Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

I bow to your superior experience of touring Ed but surely test riding a bike for a day (did you test ride it all day or just have a little go on it) doesn't fully represent it's aptitude for touring. For me, touring = days (plural) in the saddle.

I think you underestimate the rigours of traversing that barren and testing land that is "one bit of Wimbledon to that other bit of Wimbledon".

I know what you mean, (in fact your answer would be useful in one of my topic about which touring bike to choose in the travel section!).

1. The frame is actually steel rather than alu, brazed on and drop out are stainless steel.
   2, Rohloff hubs are popular for tourer, the major problem insofar were the flange cracking, and Rohloff support were quick to sent replacement - downside is that you need a bike shop to rebuild the wheel.
   2.5 it came with a derailleur option.
   
2. having spoken to people who done epic tour, most of them loved their disc brake and would choose them over rims brake (despite availability being more scared), they highly recommended the mechanical disc though as it's easier to fix on the roadside rather than hydraulics, one of them mentioned that they spend 3 hours going downhill, which I though didn't exist! and disc brake were perfect for such terrain, especially in the rain on a fully laden tourer.
   
   

And henry, your knowledge are useful as you're the sort of person who combine all the information you collect and make a conclusion out of them.

My dad did Malaysia to Hong Kong on a tandem with his wife, using v brakes. He basically just took a shit load of spare pads. Steel is definitely a better option, if not he wouldn't have been able to have motorcycle foot pegs welded on for the wife along the way!

I would definitely go for discs, maybe mechanical as they have improved alot, as on one long steep wet downhill in the mountains I pretty much wore out a set of v pads. Braking is so much better with discs as well.

depend on the tour you're doing.

Really? How does that work exactly. What sort of 1/2 hour tours where you don't want position variety are you undertaking?

Round the world kind of tour? (with bar end naturally);

One of them mentioned that they spent 3 hours going downhill, which I though didn't exist!

This forum's approaching three seasons of doing that...

It's those small front wheels that are causing it.

Round the world kind of tour? (with bar end naturally);

So 3+ more positions in other words...

those bar ends on wide bars probably give better leverage uphill, no?
(than narrow drop bars)

Sure - I've toured with flat bars and bar ends, though you don't want to be rocking it that much with heavy weight on, thus the drops on my Galaxy are at least as fine. But touring with just a pair of plain flats - no way.

Those sort of stuff are usually down to personal preference isn't it?

I'd rather ride with drop bar than flat bar.

No, it's blinding common sense. You need to shift around a lot if you are going a lot of time in the saddle or you get fatigued. Doesn't require a Phd thesis to work it out.

I haven't done anything ridiculous but I've spent a few long hard and repeated days in the saddle. On a MTB with risers I used to alternate between the grips, holding onto each end of the bars as if i had bar ends and the middle either side of the stem.... most comfortable I found for steady mile crunching though was resting my hands on top of the levers/shifters.

On a road bike I ride 80% on the hoods or gripping the bars just above, occasionally T rex style in the middle but only briefly and downhill in the drops.

Things I wouldn't necessarily take on a tour of somewhere where you're potentially going to have to do all the repair work yourself:

1. Aluminium frame, for all the lightness, if it fucks up, steel can be repaired by a random dude in a shed.
   
2. Internal geared hub. If that fucks up, you're fucked
   3. Disc Brakes. (especially hydraulics)
   
   

Simplicity = king.

N.B. all my knowledge is from reported advice, I have never done a long enough tour to merit my own opinion.
frankly I don't have the patience.

I'll have to disagree with you on point three. Especially considering how hilly south America can be. On a heavy bike, after hundreds of miles, and dozens of pairs of brake pads, descending mountain roads etc, the rim sidewall will fail eventually. It is much easier to bolt a new disc on to the hub, and bung some new pads in than it is to rebuild the wheel and carry a spare rim with you. I've seen some rims fail while braking on descents, and the results can be quite spectacular!
I'd have to agree with keeping everything as simple as possible as a good general principle though. I'd happily tour with a good set of cable discs, without too many moving parts. Something like BB7s would be ideal.

