Rawland Drakkar Monster Porteur

Ask in the monster thread - whatever it's called. And also look through the mtbr monster cross thread (start with the most recent posts and go back). I believe there are a few out there. If you find a suspension corrected frame with a sufficiently slack geometry it will actually improve with a shorter fork. The genesis models iirc. I had a 26'er fork on my kona unit for the same reasons. For commuting a steeper head angle, shorter axle distance and lower bb are all winners compared to standard mtb/xc geometry. Mind the top tube length though...

Cheers @drøn, sorry to hi jack your thread. Love your Rawland.

no worries. hi jack away. the thread would be useless if it wasn't for these sorts of things.
and thank you. I love it too.

@drøn how do you like that front porteur rack? Looking for something like that. The velo orange or soma options look nice but are waay dearer.

It's pretty solid. But also heavy. If the platform style suits your habits it's fine, but I'm ditching it in favour of something lighter and smaller. More akin to the one on my missed kona (see the monster thread for a photo).

New cranks:

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such lovely bike!

Had a look around, settled on a Soma Wolverine, not as sloping tt as rawland, but plenty room for big tyres, also looked at Genesis Longitude, if Soma can't deliver my size, that is my go to.
Just out of curiosity, how tall are you and what size is the Drakkar?

sounds sweet. I would love this one to have had a horizontal top tube as I think it just looks better

I'm around 180cm - all legs.
not too sure on size, around small/medium I think ~ 53cm IIRC proper T-rexy.

Yeh, Soma got it right, bit long, had to go for a 50cm, similar sizing to Surly, except longer headtube, so don't need as many spacers!
Quite like a sloping toptube, depends on use I guess, more offroady, plenty of clearance between tt and bollocks.....never a bad thing.

It does have a reasonable 70mm BB drop which helped.

Aye. Both frames do. Both make a decent fist of being reasonable touring bikes. Plenty long enough wheelbase, enough mounts, mudguard eyelets, disc ready. Chose the Soma because I think it's slightly better quality steel, more road than the genesis, still plenty of room for biggish tyres, and it's orange! Although the genesis in green is very pleasing too.

I think it's a great choice if the Reach is idea for you, putting 650b tyres would help make it feel even more nimble in future with a lower BB.

That Soma would be my choice if I was looking for an all-road bike, apart from it's excessive reach.

Yeah, they are long, both my day one and equilibrium are 54cm, my cross check is a 52cm, but for the soma I had to go for a 50cm. Not too worried as I don't mind a bit of seatpost showing, I think for my height I have fairly long arms, so the reach will be fine, just glad I can get rid of some of the spacers, cross checks have ridiculously small headtubes.

DIYing:

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DIYing:

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DIYing:

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sorry. phone posting acting up and shit photos to boot.
things for using a rear rack on the front. I still need the upper crown brace thingy. not sure what to make it from...

found better photos of cranks project.

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Lunch pack compartment:

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Made from left over leather, the legs off an old pair of chinos, some velcro and a new zipper bought for the purpose.

The leather strip goes all the way around and is contoured to partially wrap around the frame tubes. It makes it really stable. also due to the stiffness from the leather and vast amounts of water protection wax used on both leather and fabric.

The compartment is slightly asymmetric which allows you to pack lighter bulky stuff in one side and heavier compact items in the other all while still maintaining weight balance. I think I better patent that feature soon!...

looks pretty solid. the bikes awesome btw..

Say hello to Darth Elephant

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...does it work?

does it work?