Salsa Vaya - disc-braked gravel grinding adventure-bikepacking monster cross touring super-party machine etc...

Got some plans to do some big touring next spring, hopefully central America and possibly even south America as well - depending on getting enough the funds together.

To do this I need a bicycle. Last year I did the west coast of the US on my Cannondale Caadx which was great but definitely could have been improved upon..

I had 28c tyres which were fine for the roads but when venturing onto unpaved roads it got a little more exciting. I also decided that I've had enough of crappy rim brakes on big descents when riding a loaded bike after a couple of quite sketchy moments. I also had most of the weight on the back which I'd like to balance out a little more this time to improve the handling.

So I managed to find a Salsa Vaya in my size and on the cheap so starting with that:

Taking some inspiration from these:

Current build list is / parts I have are
Frame/forks: Salsa Vaya
Headset: Hope
Stem: Thomson 80mm
Seatpost: Thomson inline
Bars: Salsa Cowbell
Brakes: TRP hylex
Cranks: Ritchey WCS
Rims: Mavic TN719 29er 36h

Racks and Bags
Front Panniers: Ortlieb
Frame bag: Revelate
Saddle bag: Appidura
Bar bag/ rack bag: ?
Front racks - tubus tara / nitto m18

Vaya is a good choice ! It is well designed, the only possible drawbacks I feel are the weight (not a problem when loaded), and the 'truck-like' handling. My setup is there if you're looking for other ideas https://www.flickr.com/photos/vdns/15509218930/

/\ /\ /\ Your vaya is totally l'effet kiss cool, I think! Nice stuff!!

Excellent choice! Looked for one in my size at the beginning of the year, without any luck. Look forward to the build and subsequent travels.

and the 'truck-like' handling.

Very normal for those kind of bicycle (high trail geometry), these bicycle tend to have that kind of handling to increase stability while going off roading, which translate into what described to be a slow steering bicycle when being ridden on the tarmac.

The Vaya in picture above with the front luggage have 27./650b wheels and a modified fork for a lower trail (result in quicker handling, not easy unladen off road but fine with a front load).

The front end sit lower allowing the Vaya to have a steeper head angle (closer to a road/endurance bicycle) the fork rake is 65mm*, making it into a proper low-trail bicycle.

So the bicycle as pictured, isn't the same Vaya as your despite appearance.

Having said that, the Vaya can deal with a front load, as in very little flex, but not in a manner that make it easy to turn while cornering at high speed.

*standard Vaya fork have a 50mm rake.

Exciting. Build it like the one in the picture, 650b etc etc. It's ace.

Having thinking about it, a Thorn disc fork at 55mm rake and 384mm a-t-c would give it a reasonably low enough trail.

I thought about the trail issue and front loading but I'm planning to pack light, keep the heavy stuff in the frame bag and seat pack.

By the end of my last trip I had added a front rack to my caadx and added quite a lot of weight and after a few days you don't notice the difference in weight.

Currently trying to decide whether to get a dynamo or not... Looking at the Shutter precision pd8. Other option is just to carry a high capacity usb battery pack and charge when I get back to civilisation.

It won't add much weight I guess around 200g I'm just concerned I'll notice the drag...

Have a couple of those, haven't noticed any drag on the bikeS. There's an article by Rob Dean about the weight/resistance somewhere, just eat a digestive biscuit every few hours of riding to even it out.

I'm gonna do it. With the weak euro at the moment you can pick them up for about £70, so hard to say no really.

My current wheel build is going to be:

Rims: Mavic tn719 36h - which I've got already
Rear hub: Shimano xt 6 bolt 36h black
Front hub: Sp pd 8 dynamo hub 36h black
DT swiss competition silver spokes

This is my first time building wheels and it looks like if I do a 3 cross pattern front and rear the spoke length will be 289.7 at the front and 288.4 at the rear.

If I buy spokes that are 290 will they work for both front and rear, how much latitude do you get with extra spoke length?

Should I use brass washers on the spokes where they meet the hub?

Brass washers are not required, they won't do any harm but they are pretty unnecessary. I would be wary of using overly long spokes, in my experience most online calculators are pretty conservative and I usually find spokes at least 1mm too long when I've built a wheel.
You don't want spokes poking through your rim tape after all! Also, the spokes on either side of your rear wheel will be different lengths 99% of the time

Don't worry about drag, you're already riding a very heavy bike, that will be almost no difference.

The most important parts have arrived!

3 x Blackburn stainless cages - they're dirt cheap too, ribble has got them half price.

Really looking forward for the final build. I'm dreaming of building a similar one for me. But i will run away from these modern frames, and try to find an old-school touring frame

Does anyone have any bar end shifters they want rid of?

Maybe, how many speeds are you after?

Just sold a set of 2x10, have downtube shifters if of any interest to you?

@andy_k just pm'd you

@jontea thanks, but don't think I want downtube shifters.

The other option I'd be interested in is if anyone has a set of SRAM x9 shifters, or other mtb shifters that a removable clamp so I can steal @Hulsroy 's nice idea of using a front mech clamp to fit mtb shifters to OS drops...

Think I might have some SRAM bar-ends in the cupboard. Will have to check whether 10/11sp

I have SRAM 2x10 bar end shifters here

But i will run away from these modern frames, and try to find an old-school touring frame.

Noodly fun.

Things are moving

The I still need are (please get in touch if you've got any!):

Saddle:a tatty Fizik Arione or Aliante
Shifters: bar end (9 speed) or sram x9
Rear hub: something 36h 6 bolt disc - was thinking XT.. any other ideas for something reliable?
Front and rear mech: slightly dependent on the shifters..
Dynamo light / usb charge: not sure what to go for here..

3 x Blackburn stainless cages - they're dirt cheap too, ribble has got them half price.

There might be a reason they are half price, I bought a couple of these last year and they just didn't fit a bottle well at all. Ended up selling them on ebay and buying King cages instead.

I must say I am quite pleased with this setup. I was lucky to get an cheap x9 trigger sans clamp so it made it an easy choice. But they can cost roughly the same as proper bar end shifters plus the hassle of making it.
BUT you could make a cheaper solution. I have just finished my gf's bike. She wanted dropbars, but I wanted to keep expenses down. She lives in London and I thought expensive 10sp STIs would be too much for local thieves to handle and she doesn't like cheaper Shimano STI with cables going everywhere.
I used and old seat post collar (filled the stop/ledge off) and an slx 9sp trigger which I cut the indicator off. A little filing later and now the clamp tightens by tightening the bolt into the trigger. I did go up a thread size in the trigger to make it match the bolt from the seat collar.
Only downside to using the seat collar is that you do not have an hinge and have to remove bar tape and levers to remove it. But in this configuration it is not an issue.

I've got a pair of Dia-Compe bar end shifters that I don't need lying around, they're friction shifters so compatibility ensured if that's what you're after.
http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b71s108p1317

I have a PD-8 dynamo hub on my CDF at the moment and I can assure you that on a loaded bike the drag is unnoticeable.

Subscribed, I always liked this frame.