cyclintom

A friend of mine was looking for a touring bike. He asked me about one in particular - a Raleigh Kodiak. It turns out that I had one back in the early 90's. It was an outstanding bike in every catagory except at 24" it was an inch too small for me.

I made the error of lending it to my neice's husband for their honeymoon tour through Europe and never heard from nor saw it again. Well, it really didn't fit me though I'd have preferred it to go to someone that would have used it to death.

Anyway, I ended up buying a really, really nice Atala World Championship Cyclocross bike. It is a 62 cm frame. As a cyclocross bike it is really a terrific bike. The handling is spot on and it feels just right. Although the bike dates from 1990 or so, it is a modern cyclocross bike in most ways. It has a low bottom bracket so that when you put cyclocross tires on the bike it raises to the correct position and doesn't feel top heavy and awkward. But it was a tad too big for me as a cyclocross bike.

So I converted it to a Touring bike when I got my Raleigh Team Cyclocross.

After a medium length tour I discovered the error of touring on a cyclocross bike. Although it looks correct the forks and frame are just the slightest bit too light. The bike gets wobbles. Because it's such a good bike the wobbles don't get out of hand but you can feel them and I'd as soon not.

Anyway, I discovered a 25" Kodiak on Ebay and bought it. I figure that I'll put all the good stuff off of the Atala, sell the frame and fork to a tall cyclocrosser and use the Kodiak.

And goodbye to loaded bike wobbles if this one is anything like my original Kodiak.