Raven or Raven Sport

[simonsydney]

Hi, this is my second post !
I am in Australia, so I will need to buy my bike 'site unseen', over the internet and have it freighted to me, so I want to ensure I make the right choice.
I am definitely getting a Thorn Rohloff hub Raven or Raven Sport, but not sure which one I should be getting.

I will be using this bike as my major means of transport in Sydney (commuter 40km return, visiting friends with 5-10km of home, shopping with panniers, etc), as well as my credit card or light tourer, in Australia and overseas.

I carry no more than about 12-15kg of gear in my rear panniers when touring and less for my commuter. Roads are mainly asphalt, bike trails (paved or graded dirt), and light off road (to me this means graded or slightly rough  fire trails or bike paths, not hard core mtb trails).  The roads here can be pretty ordinary, so I tend to use Schwalbe Marathon tyres, as they are bullet proof !!

Due to the costs of getting a bike shipped to Oz and the 5% duty and 10% GST on top of the purchase price, I can't make a mistake in my choice.

I think the raven sport is for me, but would appreciate peoples thoughts/opinions.
I am not rough on my gear, I look after it, but tend to buy over engineered gear, rather than under engineered, so that I don't have problems.  I can't afford an exp or exp-r (unfortunately !)

Thanks for your advise
cheers,
Simon

[Fred A-M]

I think the RST will cope fine with all you've outlined above (see my thread on Raven Sport Tour) EXCEPT SJS recommend that the max rear weight you should put on the rear is 12kg and 5Kg on the front so if feel your going to have difficulty keeping to that, maybe you should consider the Raven Tour. This was the main consideration for me when buying the RST, but given that I'm disciplined with minimising luggage and tend to ride my luck in skimping a little on the tools on Tours of 2.5 weeks max, I've always found myself well within 12kgs.  If you feel confident that you can manage accordingly, then I'd say the RST is definitely the bike for you.

[simonsydney]

Thanks Fred, I have read your posts (and others), it was very helpful and lots of info on this forum, it's great !
I think the RST is fine for me, I travel pretty light too and as the bike will be my commuter and run-a-round bike, the RST will be a bit more fun/lively/exciting (maybe!).

cheers,

Simon