Old 07-12-15 | 06:22 PM
  #23  
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rawklobster
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Joined: Jul 2015
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From: Toronto, ON

Bikes: Brompton M6R Raw, Pashley Roadster Sovereign, ICE Trike with Rohloff (SOLD) - Pacific Coast Highway

Originally Posted by rifraf
Headset and stem? - no opinion on whats best. I use a Thomson X4.

Handlebars - Very happy with my Jeff Jones H Loop bars as I ride upright and they offer multiple hand positions including a lean forward emulating a drop bar amount of lean. H-BAR

Saddle is a very subjective choice and what works for one does nothing for another. I'm happy with either my B17 or for rougher roads my Flyer Special.

Seatpost - I picked up a setback Thomson Masterpiece for around the same price many stores sell the Elite. Either would have been fine for me.

Cranks - I'm a fan of low gearing. The lowest you can go within warranty (my preference) is 34T when utilising a 16T sprocket on the hub.
A 110 BCD (bolt circle diameter) is the largest BCD crankset to allow 34T chainring (If I'm not mistaken). I use a Thorn crankset but to
me, the important bit is the Thorn reversible chainring, which when worn can be flipped, as can your Rohloff hub sprocket. You don't
need a Thorn crankset, but I believe a reversible chainring is a decent choice.
Thorn 110mm 5arm reversible SINGLE ring - Black - £34.99

Brakes, I'm a fan of disks so it was BB7's and Speeddial 7's from Avid for me. I'm a cable fan for ease of maintenance in the field.
If your preference is V-brake, I've heard good things about those aforementioned CSS coated Andra rims, as used by Thorn Cycles, but
believe they are recommended paired with a certain coloured Swissstop pad which is a little pricy.

Fenders - again a subjective choice, but I happily rock polished stainless steel Gilles Berthoud and am happy with them.

Racks - I believe Tubus are the benchmark. I use stainless Cosmo and Nova due to not liking scratched paint or rust, however their plain painted
cro-mo are likely a bit stronger and maybe more easily repaired in the field assuming not everyone can wield stainless.

Dynamo hub - I'm very happy with my Son28 matched with E-werk and cache battery. This manages to keep my Edge 800, iPhone and Petzl
headlight torch (for reading or putting up the tent after dark) charged on tour as well as providing power for my lights. I use an
Edelux headlight and Phillips Saferide lumiring taillamp.

Waterbottle cages: - big fan of BBB XL Fueltanks and Nalgeen 1.5 litre bottles.

With regards disk brakes, I have them on both my Son28 front wheel and Rohloff rear. I recommend the threaded axel if using horizontal dropouts like on Surly's

Hope this post helps in your search for consensus with regards researching for purchase decision.

Good luck
The JJ H-Loop bars look great! Always love discovering new options through others!

I definitely have to revisit the Gear Inch Sheldon Brown page and see what sprocket and crank to get. I had a 13 sprocket and I think a 44T. anyhoo, definitely going to work on figuring that out.

The Gilles Berthoud fenders look awesome! I think I'm going for a shiny component look, so those would fit the bill. Same with the racks! The Tubus Cosmo in silver says 700C but I'm getting 26" wheels. Unsure if that means I have to look at other options. They look slick!

I found a great page with Dyno options. Likely doing a battery pack and then charging from that. Perhaps I'll look into a front light for the Dyno. I imagine they have a blinky setting?

If my Thermos fits in the BBB XL Fueltank cage, that would be AMAZING!!! I always freak out how the Thermos keeps things at temperature. Specially hot stuff (although I'd be doing cold stuff on the tour) like soup which is still *too hot* to eat after 4 hours of putting it in the Thermos.

You and everyone else have definitely helped in figuring things out. Early this week I hope to get in touch with the frame builders. Will report back whatever suggestions they may have. I'm still on the fence with 700C and 26" wheels. I understand the pros and cons, but my honest feeling is that if the wheel is well built, it will stand the test of time. I'm not a heavy load passenger nor heavy cargo tourer.
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