My MTB is from '96-'97 ish v-brakes, hard tail, suspension forks etc. Here's the dilemma, my bike was designed for +100mm travel forks and I'm uncomfortably (read: painfully) riding it with 80mm forks. The rigid forks I've found that compensate for suspension make up for only 80mm. I haven't been able to find a fork that has the axle to crown length I'm looking for or else that would be my route.



That sounds about right to me.

Try here:

http://www.carboncycles.cc/index.php?s=0&t=2&

Thanks! These look promising. How/what kinds of racks attach to these?

Depends on which one you choose mainly. Most are going to need a clamp that goes around the post. Old Man Mountain makes stuff that can work. Sometimes it takes a bit of ingenuity setting up a MTB to be a tourer.


http://www.oldmanmountain.com/

I toured France to Vietnam using 700c.

When I do another similar tour I will use 26".

All sizes of the salsa fargo are 29er, but the 26" wheel size on (at least) the smaller size frames (LHT, Atlantis, etc.) seems to make more sense.

i like a 700c and am finishing a custom build using them. Its a disc brake bike, and the BB is high enough that I could use 26" rims in a pinch (using the existing disc hub), if 700c cannot be found wherever it is that I need one. best of both worlds.

26" vs 700cc
 

Whether or not you can find 700cc rims in another country or not is not the biggest issue. 26" wheels are just much, much stronger because spoke length is reduced therefore they are way more solid than 700cc. Also I would recommend using at least 36 spokes for the front wheel and even more for the rear as this is where most of your weight and stress will be and a higher spoke makes a much stronger wheel. You can make a 40 plus spoke count by ordering a tandem hub and changing the spacing to fit your frame which isn't too difficult.

Yup. And then you can be in the position that I`m in now, trying to find rims for our tandem. There seem to be a whopping three models of 40 hole 26 inch rims available in North America. One of those models is out of stock and not expected anytime soon at every internet dealer I`ve checked with, one is a model that I absolutely don`t want, and one generally costs $60 to $70 per rim and is very time consuming to lace due to it`s extreemely deep profile. In my book, 36 is plenty- YMMV.

26 has tougher rim
 

I have worked on all bikes fixing them up for people or resell. I have never found a mountain bike rim that has come apart. Some are bent a bit, but nothing like the 700C or 27 inch. The construction the the mountain bike rim double wall is really durable. I am always having to true a 700C or 27 inch with a hop. I just had to order a whole new rim for a 700C that came apart at the seam. Never seen that yet on MTN rims. Maybe a tad heavier, but if I was touring in remote areas I would want a rim that is not fragile. Another good thing to remember about mtn bike rims, is they are everywhere. If you wiped out your bike on a tour in the middle of nowhere , you could probably talk someone out of there old mtn bike for a few bucks for parts. A 700C has not been around as long and is not so common to find. Walk into a hardware store in a small town and look at the tires and tubes. See any 700C's. Maybe if your lucky. I choose the 26 just because its tough, reliable, and easy to find parts. I tend to like the rapid fire shifting on the old mountain bikes vs the downtube on the road bikes. Just my preferences

"the best option if I suddenly get the urge to cruise down a dirt road or explore a trail near camp"

That isn't true. One really needs to read previous 26" threads in the touring forum, then switch gears and read some 29er threads on an MTB forum, where the trendies in the MTB world are all agush about MTBs built on 700C rims. 700C is the hot deal in MTBs right now. Not as far as sales are concerned maybe but as far as cool and custom sales.

It also isn't true that 700c rolls better that 26". It is only true where bumps are harsh enough that you would go airborn on a 26" wheel, but get the gravity ride back down with a 700c wheel, which is a pretty small subset of terrain. But what is true is it is easier to wind the smaller wheel up, and the larger wheel is smoother.

700c wheels are very strong if good parts are used, and they are properly assembled. My wheel failed stories are meaningless unless all the circumstances are specifically known.

I have had trouble getting 700c tires in NA let alone the rest of the world. Anyway, just any tire is not what I want, I want a quality touring tire, and one pretty much has to carry those. I was toying with the idea of going 27" since it is trad. on touring bikes, bigger than 700c. And decent tires are at walmart. However, I am building the next bike on 26" because I have 32 spoke Rohloff in the rear. 700c should be 36 spokes, minimum. I think wheel size is pretty much a wash, there are pros and cons to any of them. Just about anything else than size is far more important.

"You can make a 40 plus spoke count by ordering a tandem hub and changing the spacing to fit your frame which isn't too difficult."

