A Straggler to a Rambler - building an All Terrain Tourer

Love this! Following closely, I’m currently working on a Disc trucker going for a simile use case and vibe. Excited to see what you come up with

The colour looks great!

Needs Paul Klampers...

Following with interest - I got a surly Lowside last year for a good price and went a similar route. The frame bag really really unlocked the potential I found - rear carradice odyssey, frame bag, two stem pouches and a carradice audax at the front. Enough for light weather - gets a bit tight when you need loads of layers.

Oh and if you’re new frame is boost (they are right?) the Hunt enduro wide are great wheels if you can get them when they’re doing sales - think mine were like £300 or something and have a 36h rear.

Not boost and I have some DT 350/481 wheels from Arkane coming.

The Hope wheels Martin built for me previously were flawless so wanted to get the new wheelset from him. I have moved jobs and no longer get a deal on Hope so thought I’d try DT Swiss - I never had any problems with the Hope pawls but a star ratchet feels like a better design approach.

After seeing full framebags that friend's have I think it's going to be great, will allow me to go light if needed or add small rear panniers for longer trips.

I'm hoping to make my own roll top frame bag from waxed cotton - current thinking is dark green/olive but I'm open to other colour suggestions.

Oh sick that’ll be great. I singlespeed my tourer so find that I don’t like much front weight when I’m out saddle, but I think the Stooge will handle it better than my surly does, it’s not really its intended use. I use the frame bag for my tent, pegs, sleeping mat and down jacket then snack just laid on top. It’s so much room.

A lightning fast wheel build from Arkane - destickered DT Swiss 350 hubs on XM 481 rims.

Going from 40mm to 2.6” will be quite the step up. I think I’ve achieved the desired level of cush that I was dreaming off through Latin America.

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Also more frame saver spray than I’ll use in a lifetime…

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Great start of the project, looking forward to this

Lovely stuff

I have a pipedream of a 29r tourer.

This is going to be good. Subbed.

Why no dynamo?
Project is very cool :)

I had one my Straggler (primarily for USB charging on tour) and it was great for flat or road riding but as soon as things got steep or unpaved it wasn't generating enough power to be much use. I love the convenience of dynamo lights but for me the payoff isn't worth the cost or complication.

Rechargeable lights, USB power banks and small solar panels have made a dynamos redundant for my use case.

Now you've got flats are you not tempted to go hydro? Also maybe Non-QR if left outside. Every little helps.

On the Straggler? I had the bb7s and avid levers already and I'm on a zer0 (or as little as possible) additional spend policy on it. I also have a lifetimes supply of spare pads after I panic bought loads when we re-upped in Bolivia.

Good point on the skewer, I think I might have a set of halo skewers with hex heads in a toolbox somewhere.

The Rambler is also going to be mechanical - for now Paul Love levers with bb7 calipers, although @MrBaklava is on a campaign to convince me to treat myself to Klampers (and he might win).

Maybe with the bigger tyres I'll want more power/control than the bb7s can offer but I've not felt the need for more on the Surly.

Why no dynamo?

Speed issue

Would you be tempted by Growtacs?

I don't think so - price wise they are similar to second hand Klampers and I don't know what advantage they would offer.

Thinks I don't like about BB7s:

• they don't always push the pads totally parallel
  
• the plastic adjusters eventually break / get lost / melt at high temperatures
  
• when the pads wear the outer piston has a habit of over extending
  
• after extended use the grease dry up in the caliper and the actuation arm jams
  
• if you aren't careful with the cable pinch bolt it can fowl the caliper body and cause the arm to stick/jam
  
  

I think the Klampers solve all these issues but equally I can rebuild a BB7 with my eyes closed and am pretty sure I now know every nuance and quirk they have by now. If I do get Klampers it will be a vanity purchase. The serviceability is the main attraction but I could get x5+ sets of BB7 for that price.

I also found with BB7s that my big feet kept moving the adjustment knob until my brake eventually locked up ( the brake mount was inside the rear triangle on my Ogre )

Was much happier with Spykes after that

I found that my dynamo was not charging things consistently at low speed on my touring bike, I ended up changing the USB interface, from a Revolution Sinewave to a Busch & Muller one, and thankfully it solved the problem.

That’s fair.

I don’t mind bb7s. I have the same irks with them that you do, mainly the misalignment of the pads which makes getting them to run rub free and with decent lever feel difficult.

The concave/convex washers are as much a curse as they are a blessing too I feel.

I think I’d be more likely to shell out for Klampers than some super fancy Hopes or something. I expect though that I’d get the same performance out of a Shimano mechanical caliper.

The Growtacs are yeah about the cost of used Klampers, more readily available though as I only have IS/post mount bikes not flat mount which seems to be what a lot of the Klampers are. Could always run an adapter.

There’s hooky Growtacs on Aliexpress which I’m tempted by, would feel a bit shit buying fake Paul stuff but Growtac seems more like a faceless corporation? Maybe they’re not.

I half considered the knock off Pauls but beyond the moral issue I just thought that they if they are manufactured poorly I wouldn't be getting any of the performance advantages.

Aye.

The knock off Growtacs are a bit cheaper than the knock off Pauls, about £60. Full rrp on a single BB7 caliper is probably more than that.

The SLX I have on my Spa are doing fine the now anyway. If they crack another piston though...

If flat bars why not hydro?