Current Projects chat and miscellany

^^ As you say, it works for you, but wouldn't a little of that weight moved forward stabilize the whole operation a bit more? I've run a Carradice seat bag up front hanging from north road type bars and on a small rack using drops. Just an idea.

it works really well, allthough it doesn't look like it. handling is perfect, the bike does not lift the front when going up hill or carrying it down some stairs. guess this is due to the design of the carradice bags, very narrow (front-rear) but wide and low. had ortliebs before and they where shit. all of the stuff mentioned above...before starting in the morning i had to manually weight them and distribute the weight. with the carrdice i simply don't care about packing.

Lovely! Is that Raleigh a Royal? My Randonneur's further up the page, it needs a respray and I love the job on yours. There's something about the Brooks Honey and Royal Green though that stimulates my inner old man.
Do you not have an issue with the Dura Ace rear mech not handling the drop in chain tension between large and small front rings? Maybe the cassette is too varied on mine but I found it would skip with a 600 mech, which is why I put the XT on.

thanks! it is a 1978 worksop build, full 531 frame. model is in this case a "record", seems to be build for the german and dutch market. i have the frame 3 times (it simply justs fits for touring) and is 100% similar to the "competition" frame for the same market:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/multiburst/4784972694/in/set-72157622797505986

guess at that time, the components made up the model name.

and: no problems with the rear mech running 34/26, but it's also not a dura ace one, instead it's the much more skinny suntour cyclone.

your raleigh also looks really, really nice and deliberate functional- thinking about sti's on the traveller also, but am afraid i may run into problems when something is broken on a trip...