Adventure bike – Specialized AWOL

Going through the the usual phases from fixie skidding to racing road bikes to cross, I've now arrived at touring. And I'm pretty stoked on the idea of leaving work on Friday afternoon to disappear for a couple of days.

So I got a good deal at my lbs for the Specialized Awol Comp, which is sort of a blank canvas. Good geometry, the parts are decent and the bike is well rigged for mounting whatever needed.

1 Attachment

If you - as well as the bike - begs for off-road duties - then plan a trip into the unknown via the layer OSM Cycle on http://www.ridewithgps.com (export as TCX to your Garmin and let it guide you around).

After deciding on the bike, quite a few hours went in to finding the right racks and panniers. I want to load a lot of weight in the front, and I was glad to score a Tubus Nova stainless front rack at 40% off from Wiggle.

1 Attachment

Then panniers. Wiggle also had the Ortlieb Front Roller Plus in stock, so they went my way along with the rack. The Plus version looks a million compared to the standard glossy kind, so I was really happy when they arrived.

1 Attachment

Got all the stuff home. Mounting of the Tubus Nova took a couple of minutes, didn't need to pull out any tricks or hardware that didn't come in the box.

1 Attachment

Sorry for spamming, just getting up to date.

Another activity to steal a few hours was finding the right tires. I had some Specialized fatboys coming my way at the lbs, but at 45c it was really hard finding nice fenders for them. So I skipped those and landed on the Panaracer Pasela 35c. They should do okay on fine gravel roads, and I'll keep the 42c Triggers that came with the bike for rougher stuff. It was actually really hard to find the Paselas, but eventually I came over BikePlus in London that shipped to Norway – £35 incl shipping – sweet deal!

Also, you might not see the handlebars, that's because they're wrapped in camo-tape. £10 shipped.

1 Attachment

And we're getting to present date. This weekend the weather here was great, so to try the bike I loaded up the panniers with random stuff to feel how it rides with weight. And I like it. Super steady, easy to handle.

Went to my lbs and picked up some Globe fenders I had ordered. Also cut the steerer down a bit (it's still very awkward to have no drop, but comfy). Swapped that awful adjustable Specialized stem that came with the bike with something they had laying around. It's actually carbon, which makes the slowest of my six bikes the only one with a crabon stem. With time I plan to get a Thomson for it, but I'll wait a bit so I know I get the right angle and length.

1 Attachment

Decided on pedals too, and they had them in stock at my lbs. Makes it versatile and more comfortable when I want to take it on shorter spins.

1 Attachment

And here we are. Have to rattle can the fenders before I mount them. They need some work to get them properly fitted too, so I'll do it when I have time.

Still a way to go before it's ready, but I'm happy with the way things are going. Looking forward to the first long rides.

1 Attachment

Looking goooooood man! Real classy.

looks good. hope to see some pics of it in dark norwegian woods.

Thanks. Into the woods is pretty much the plan!

700 x 55mm should sufficient.

@larsenroed sweet rig! I'm on the transcontinental edition - also in Norway :)
Where did you get the tape?

@sykodrama Cool! Tape is from eBay, just search for it.

pasela's look ace on it.

Looks awesome!

Lookin good. Don't get why Spesh don't offer as a frameset in UK, missing a large part of the fettlers market.

Found this top cap collecting dust. Cockpit hipster score +1.

1 Attachment

I really like the look of that...nice one!

I'm amazed you can get used to that stack height, to be quite fair, it'll start to feel quite normal once you take it off road, especially towpath.

I'm sure you're right @edscoble. The plan is to get a 10 degree stem when I know what length I want. Should give me enough stack height options with flipping it +- the spacer.

Looking good man, was tempted to get one of these myself..

Want a bike for commuting/touring duties and had a cross check not so long ago but didn't get along with the long and low geometry. These look super comfy with the sloping top tube.

@Agatee Thanks!

Incoming:

4 Attachments

Picked up the bottle cages and went for a spin today. I've been ill for quite a while which pretty much ended my racing season before it began. That means more time for touring, but for now my body only tolerate short spins, so we went to a café in the woods outside Oslo. Found a Moomin enamel mug there and picked it up. Also rattle-canned the fenders ghetto style. I usually prefer doing paint and stuff a little more quality-controlled, but I'm not really sure about them so I painted them to get them fitted and see if I like them. Turned out decent enough.

3 Attachments