Reliable Touring Bike Parts

Looking to build up a touring bike of some sort to then to tour on. I am pretty new to this neck of where bikes take us and would like to know more about reliable touring parts.

Can anyone recommend brands or parts, wheels, gear mech etc, that would be up for the job, reliable durable good quality and stuff!

All I can go on right now is seeing what parts complete touring bikes come with and basing my research about those parts.

Personally looking to building a 26" Long Haul Trucker with both new and second hand parts, new ones being wheels and gear mech, cos I believe they are the most important parts to get right when it comes to long distance other than frame size!

Any help would be appreciated.

H

doo de doo

http://www.lfgss.com/post3062471-119.html

hum te humm

I'll start the ball rolling..........

• wheels - deore hubs + mavic/rigida rims (s/s spokes, handbuilt preferably)
  
• tyres - continental
  
• saddle - rolls
  
• bars/stem - deda/cinelli base models
  
• chainset - stronglight impact (cheap/reliable)
  
• gears - tiagra/deore 9speed (bar end shifters)
  
• brakes - s/hand shimano canti's
  
• rack - blackburn or the like (4 point fixing)
  
  

Mark

Gears alfine 11 or rohloff speedhub. If you want ruggedness low maintainence the slight weight penalty is well worth paying. You'll have a straight chainline minimalizing wear, no issues with the chain jumping or coming off. All exposed moving parts are within the frame so unlikely to get damaged in the event of a fall or
Collision. The hub is sealed so never needs cleaning of dirt and grime. Adjustment is as simple as aligning two marks with the shifter selecting middle gear to take up cable stretch.
I've been running an alfine 11 for a year now. The range of gears on 700c rims with 44/18 chain ring is equivalent to 28/20 in 1st and 52/11 in 11th. You'll not have problems getting anywhere on that. If so put a 20 on th rear or something smaller on front.

doo de doo

http://www.lfgss.com/post3062471-119.html

hum te humm

Just realised that doesn't link to my answer to that question. Here we go:

I checked out some sites explaining how touring bikes were typically specced, also checking some well known OTP tourers like Dawes. I initially thought groupsets had to be the same manufacturer and "level" but they don't. I come to the conclusion that I wanted a touring triple chainset, a 9 or 10 speed rear cassette, integrated STI/Ergo/"brifter" combined brakes and shifters and reasonably decent wheels. Many OTP tourers come with bar end shifters but I wanted STIs because I've never had them and they seem cool. The extra speed they afford you in shifting is, I think, overkill for touring bikes. I had the good fortune to pick up a lowish end touring gruppo and wheels as a package of the classifieds on here. Shimano Deore is an MTB groupset which lots of people online recommend for touring builds. I also heard Rigida Sputnik rims are considered good. 36 spoke wheel configurations are pretty much standard for strength.

My groupset is a combination of Shimano 105, Tiagra and Sora BTW. Sora gets a bit of a bad rep for clunky shifting. The rims on the wheels are Mavic A719 which are, I believe OK.

Another bit of advice I've absorbed is to get the best components you can afford and then upgrade when you feel necessary. That's why I feel comfortable with Sora. It's not as if it's gonna cost me any races.

Thanks a lot Markyp I will take a look into those parts, Dtroll those hubs are very expensive but am going to take a look into that option, would take me long to gather funds but can kind of see a major benefit of running a bike with that set up?!

Or maybe I am just getting carried away with having a wheel THAT expensive on my bike!

EDIT jus saw Alfine hub way cheeper ha

Jamis Aurora is a good one to look for, got everything you need, even the newer one cost less than 700.

Hub,wheel, shifter, fitting kit complete from Germany on eBay Inc shipping less than £500. It aint cheap. But add up a decent new groupset, wheel etc. It's about the same and will cost more in the long run. For touring they recon the rohloff is better but it's more£££

it's not better, just different.

standard 8 speed set-up would be cheap and easy to run, but likely to wear out quickly, so best to change chain every 1,000-1,500 miles to prevent wear and tear on drivetrain.

Rohloff obviously will last a bit longer with chain wear, but when it go wrong, you're stuck.

Rims
Regida Sputnik. Cheap, strong. Used by many polo players cause they are cheap and strong!! The more spokes the better. Sapim stongs are bomb proof spokes, a bit heavy but if you're touring you don't want to be getting youre wheels trued too often.
Tyres
It's got to be schwalbe marathon plus. Why carry a pump, repair kit, tyre levers? Cos you ain't running on these is the answer. Again heavy but they wear well and you're not likely to get a flat.
Mudgaurds
A must, chromoplastic things. Incredible how much shit doesn't end up in your face and over your back with good Mudgaurds.
Happy touring.
People have taken a ss/fg Pompino touring. Very simple. Must be fitter than me eh!
Good luck

It's got to be schwalbe marathon plus. Why carry a pump, repair kit, tyre levers? Cos you ain't running on these is the answer. Again heavy but they wear well and you're not likely to get a flat.

