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Old 11-17-07, 04:59 PM
  #5  
Rowan
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More expensive does not equate to increased longevity, in my opinion. The extra money is aimed at lightening weight and to an extent that results in fragility and shorter service life. The extra expense also comes in making tolerances that much closer, hence a "crisper" shift on a Dura-Ace set than a Sora.

Didn't Bontrager coin the saying: Cheap, light, strong -- pick any two? It applies to just about everything in engineering.

For mine, it depends on the type of terrain you will touring, and your need for lower gears or a wide range of gear. For example, I will run an alloy big ring and an alloy little ring, but because most of my riding until recently on my touring bike is in the middle ring, it is steel. I currently run a Deore 22-32-44 crankset going to a 32-11 cassette on the back. If I was running a road crankset with say a 26 or 28 little ring, I would try to make the small chainring steel, too, because I might spend proportionally more time in it if I was touring hilly terrain.

Again, the cassette normally would be a heavier, say, Tiagra level job -- steel and not drilled with a little hole on each tooth. Chains? There's not much more to do than again take a mid-level option if you are running a 9sp. However, I can observe that the durability of 8-speed systems with their slightly wider chains can be phenomenal. I ran a road bike for commuting, training, fun and centuries with an 8sp Sora set-up that seemed to go on forever... well over 12,000km and still shifting OK (admittedly with downtube shifters although the right one remained in SIS mode without friction shifting being needed).

Which follows me on to the pro-con arguments about bar-ends/downtubes and brifters. The option of friction shifting might be advantageous on arduous long-distance tours when uncertainty creeps into shifting because of chain, ring and cog wear.

My touring bike runs Tiagra shifters, but they are 2000-01 models, and I think assessments in another thread will give you a clue to what is happening -- the Ultegra and 105 trickle-down has meant the Tiagras have probably become less durable than they used to be.

I will toss in a bit about bottom brackets -- I have had a Shimano UN52 in the touring bike for around 40,000km. I really like sealed bearings for BBs and hubs.

Of course, with drivetrain, it pays to pay attention to maintenance irrespective of the type of equipment you run. It's not unusual to ignore the maintenance practices on a tour because, timewise, the tour might only be for a short time (three weeks or a month), but you are covering a lot of distance in that time, likely in dustier conditions. A Connex link (I prefer it to the SRAM one for its ease of disengagement, but it does need to be fitted the correct way around on 9sp) makes the "cocktail mixer" maintenance chore much easier -- along with a solvent like kerosene/diesel and a wide-mouth soft-drink bottle (Sheldon Brown likes the Pepsi bottles because of this).
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