You are reading a single comment by @tom_k&e and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@tom_k&e
As I mentioned after my trip to Plymouth last year, I'm planning on getting a geared tourer. I'm enamoured with the idea of a hub geared bike, on the basis that the main disadvantage, a small weight penalty, isn't going to be a huge issue on what will already be a heavy and heavily loaded bike.
At the bike show last week I saw one of these, [a pompetamine Versa 11
Which seemed suitable, but the only review I've found of it is very negative indeed. In particular, it's not explicitly sold as a tourer, has quite a short wheelbase. Once I'd added racks, mudguards and a decent saddle it would end up being £1,400, which then isn't looking so good compared to...
[
A Dawes Nomad](http://www.dawescycles.com/p-404-nomad-700c.aspx). Now this is more of an explicitly touring/treking bike, and has (good) racks, mudguards etc included, but has one rather obvious difference - it's got flat bars. I'm aware there's a school of thought that this is better for touring, and it probably is when the going gets rough. My other reservation is that I can't find any reviews or much user experience with this bike. On the plus side all I'd need to add to this is a saddle, so it would total £1,100 (bike is widely available for just over a grand).
The third option I've considered is building or having built something to my prefered spec, probably around a surly crosscheck, but the problem here is that the alfine 11 and versa shifters are difficult to get at decent prices, so the total cost would end up being £1,500.
So does anyone have any experience with either of those OTPs, or a similar build? Or any other suggestions?