Carry them anyway, there are stuff out there that'd kill a Marathon Plus.

Having said that, it depend on the type of ride you want to IMHO.

it's not better, just different.

standard 8 speed set-up would be cheap and easy to run, but likely to wear out quickly, so best to change chain every 1,000-1,500 miles to prevent wear and tear on drivetrain.

Rohloff obviously will last a bit longer with chain wear, but when it go wrong, you're stuck.

The 8 speed is cheaper, but also heavier with only a 300% gear range and is grease filled. To service you have to strip the hub. The 11 speed has a 400% range and is oil filled. Changing the oil doesn't involve stripping the hub and can be done at home.

I thought you were referring to the Rohloff.

My point being is that if something does go wrong (which there's very little chance of it happening), you're pretty much fucked.

I liked the 11 speed Alfine, they worked brilliantly, and can shift multiple gear in one go, but not as reliable as the odd ratios Alfine 8.

Also the gearing varies on certain tour, european tour for example would need nothing more than a skinny road 32c tyres, less self support, can get away with high end component (campag), etc. whether touring in says, Mongolia would required a rethink (26" wheel recommended with tough tyres, more self support, cheap and strong gearing that's easy to find replacement part, or super tough component that won't go wrong easily etc.)

I did LEJoG a few years ago, ended up using a Suntour VX rear mech, Exage 7spd rear hub (found on a skip bike) built into a Sputnik rim, Exage triple chainset, another skip find front wheel (MA40/Campag Tipo), a pair of 32mm Panaracer Paselas, and Weinman centrepulls. It all worked fine, and commuted on it for a year.

My current fav gearing is Simplex retrofricton shifters and a NOS Sachs New Success rear mech that I got for a quid.

If you want to cycle around Britain and the continent, I'd go for a pair of Deore hubs built into Sputniks by someone good like Arup, Marathons or Paselas (lighter), bar end shifters if you're riding drops, and a decent saddle. I'd second the Stronglight Impact c/set. Personally, I don't worry too much about seat pins, stems and bars (make sure they're wide enough). You can go into any bikeshop and get it fixed.

Those Suntour derailleur are decent as well as the Simplex retrofriction levers - quite possibly the best friction levers out there.

sound like a winning combo.

I'd be wary of the Simplex levers for touring...many started to slip as they got old. I've seen one or two bikes with an elastic band between the lever and the bottle cage as a temporary fix....
Never saw this with the suntour powershift levers....

Much appreciated for all the input and please keep it coming.

I had a really good chat about parts for the bike at a local bike shop today which kicked me into the right direction.

They are up for helping me as long as I give them some direction in terms of what I want.
Looking to run an 8 speed of some sort with some thumb shifters on a LHT undecided on group set and wheels and stuff

Research goes on..!

Shimano 8 speed bar-end shifter, you can make it into a thumb shifter too.

For my surly lht I've gone 8 speed, bar end shifters with friction option, steel small and middle chain rings, lx hubs, mavic rims, 36 hole front and rear - went for marathon mondial tyres in the end as I think the marathon pluses are too heavy (over a kilo each in the size I wanted) and the mondials seem a good mix of weight, puncture resistance and tread pattern

Is there a website you know of where it shows how this is done, or is it pretty obvious when you look at what needs to be done?

I've fitted 7-speed shimano d/tube shifters to (originally 8-speed) bar end levers housing to work with a campag 8-speed cassette....

Is there a website you know of where it shows how this is done, or is it pretty obvious when you look at what needs to be done?

Apart from here? The CTC forum is worth a look and so is YACF

and try the Thorn Bikes brochures. You can find them buried on their site.
Somewhat opinionated but good ideas on what works..

^ seconded - probably the oddest 'brochures' I've ever read but jam packed full of information

Also, what I've come to realise is there is no definitive guide for building a touring bike - most likely because bike touring encompasses such a wide range of possibilities

I am thinking about a bike which is fixed 99% of the time but where I can change rear wheel, front (single) ring and run a cable from a bar-end shifter. The idea being that I can have a fast light bike for my commute which I can convert to a light tourer <10kg of luggage, with half an hour or so of tinkering.

I was thinking of using a Sturmey Archer 5speed hub, the ratios would be something like this 30.1/ 36.1/ 48.1/64.2/77.0
The question is will this work well for general (non alpine) European touring ?

(Rohloff won't work as I need a 130 OLD hub hence the SA, and I don't really need downhill gears as I can coast, I'd just prefer to ride the bike rather than push it really)