Originally Posted by
Joe Minton
I ride both IGH and derailleur bikes. One, the IGH, is my everyday bike and the other is for exercise and light-weight fun. I can service and/or repair either one. Each has its advantages and I like both for how I use them.
I want to build a touring rig. For practical reason$, it shall get down the road with a derailleur drive train. I plan to build a Surly-framed (LHT disc) bike with a Shimano XT group set. I'm fine with the MTB-style handlebar and shifters. I won't buy another bike with anything but hydraulic disc brakes (Wabi excepted). The combination of the Surly frame with its geometry (virtually the same as my Diamondback STI-8) and the quality, gearing, brakes etcetera of the XT group set promise to make a reliable and serviceable touring bike. It will be expensive for me to build but I should just be able to do it.
Were money not an issue I'd go Rohloff and belt drive.
Some Notes: (turns into a rant ;o)
I was around during motorcycling's transition to disc brakes. Find a bike now that does not have them. The only maintenance they require is pad and fluid replacement (the latter is seldom actually done). This will be the case with upper end bicycles very soon now and we won't look back, as they say.
I was involved with Harley's testing of belt drive in the mid-seventies; it is a proven technology. They no longer build production bikes with chain final drive. The belt on any Hog can be expected to last well over 100,000 miles with no maintenance whatsoever. BTW: A Sportster needs nine horsepower to go 60mph and a full touring rig 12.8; our needs are puny by comparison.
Chains are a PITA and no one, except maybe FBinNY, me and a few others ;o), takes proper care of them. I'd rather not deal with chains because it drives me crazy (not a long trip) how they grind themselves into powder because they are so exposed. The compromises required to make a chain work on derailleur systems make them rather short lived. The life expectancy of my KMC 10-speed chain shall be very much shorter than my 1/8” Wippermann solid bushing chain with its steel sprockets on the IGH machine (don’t think I’ll ever wear out the Wippermann).
Bicycle (mechanical) brakes are also a PITA. And, on a heavy touring rig, they can even be dangerous because they might blow a tire from the heat or simply fade, like our racing brakes of 50 years ago. A loaded touring bike making the downhill run going east out of Yosemite or the west descent of the Sonora Pass is tougher on brakes than anything TDF racers face, yet --- we get their brakes instead of the ones we ought to have. Can you even imagine buying a car that runs its brake pads on the rims of the wheels ----?
Typical bicycle brakes flex, de-adjust themselves and require more attention than any motorcycle or automotive brake system I've ever worked on. I am a very competent mechanic/engineer I know what I'm doing and don't like what I see.
Okay, rant over.
Joe
Some notes on your rant:
Motorcycles made a transistion from drum brakes to discs. Bicycle rim brakes
are disc brakes to begin with, just ones with really large rotors. Going from a rim brake to a hub mounted disc is really only a lateral move and not nearly as large a change as the transistion that motorcycles went through.
I'll just say that I disagree about chains and how to care for them.
I live in mountains. I tour in mountains...and western mountains have nothing to compare to the steep pitches you'll find in the mountains of the eastern US. I throw myself down mountains with as much speed as I can muster on loaded touring bike, unloaded bikes, mountain bikes (off-road) and loaded touring mountain bikes (again off-road) in all kinds of conditions. I've never found a place where a cantilever brake on a touring bike is insufficient, overheats a tire enough to blow a tire off a rim, nor fades. That includes a 50mph downhill off the top of New Found Gap on the Tennessee/North Carolina border in a driving rain as well as a 50 mph twisty downhill from Fayetteville, WV back down to the New River Gorge (no rain but steep pitches), and a 50+ mph 20 mile long downhill from the top of Loveland Pass to Georgetown along I-70 which has a high enough pucker factor that the saddle and part of the frame disappear...if you know what I mean
You have to know how to use your brakes, of course, which most people don't.
Finally, I'm not sure if you are talking about hub mounted disc or rim brakes but I've noticed that hub mounted disc flex and de-adjust themselves more than any bicycle brake I've used. You have to be very, very careful about how much binding force you use on the front hub to keep the wheel from camming out of the dropouts.