(another) touring bike on a budget

I have to plan to cycle from Amsterdam to Rome this summer. But since I don’t really have a bike for this I decided to build a touring bike on a (tight) budget. At first I wanted to go for an old steel Rockhopper, but I already have a frame that I can put racks and stuff on pretty easily so I will use that.
I started this thread because I don’t know much about touring and some advice would be nice!
So it started as this:

Which I converted into to a sscx bike.

I stripped it all down again and cleaned it up and fitted a nice Tange sealed bearing headset.
The frame has some rust spots, should I be worried about rust inside the tubes??

The plan is to build it up with dropbars, a bar end shifter and a 9 speed cassette.
What I already have:

Racks: Original Batavus rear rack and Tubus Ergo lowrider
Wheelset. Alex Adventurer rims with Deore hubs
34-11 cassette
FSA Energy compact crankset. I want to use no front derailleur and a 34t chainring. Currently that's at the inner position giving a 41mm chainline. Is it worth it to go from this 108mm bb to a 113mm to get the chainline in de middle of the cassette?
Thanks for all the input guys!

Advice for nice 700x37 tires would be nice as well! I thinking about these ones: http://www.rosebikes.nl/artikel/continental-sportcontact-2-reflex-raceband/aid:752165

Rust in the tubes.

Common for steel frames to get surface rust inside, views are split on how to look after them.

When i have a frame stripped down or it's been subjected to swimming...... after draining and letting it dry out...... i go for a good squirt of WD40 down all the breather holes, far less hassle than boiling up linseed oil and swirling that around inside :-) others will have differing views on how to tackle the issue.

Subbed!

I've got 37c Vittoria Randonneur Pros on my commuter, which are reasonably comfy and tough as old boots, but probably quite heavy.

If you want nice nice, I think Compass do a couple of 700c tyres.

Oh and I'm riding from Amsterdam to Den Haag next weekend - where can I get good coffee!? :)

Thanks but that's too expensive:( And I don't know, I'm not really a coffee place kinda guy haha. Hope you enjoy your ride.

I decided to use the Shimano XT external bb cranks from my mtb but I have a bit of a problem with the chainline.
With the chainring fitted in the middle position this gives a chainline of 50mm but the middle of the rear cassette is 43,5mm.... This gives a pretty shitty chainline. And I don't really understand it, normally on MTB's the middle ring should line up with the middle of the cassette right?

For touring tyres I personally use these:

https://shop.zweirad-stadler.de/Fahrrad-Teile/Reifen-Schlaeuche/City-Trekking-Reifen/Pegasus-Trekking-Reifen-Xtra-Pro-28-Zoll-47-622-28-x-1-3-4-Zoll.html

Half the price of Schwalbe Marathon plus, and after a good few thousand km's, just as good!

As a fellow dutchman I understand the 1x9 idea. In fact I have this setup on one of my bikes and it does work really well with a narrow/wide ring. I strongly advise against it if you want to do some long distance riding though. Imho trekking isn't about power but relies on cadence. 9 gears will not give you many options to maintain cadence on different hills and facing head winds etc. I think you would do yourself a real favor if you look at a nice compact set with a 11-28 cassette oslt.

I'd avoid external BB cranks as you have less ability to manipulate chainline.
I think road as opposed to mtb external bearings are thinner which might help but not by much. I think I read that road EBBs are 2.5mm thinner. Maybe if you used these and spaced your chainring with washers you could get closer.

ST BB will be a lot more durable and less maintenance also.

Old early-90s Shimano ST MTB triples with the spaced-out granny gear may be something to consider for this project if you want a bit more versatility than you'd get from a 1x setup; you can run them as a triple or a 110 compact double just by choosing different BB spindle lengths. M730 and M900 are two specific models that spring to mind.

Here's where I found the info about EBBs being different thickness.
They're only 1mm each side, sorry I made a mistake.
http://handsonbike.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/avanti-inc-3-special-crankset-setup.html

If you're heading out to the coast and then down, The Jackie cafe (it's in a clothes shop I think) on hoofdstraat in noordwijk does a decent flat white. I'll be popping in there myself in a few weeks as I take Mrs ceepeebee on her first weekend tour.

I have a question about tyre sizes, I'm a bit confused... I was looking at a Schwalbe tyre and it was ETRTO size 40-622 and French size 700x38C. With the ERTRO code the first number should be the real tyre width in mm right? Than what does 38C mean?
Thanks!

Have a look at this I've found it quite helpful.
http://www.ctc.org.uk/cyclists-library/components/wheels-tyres/tyre-sizes

Good luck

Thanks for all the help guys!
Currently looking like this (sorry for the crappy picture)

I think I will put the FSA Energy crankset back with a 34 and 46t chainring. I might go for a compact crankset with squaretaper bb later...
Now I'm waiting for:
-Microshift bar end shifters
-New chain
-Procraft 26.0 compact dropbars
-A lot of small stuff.

And I ordered a large seatbag from bikepack.pl:)

I've bought a Velo Orange quill stem, because that was the only rise stem I could find for 26,0 bars. But I have to say I'm a bit dissapointed by the finish...

That's a bit skanky. Velo Orange usually pretty hot on QC..n

Yeah I would second that^. I've bought quite a lot of bits from them over the years and it's always been top notch. Don't be deterred.

I went on a small camping trip last week, it was pretty nice only the saddle hurt like hell. It's a 143mm Romin that I borrowed from my fixed gear and I always really liked.. I think it is not wide enough for this bike. Now I'm considering buying a Brooks B17 Imperial or a wider specialized Romin/Power. I really need the cut out. Any advise?

Nice! With the small amount of saddle-bar drop you have I think you could consider a Brooks B17. If you have to ride in the rain*/leave the bike outside sometimes then a Brooks Cambium could be nice.

Also, is the right B/E shifter upside down or do the microshift levers work the other way round? Its all the way up but the derailleur is in a high gear. With my DA levers this would be the lowest gear.

* the flag in the background gave it away.

I wonder if the cutout of the B17 Imperial is as effective as the Romin..
I think the Microshift works the other way around, it's in the correct position like this.
The trip was from Amsterdam to Ameland and back in 5 days, the picture is taken in Swifterband in Flevoland. On my way back I went over the Afsluitdijk, but I had massive headwind the entire day and some rain, didn't enjoy that day too much haha. But now that I'm following the TCR I feel like a gaint pussy...

How's the seatpack treating you? Considering trying one of them to get away from panniers.

Sorry Chak, forgot to reply. The seatpack is really nice, looks very well made and has lots of nice details. On this trip I fitted my sleeping bag and tent in it but on further trips I will use it for clothes and put my sleeping bag on my handlebars.
At first I wanted to buy a rack + ortlieb panniers, but this saves about 2kg's and I don't need that much stuff with me anyways.
Would recommend!

I am/was really happy this bike, it rides better than I expected. But the the day before yesterday the dropout broke of from the seatstay.. I fixed it with some ducttape and tiewraps en rode to the nearest campsite and got it welt the day after
It's a really shitty weld so I hope it will last. I'm currently 100km south of Paris and heading for the col du tourmalet