TomvanHalen's tourer - Raleigh 853 (sick flames ITT)

I love this bike! I bought a 531 Alves last month and I'm planning on doing the same sort of thing. Thanks for the inspiration.

Only thing I can't learn to love is that seatpost.

I know it's mtb but it's from a later era and its fugly.

Syncros/Thomson/Easton pls

30.0 is problematic. Thomson doesn't have enough layback, Syncros doesn't come in layback at all and the Easton Havoc offends my inner weight weenie. I don't mind this one and the adjustment is brilliant

Nevermind sizing and comfort. What's more important is how the bleeding hell are you keeping those tanwalls clean?

Not as clean as they look, but some Ecover surface cleaner and plenty of water shifted most of the brake crap

If you're looking into handlebars somewhat in between the midge and a compact bar, seriously consider salsa cowbells. They're the best bar I've used on my off road bikes.
Also, are those brake levers really comfortable to hold on to?

The midge are perfect for off-road and touring, they're just really wide and suck for riding around the city. Which levers? On the Midge bars without the hoods, they're okay but I barely use them anyway. On the Strada Compacts, the hoods are pretty comf.

@TomvanHalen

Saw this eBay and thought of you.

Obviously too small but hey:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-Rsp-600-Titanium-Frame-Rare-/112031289014

Didn't realise they'd done that colour scheme in Titanium. But yay flames

Some steerer tube viagra, a few million lumens and a crank swapsie and we're ready for the dynamo

What's the seat tube band on mudguard mount?

Ha, way ahead of you in fbnpna thread.

@jambon

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/dmr-hinged-clamp/rp-prod745

@russmeyer @TomvanHalen thanks guys, makes me think guards on my porteur might actually be possible.

Spotted this as I was dozing off on the beach after the dynamo - very cool build, looked great in the sun

Looked like a good doze! The flies kept me from relaxing unfortunately.

Was really happy with the fit and comfort today, though I think I need to move to modern brake levers unfortunately. Front is a little twitchy no-handed due to the relatively steep head angle, so longer forks are still on the cards, and it's been dropping chains shifting in the small sprockets which was a fucking nightmare. Chainline is terrible with the outer triple position.

Still love it though.

Move the chaining to the inside of the spider?

Can't, most triples (AFAIK, but definitely this one) have a slightly larger shoulder diameter on the middle position to stop you doing this. Fuck knows why

I'm leaning towards saying "fuck it" and replacing it with a Rival OCT compact double. They still command weirdly high prices though

Can't you just file something ?

Also, just realised, what happened to middle burn?

Needed to pop the 42 on at short notice and don't have a duo/triple spider

What with having to find either a different, less sexy mech or chain guide, plus permanent modification of either crank or ring, at some point effort exceeds reward. Simplest solution is to get a road double and front mech for the matching shifter, for which I'm rewarded with the right range, no chain drop issues and reduced Q factor. I could get a Duo combo for the Middleburn but is much expoonse and I could put it on my new MTBeater instead

RS7 arms? What BCD spider would you need for your chainrings?

.

Yeah, RS7. For this 42 ring, either a 104 bcd mono or duo spider. Otherwise I'd get a duo spider ring and big ring combo, or an INCY

I might have something the the parts box, I've somehow ended up with more spiders than I have bikes/cranks/time to be pissing around with...