upgrade the pads when I specced the bike.

- Andrew C

[stutho]

Congratulation ahconway 100 posts!  I have just ordered two sets of koolstop ceramic pads - I am also going to order a HPX  everyone seem to rave about them.