Rims at 5,500km (with tourer choice of tyre -Scwalbe XR);

i'm all about posting my bikes lately, sorry.

here THIS BIKE is but with a basket. This is how the bike lives usually. The basket is HUGE and i use it for everything.

On this evening we (brother and I) were out for beers and food. Heavy snow all night actually. became pretty messy and fun.

^ that's a proper basket! I will have to post my girlfriend's bike in this thread, after I've finished painting the headtube.

What do people think of hub gears on a touring bike? I was specifically thinking about the new 11sp Alfine. Low of 25", high of around 90", only marginally heavier than a derailer setup, looks great, little maintenance (no having to adjust derailer every night like on my last tour) and difficult to damage. On the downside the gears might not be well spaced and if it goes wrong in the field then I'm fucked. I'm not particularly bothered about either cost or the lack of drop-bar suitable shifters - they'll get cheaper/secondhand and I'm sure road shifters will be released soon.

Also the Rohloff has gearing restrictions to prevent you putting too much torque through the hub, which essentially stops you from having a *really *low granny gear. Anyone know if the Alfine has similar limits? Is a hub gear just overkill on a light tourer anyway?

topic over.

So well made those things, a proper step up from Azor.

My new 2 speed kick-back coaster braked getter bike.

Rims at 5,500km (with tourer choice of tyre -Scwalbe XR);

I am building up a surly troll at the moment, it will have a rohloff hub, and i have decided to go with rigida andra 30 carbide rims, they are tougher then ceramic rims,
they are supertough, check the rim out after 17,000km http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/reviews/board/message/?o=RrzKj&message_id=183714&v=3&term=rigida&context=all
i will be running avid ultimate levers and v brakes, v brakes are the easiest brakes to adjust, and the avids have a performane which rivals disc brakes.

My new 2 speed kick-back coaster braked getter bike.

Where can you buy those huge baskets from?

Tokyo Fixed. They're made by WALD and come in 2 sizes.

http://www.tokyofixedgear.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?Search=Yes&sppp=10&page=1&Keyword=Wald&category=ALL&highprice=0&lowprice=0&allwords=Wald&exact=&atleast=&without=

What do people think of hub gears on a touring bike? I was specifically thinking about the new 11sp Alfine. Low of 25", high of around 90", only marginally heavier than a derailer setup, looks great, little maintenance (no having to adjust derailer every night like on my last tour) and difficult to damage. On the downside the gears might not be well spaced and if it goes wrong in the field then I'm fucked. I'm not particularly bothered about either cost or the lack of drop-bar suitable shifters - they'll get cheaper/secondhand and I'm sure road shifters will be released soon.

Also the Rohloff has gearing restrictions to prevent you putting too much torque through the hub, which essentially stops you from having a *really *low granny gear. Anyone know if the Alfine has similar limits? Is a hub gear just overkill on a light tourer anyway?

If you have to have a hubs gear on tourer, it gotta be the Rohloff, reliable, decent range of ratio and pretty easy to use (apart from using a drop bar).

The Alfine 11 is a pretty good hubs, and I feel it would be fine on a normal tour, but for serious expedition tour, I doubt it, for that you'd want a better range of gears.

I've already posted my review of the Alfine 11;

For those who sometime have cargo bike to haul stuff on a daily basis/due to job requirement, get the Alfine 11.

I have to pull 120kg worth of stuff to move flat (exceeding the trailer's 90kg limit), the ratio on the new Alfine hubs is a godsent, the 1st and 2nd gear have a slightly big gap, but after that, the rest of the range felt pretty close and even, almost as close as a derailleur.

it made a huge difference especially when most internal hubs have a bigger ratio between each gear, you'd need to really spin it in order to change gear without resorting to mashing it.

The shifting were a bit sticky, but eventually start to be more precise as the internal hubs started to bed in, it's now nice and quick, the change are almost instantaneous.

Really impressed with it, especially when I can go through several gear with just a couple or so click at the rapidfire shifter just like with derailleur, I genuinely don't think it's worth getting an Rohloff when you have the Alfine 11 (unless you're doing those expedition tour).