Or just buy any of several standard width touring hubs and have wheels built on those. It is somewhat mythful that there is an advantage to the 145 width. It is really there to allow a drum drag brake on a tandem, not because there is a structural need. I do want to be the first guy with a 165 mm rear end solo touring bike, just for fun.

"Yup. And then you can be in the position that I`m in now, trying to find rims for our tandem."

The solution there is to buy about 10 rims at a time, get a discount and you are set for ever. If I could go back and buy all those MA2s I left at Nashbar... By the way, which is your I would never buy rim? Cr18? I didn't know the Velocity was a nightmare, are you after the Mavic then?

Ten 40 hole rims!?! :eek: Two is a lifetiime supply for us! Especially considering we`re probably going to switch to a Bike Friday with 20" wheels in a few more years.

I`m going to nitpick a little here, but the rim I "absolutely don`t want" (not "would NEVER buy") is the Rhinolite. I didn`t mention the name partly because I don`t want to badmouth what`s probably a good solid rim at a great price. The reasons I`m so set against them is that they`re so dang wide and (IMO) butt ugly, especially with a sub 2" tire. If I hadn`t found what I really wanted, I suppose I`d have bought a pair of them and just gotten used to them.

It seems to me that CR 18 comes in 40h for 700, but I don`t think they offer 559 in that drilling, or it would have on my list too. "Nightmare" is probably an overstatement for the Deep V, I still stand by my statement that they`re expensive. If there`s a Mavic 559 in 40h, I didn`t see any for sale. What I really wanted was Aeroheat- my favorite for just about any use. I finally got ahold of two of them and I`m happy now. As I said in another thread though, they seem to be unavailable again- I imagine they`ll be back in a few more months, then sell out once again. No matter how you slice it, 40 hole 559s are in very limited supply and I definitely don`t recomend them unless somebody has a very good reason to buck the norm. Life is just so much easier with 32 or 36.

I'm no Rhino fan either. I'd be pretty happy with 10 MA2s. Admitedly a literal case of YMMV. I don't think I would have a hard time shifting MA2s if I felt I was overstocked. As soon as I find something I like they change it and make it worse. This seems particularly true for rims. Some stuff changes for the worse but there is a path of improvement one may not prefer but is still there. For instance I have a hard time with shoes. When I find something I like I wish they wouldn't tweak it every year in ways that makes it no longer fit me. But I wouldn't want to be stuck with only all leather shoes from 35 years ago. Rims from 35 years ago might be an improvement.

Figured I'd update this thread with my findings... We spent nearly three years riding 17,300 miles from Alaska to Argentina with 700c wheels. Although they worked, there was no chance at getting any replacement anything so my conclusion is that I will never leave the USA with 700c again. I've written up the whole story here: http://familyonbikes.org/blog/?p=1783

I just posted on another thread that I at one time owned two Bruce Gordon's set up identically. One was 26" and the other 700c. I could not tell that much difference in riding them except I thought the 26" made me look like I was riding a small bike. I have since sold the 26" and still have the 700c.
I had build the wheels on both bikes with Mavic rims, XT hubs, and DT Alpine III spokes and both had Continental 2000 Top touring tires in comparable widths. I can't say one bike felt faster than the other or one more comfortable than the other.

The Philippines is a third world country.

In 2009, I did Bike Ride Around The Philippines using 26x1.50 at the outset but replaced them with 700x40C after 2,000km.

Now, I'm currently touring Around, Between and Connecting The Philippine Islands on 700x32C.

Both rides solo and unsupported.

No problems.

I tour with a Surly LHT which sports 26" wheels. I'm fine with them when solo. However, when I ride with my two 700mm equipped tour mates, I have to work to keep up with them. On our 700 equipped road bikes I am the faster rider of the group.

My point is, it is my opinion that 26" wheels are noticeably slower than 700 wheels. On climbs they also lose downhill speed (momentum) much quicker than 700s. In our tour group's case my 26" wheels are the great equalizers. :o

Tire selection will be much more important than wheel size. Most of the time people are not comparing the same tires on the 26" wheels and 700c wheels. I could setup 700c bikes so you'd see the same effect simply by putting the slower rolling tires on your 700c bike.

We'll see, I just changed out a set of Specialized Nimbus tires with a set of Schwalb Marathons yesterday. I haven't ridden enough on the new ones yet to make a judgement.

Marathons are slow - don't expect anything positive to happen.

consider a machined spacer to sit between the fork crown race seat,
and the headsets's lower bearing race seat itself.

20mm is less than an inch ..
function matters more than looks I presume ..