There were a few aspects
that I knew right away that I wanted in a touring bike. Firstly it had to be
designed for touring – this may sound like a daft comment to bother making but
a friend was insistent that I would be better off with a mountain bike frame.
‘When you get somewhere cool you’ll be able to drop the panniers and go
offroad!’. Maybe so but for the remaining 95% of the time when I will be
cycling road or trail with a loaded bike I don’t want to be wishing I had something
which was better designed for touring.
Other requirements were;
A steel frame – simple
tried and tested material with good longevity and repairable in the field if
you really really need to.
Disk brakes (Mechanical)
– Why disks? Simple I like to stop when I need to. Also I won’t wear out the
rims, and if a rim does go massively out of true it won’t affect the brakes. It
is harder to source parts and pads but the pads are so light and small it will
be nothing to travel with several spare sets.
26 inch wheels – I’ll
discuss this more in my next post but basically it comes down to worldwide
availability of spares (inner tubes, tyres, and rims). 26 inch should be
available pretty much everywhere there are bikes but 700c may not. There is
some discussion about which type is stronger, I don’t see this as an issue, the
actual size difference is pretty dam small, I cannot see this making any impact
on strength, lots of folk get hung up on the small size difference somehow
having a great bearing on strength, by that argument penny farthing bikes
should have folded as soon as a rider got aboard – but they didn’t.
Finally, I was very taken
by the Shimano Alfine 11. This shouldn’t have an impact on my frame choice but
it was something to consider.
Dawes Nomad - A 26inch wheel possibility
Planet X Kaffenback - Second favorite
So with my requirements
clear I went shopping and very quickly ran into the Surly Disk Trucker, it
ticks all the boxes – literally the only negative I could come up with was that
it has vertical rear dropouts and so I would have to run a chain tensioner if I
use an Alfine hub – a pretty minor issue really, but not wanting to buy the
first frame that I came across I shopped around, read reviews, blogs, and
forums. There was the Planet X Kaffenback, this is probably my second choice
bike, almost perfect even having replaceable rear dropouts so I could convert
to horizontal dropouts and run an Alfine hub without a chain tensioner, but it
only comes in 700c wheels. The Genesis Day One and Croix De Fer also look
great, as do the On One Pompetamine and Pompino, Dawes Ultra Galaxy (rather
extravagant name though don’t you think?), and Trek 520 - all great looking
bikes but all take a 700c wheel. The Thorn Raven Enduro was briefly considered
but far too expensive for my budget and built far more around trail touring
with its MTB style frame and front suspension, so the Dawes Nomad perhaps? - 26
inch wheels yes, disk brakes no. So back to the Surly Disk Trucker - it seems
to be everything I am after and even taking wheel size out of consideration it
appears to be the only frame out of the ones I have mentioned here that is
truly designed for touring (with the exception of the Dawes and Thorn) the
others are road bike frames with some adaption and modification to suit
touring. The Surly sells itself as a touring frame with its long chain stays
creating a long wheel base for more stability which also puts the rear panniers
further back to keep them away from the pedals, it has a lower bottom bracket
to increase stability further, accepts wide tyre sizes (fatties fit fine
according to the sales pitch) so I can use big tyres for a comfy ride or for
off-road use, and finally its loaded with braze-ons; there is a place for your
pump, spare spokes, three water bottles, and more importantly, decent and
thought out attachment points for front and rear racks. I have yet to find
fault with the specifications of this frame which in my opinion make it the
ideal all round tourer, Long Haul Trucker; the name really does say it all!
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