Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Another bike company with out a clue
Gonna rant a little: What idiot would spec a 32 hole disc wheel on a
touring bike? Does a design committee sit around and see what kind of stupid ideas they can come up with? "Hey, Erv! Got an idea. Let's put a dished wheel on the front of this bike and make it even weaker by taking away 4 spokes!"
For RAGBRAI, you won't need to do anything. You might even want to remove some stuff to lighten the bike up. RAGBRAI (and other mass tours) are more de France than they are Tour. (Personal note: Don't like mass tours because they are too much de France and not enough Tour
) Just ride what you got or, if you have something else that's racier, ride it.
For the Wyoming trip, stick with what you got...including the 32 hole wheels
...unless you have a reason to change them. I'd suggest doing loaded training rides a few weeks to a couple of months before hand. Load your bags with weight (rice and beans works very well and you can eat them afterwards) progressing from a little weight to what you expect to carry on the trip. Front bags are good and should be loaded with small dense stuff to about 60% of the total load. A heavier load on the front improves handling. Keep the back bags for lighter bulky stuff.
Unless you really need a dynamo and the light for touring, I'd just stick with what you have now...even if they aren't right
...unless you start to break spokes during training. The dynamo hub is much more useful for winter* riding so save your cash for now. Only replace stuff that really needs replacing. And don't replace much of anything within the last couple of weeks before a loaded tour. That means don't replace the saddle, the handlebars, do a major overhaul, etc. unless absolutely necessary.
*Not a big fan of dynamo hubs in the winter time either. Sure they work all the time but they aren't all that transferable from bike to bike if you have multiple bikes. Battery lights are more flexible and brighter even if limited in run time. YMMV
When first learning about touring I was really looking at the LHT and perhaps should have gone that route. Though, I do really like my Sojourn, if not for some of the puzzling choices Raleigh made on it. I think they've since remedied this blatant build contradiction in later models.
As for the Tour de RAGBRAI, I have to agree with you once again. I have a flexible summer and being from Iowa I thought I should do the ride at least once. I'm not much of a "mass" rider. I enjoy small groups with good friends rather than throngs of people all dolled up in spandex on their $3000 road bikes that they ride on the weekends. I'm a bit pessimistic about the experience of riding with yuppie "weekend warriors", but I've paid my fee and have the time so I might as well do it!
As for WY, I'm looking forward to the solitude and experience.
So, while there's a few followers to this thread. I'll pose another question. Originally I was attracted to the Sojourn for having Disc Brakes (increased stopping power in adverse conditions). Is there really a noticeable difference in stopping power, brake wear, $$ on these vs. a good set of cantilever brakes? From what I've gathers discs will preserve the rim, but put some stress on the hub, while Cantilever basically do the opposite.