Kona Africa Bike.

Allan keys are specialist items not found in the back of beyond, but nuts can be adjusted with commonly available workshop tools. Sometimes ease and convenience have to take 2nd place to do-ability.

The sealed bottom bracket (like the UN54 that [MENTION=112025]wolfchild[/MENTION] mentioned) is at the top of the list in my opinion. I was re-packing them several times a year, replaced with the sealed BB and haven't thought about it since.

Sealed hubs on the wheels are the next. It's not that hard to service and kind of zen in a mindless way, but why?

After that, maintaining and replacing the chain (instead of letting it go) keeps you from having to replace the cassette as frequently.

I agree that derailleurs don't need that much attention, but still the bike falls over and it gets banged up or the hanger is bent, the pulleys get gunked up and need cleaning, cables and housings need replacing, shifters can malfunction or break. For truly low-maintenance of course the single speed or fixed gear.

The biggest problem with derailleur bikes is that all newer bikes have those flimsy little aluminium derailleur hangers which break very easily. When your hanger breaks you're not going anywhere, and forget about trying to find "magic gear ratio " after your breakdown because it's not easy...Choose a frame with horizontal drop outs, that way it's easy to set up as singlespeed.

Indeed, with horizontal dropouts, even a derailer bike can be converted to single speed if everything else goes to hell. I see plenty of those on the nearby university campus. In fact, walking past the bike racks is a pretty good way to survey everything that can go wrong with a bike in an urban setting.

Indeed, with horizontal dropouts, even a derailer bike can be converted to single speed if everything else goes to hell. I see plenty of those on the nearby university campus. In fact, walking past the bike racks is a pretty good way to survey everything that can go wrong with a bike in an urban setting.

Including every possible mode of theft. When I rode to campus this morning, there were a couple of lonesome wheels in the rack next to my bike. One had a pretty high end rim, and disc brake, so somebody lost a nice bike.

Start working on a support network before you leave. Parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, old neighbors, home office coworkers, etc. Perhaps setup a shared access bank account for your helper. That way, you can have small items shipped to your helper, then consolidated, and shipped to you.

I think some of the big European retailers ship globally. Ribble? Also many of the Chinese-direct retailers will also ship globally.

Lots of good used bikes, or frames with Cantis, and no suspension. Or you can swap forks.

If I was you, decide what you want, then build a nice bike to your specs... without breaking the budget. Start with a good used frame, but upgrade to good wheels, tires, hubs, derailleurs, shifters, & etc.

Lots of formerly thousand dollar MTBs available for around a hundred.

Perhaps plan on donating it to a kid or something rather than bringing it back home with you.

It is hard to imagine it being completely isolated. What contacts do you have with the US Military? If you developed a friend in the military, it is possible you could ship some items to a military base for you to pick up.

The superiority and desirability of sealed bearings in a developed country are beyond dispute. In a place where (if I understand the OP correctly) parts must be shipped to a location outside the country and picked up there, a failed cartridge is a disaster. Maybe a sealed BB should last 20,000 maintenance-free miles, but we often hear complaints on the forum about premature failure. No problem if you can have one shipped in a few days - most of them don't cost much, either.

But what if you must wait months or a year for a replacement? Considering that worst-case scenario, I'd rather do the maintenance on an old-style BB. If it's done faithfully, the bearing cups and cones can last a long, long time. Maybe take a package of replacement ball bearings with you. You can get grease in any auto parts store or repair shop in the world.

I would apply this thinking to every component: Do I really need it, and what do I do if it quits?

On the other hand, if decent used bikes are available at reasonable, then maybe the OP should consider his bike expendable. After all, northern Iraq isn't the moon.

If the OP gets something pretty "standard", then parts should be available, even if he has to go with steel rims, or something not quite kosher.

"Flying Pigeon:"



Basically, a copy of the venerable Raleigh DL-1, many of which are still in use in the 3rd world decades after rolling off the production line.

I don't think I quite understand what you mean. If cartridge failure in a hub is a diaster, then how is it desireable for my usage?

On the contrary, I think a cartridge bottom bracket could be a disaster if you can't easily get a replacement. The old-style BBs with loose ball bearings (non-sealed) can last far longer than the sealed units, but require periodic maintenance. The sealed units are taken for granted as preferable in developed countries because you can just order another one, usually for less than $50. But that's not your situation. You'd have to wait until you could obtain one from out-of-country.

