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Tijs
@Josh
After riding my Transition rapture over to ludlow and back the previous week, I realised I would need a bike with a bigger range of gears when loaded up and touring...Its steep that way.
So I set out to make a capable bike out the bear valley.
FWIW, I built it up the night before and didnt test ride it until the morning of said trip! So had to feel this out on the ride which was not ideal but went fine!
Overall it performed well...The 3x9 gearing great!! It was enough to get me around the 4400FT of elevation on the first day without using the 22t inner ring all trip! Though the guy I bought the shifters/mechs off sold me an 8 speed XTR shifter, not a 9 speed...So I only managed to get 8 out of 9 gears on the rear (missing second to lowest). Ultimately worked fine but have now swapped the 9 speed mech and cassette to a 8 speed.
The fit was okay, bars were way to low and reminded me of the set up on the CDF I sold a while back...so they needed to be higher but were not too bad. The bars have been changed since and are a much better fit.
One thing I had a bit of a gripe with is the high BB! not great for touring. The forks have whopping 420mm A2C which is the culprit, therefore some forks with a lower a2c will suit better and more steere tube to compensate the a2c drop etc. Perhaps some Surlys or Thorns...Hopefully itll give it a nicer stance too...
The trip itself was wicked. Long weekends with my mate are hard to come by now a he has a child, so this was just great to hang and ride for three days.
We chose shropshire hills as out destination As I knew the way that way quite well and its very beautiful!
1st day was 64 miles and 44ooft of climbing, something Jack was not ready for!! lugging a child around for 10 miles is not the same as 25kg bike and luggage over 6 mile climbs with ~1000ft elevation gain!! poor chap. I was fine however and the marin performed great.
Our camp spot was hard to find as its all farm land or either on the side of a bloody hill...But we managed to find a spot somewhere, up a long climb, then hopped onto a public bridle way which looked like it hadnt been walked or use in 10+ years...We then had to hike a bike up some serious grades in order to be out of sight and get some serious views!
We were so secluded and quiet the bats were out in full force, flying and swoopin down near our camp sight! Was a very lovely sight.
The 2nd and 3rd day we chopped the return route up into two shorter 40 miles and 30 mile days as Jacks knee started to play up. Which meant we didnt get to see what we wanted but we got to hang out and camp up,, which is ultimately the whole point of bike packing with pals.
We followed the same route home but with some detours to find some camp spots and have a dip in a river!
Overall, 10/10 few days!
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