Here is my touring bike.



This is a Crescent from 1980/81 in size 59 cm (23") measured from center of bottom bracket to top/end of seat tube, not top tube. Crescent is a Swedish brand that stars like "Svängis" Johansson, Åke Seyffarth och Ingvar Ericsson have used with success. I believe my bike to be a model 92318.

The frame is made of Reynolds 531 butted tubing and the front fork by Tange tubing.

The equipment is Shimano 600 EX Arabesque. The prettiest group ever made by Shimano. The chainset is not Shimano but a SR Custom and the bottom bracket is a Sakae SR-SC 35xP1. The wheels have Ambrosio Evolution rims and Schwalbe Marathon tires. I´ve built the wheels my self.

The bike is a roadbike but handling with packed front panniers is great. It is stable and smooth. Much better handling than without front panniers.

The frontrack is a Rivendell/Nitto Campee and the panniers are the Carradice Super C Universal made by heavy duty cotton duck.

I love riding this bike and also to ride it with my BOB YAK mounted. Only drawback is the gearing...would like to have a couple of granny gears
Chainwheels in front: 42 t and 52 t.
Cassette is 6-speed: 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 22
Riding steep uphills in 42-22 combination is to heavy. Specially with a loaded BOB YAK attached. Puh

No fenders?

I´m working on fenders. Since it is a roadbike it does not have mounts for fender other than eyelets. Im working on selfbuilt stainless mounts to attache the fenders to the frame. I´m working slowly though...

I have ridden with four panniers for 2 touring seasons now and cycled camp from home in England to Santiago de Compostela in 2004 and then down and up the Danube in 2005. My velo was a Dawes Discovery 501 ( modified---- Velocepanther1). Front panniers are fairly essential for a good balanced ride but you know they are there when you are cycling into a head wind all day!
For this years tour ( starting 20 May) I have a new Velocepanther Mk2 because VP1 was stolen at the beginning of december last. It is another hybrid a Dawes Discovery 601 -- modified a bit but this year I have discarded the panniers all together and I am now towing a BoB Yak trailer instead.

I have attached 2 pics of my set up last year ( if they appear? not used to this site yet - and I don't understand how it works yet)

This year I am doing a Rhein and Mosel tour and only a week to go!

Hi Guys here is my bike that I'm going to do www.challengea2z.com on, the eagle eyed amongst you'll notice that only has one brake, I'm still waiting for Hope to send memy 4-pot disk brakes, I'm also waiting for my Thomson seatpost hence the blue one(USE), and lastly my Brooks saddle. Well she's made by Revell in the UK from a mix of Reynolds and Columbus steel, most of the bits are his, the exception are the rack which are Tubus from Orbit cycles, the tyres are Schwable from Bohle, panniers from Crosso, Rohloff hub from Ison, Dura Ace SPD's, Bottle cages are Topeak, Wippermann chain, both from Extra UK, and lights from Lumicycle. A little tech thing is I'm running a solid rear axle disk tandem Rohloff hub and a 20mm bolt-through from carbon hub from Suzi laced to Atomic Lab Pimp rims.

Looks like those bags could double as a tent. Nice bike!

While I'm not in the same class as you tour folks. I do have a small pannier trunk bag I use. It works great to carry tools and gear for day trips. This is the setup I plan on using for RAGBRAI and TOMRV this year. The last couple years I wished a had a bag to put things I bought in the thru towns. I think this Topeak RX trunk bag with panniers will work nicely. I also have the smaller trunk bag without panniers for in town commutes.

This is the bike that I'm riding around the US for the rest of the year, as seen in Michigan.

Co-Motion Americano Co-Pilot with BOB trailer with homemade kickstand. Ready for the North Star this summer.

What a great idea! A kickstand on the BOB.
Do you have more pics on the kickstand?
How did you construct it?
Did you weld it in place?
/A

Dude, you should develop that and start selling them. That's a great idea.

That is a great idea. Looks like it would make mounting a fully loaded BOB that much easier.

Photos of last weekends short tour in the Nelson BC area. My girlfriend's bike is a Gunnar Crosshairs retrofitted w/ BTCs and powder coated Blue. Mine is a Thorn Nomad. First time it has been fully loaded and it is great. I don't deserve such a bike!

The way too much crap mobile as seen on Loup Loup Pass

mmmmm, now where have i seen a black nomad before????
they are good aren't they? am thinking seriously of upgrading my current nomad frame to a newer one with s+s couplings like you have ..

Here's a picture of my Surly Crosscheck with Arkel T-42 Panniers and small handlebar bag. Picture is taken on top of Allegheny Pass in West Virginia last week.

Hoogie,
Yes they are. It's climbs great, stable, and loves to dive into turns (in a good way). I used to hit pavement a lot w/ my pedals on my LHT. The Nomad has a higher BB w/ no compromise.

How old is your current Nomad?

How does your Cross Check handle being loaded?

Handled great considering the weight on the back. There's a guy here in Richmond that will braze on eylets and screwins for a front rack to evenly distribute the weight. The crosscheck ubber versitile.

How does it handle?

yeah, they are solid bikes ... although i have heard of a couple of folks who have complained of shimmy at speed/cornering ... mine is solid as a rock, more so fully laden ...

bought mine in 11.03 from memory and built it up over 3 or 4 months ... my 2004 project...
last years project was a recumbent ... this years project is a RTB or road based mtb using an early model mtb frame and putting on drop bars with 7sp bar ends and a host of second hand parts from the parts bin, a solid commuter, light tourer and general hack ...

Well done Gonesh! I see you have no front panniers and you are carrying camping gear too. I too carry most stuff on the rear ...maybe spare tyres or light stuff on the front.

I'm leaving next saturday for a two week trip and test fitting everything I'm packing today. Since the bike is nice and clean now I took photos.