I have a 1970s bike with the original loose-bearing bottom bracket. I've disassembled, cleaned, and re-greased the bearings a few times. Not that hard a job, and I don't expect to need anything other new balls for as long as I own this bike (that's the rest of my life). Ball bearings are tiny, cheap, and can be part of your luggage when you go. You could also take a spare cartridge, but your luggage will be a bit bulkier.

I've never owned a sealed unit, but I've read complaints about their reliability. Issues include creaking and looseness, not necessarily total failure. Other people are strong proponents. The choice is yours.

You're much more likely to get a broken spoke then suffer a catastrophic cartridge failure. So make sure that your wheels are build solid...Nothing is 100%...The best you can do is choose equipment which has a minimal chance of failure.

This is also my understanding. The only downside with sealed BB is that its more complicated to open. On in other words you need more tools that I'm not familiar with. What about wheel hubs? Would you go with cartridge or cup n cone?

I've serviced cup-and-cone bearings in wheels and headsets - also easy to do, but each has a specific size of ball bearing. I own an MTB with cartridge BB and headset, but neither has needed replacing yet. The MTB wheels are loose bearings, which I have serviced. I have no experience with sealed hubs.

He's certainly gonna have alien keys as part of the on-bike tool kit, so that's a non-issue in my mind. It's highly unlikely you'd need more than that, anyway.

I love the intense focus on bottom brackets. Way to keep it real, guys.

If the drive train is simple, and the frame and wheels are sturdy, there's not much left to go wrong except bearings. Hence, the interest.

I used to have a Race Face Isis BB which failed after 2 years of heavy duty riding...My Shimano UN 54 square taper has never failed and it has a lot more heavy duty miles on it.
Some components are better then then others.

I'm just sayin' y'all need a whole lot more info before you can meaningfully consider, let alone debate, the relative merits of sealed vs. caged bearing bottom brackets for this application. It's just silly talk at this point.

IMHO where you're going you had better use the KISS principle. Eliminate everything you don't need to get you down the road. Think your first bike as a kid. That's the bike you want The more fancy components you add, the more things can go wrong when you're in the middle of nowhere. The fancier the bike the more likely it will be stolen. Two wheels a sprocket and crank with a heavy steel frame. In some small towns you may find people consider you well off even to own a bike.

I'd love for someone to try and explain just what it is about "northern Iraq" that makes it possible to dismiss dérailleurs, which have been refined and field proven in the most demanding conditions for more than 100 years (and nearly 80 years in it's current basic form), as unreliable baubles? What is it about riding paved roads in that place that causes bottom brackets to tremble, cables to fray, and aluminum to crumple?

You know what I think? I think it's great the OP's question has fired people's imaginations and interests. However, we've got to separate those colorful fantasies of what it would be like to cycle in northern Iraq from the reality of doing it, so we can be helpful to the OP.

Exhibit A is a guy named Gören Kropp. Back in 1996 (back when derailleurs were a tender 60 hears old), Goren not only rode self-supported from Sweden to Nepal to do a successful, unsupported, solo summit of Everest, he rode all the way back, spending a year out on the road-- and off-road-- through terrain I can assure you was more demanding than what the OP is talking about. In '99, I met guys riding the Annapurna circuit in Nepal on front suspension MTBs, days up in the Himalaya from where the road ends.

Anyway, take a look at Goren's bike, read his story, and think hard about what that means for this thread.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe those new hangers are purposely designed to break under stress to prevent worse damage.

True, they work as a fuse of sorts to limit damage or isolate it in a replaceable part.

However once it breaks the bike is unusable as it is. An argument could be made for then being able to cut the chain, remove the derailleur and cobbling the bike as a rideable single speed because the the wheel wasn't damaged.

Of course an argument could also be made for a single speed in the first place which would not have the problem in the first place.

Yes you are correct... Those hangers are the weakest link, and prevent damage to the frame drop outs...The fact is that once the hanger breaks you're stuck and the bike becomes unrideable. That's the reason why I am a huge big fan of singlespeed bikes and frames with horizontal drop outs or rear track ends.