Telly

Hello to everyone here at B/F touring thread!
This post is from another bicycle tourist wannabe but with a couple of important differences, and it's going to be a long post since I want the members who decide to read this to understand where I'm coming from and why I wish to follow in your footsteps.



My cycling history
Except for frequent use of a Schwinn 10-speed back in my college days (late 80's), I didn't really cycle much until the summer of 2011 when, at age 40 and 320+lbs I decided that if I wanted to live to see middle-age I needed to find a solution to exercise and lose weight. From September of that year, I decided to go totally car free and bought myself a bike so I can commute to and from work which was around 12-13 miles total. After 16 months, and a little over 2000 miles commuting daily (with the exception of really bad weather and extreme heat or sickness), I'm now 280lbs, in better shape than in the past 20 years and can't imagine myself off the saddle. Except for commuting, I've done group rides and some solo day trips which have covered more than 60 miles without too much effort and pain, although I still do have problems with tackling hills.

My bicycle
After looking around the local market and not finding anything that could carry my (then) 320+lbs, I decided to purchase online and bought a German made Corratec SP0.3 Sport Trekking bicycle from CRC located in the UK. The bicycle came with standard German hardware such as fenders, dyno-hub, lights (front and rear), rear touring rack and front suspension which thankfully locks out. After breaking it in with over 2000 miles of use, I have changed some components and have become very comfortable riding it under all conditions. The bikes components (listed below) are definitely not top-of-the-line, but have held up nicely and continue to operate flawlessly with little wear and tear since I (believe) I've been riding the bike as properly as I could. The only problem I can see with the bike itself is the weight which currently tops off at 18kg (around 40lbs) with rear pannier (empty except for some basic tools and small hand pump). Obviously this isn't even close to the ideal touring bike, but for the moment it's the only one I've got and can afford.


Bike details:
Material..........6061 aluminum
Size..............54cm / 19"
Fork..............RST Neon TNL, 60 mm with lock-out
Rear derailleur...Shimano Deore 8-speed
Cassette..........Shimano HG 11-30
Chain.............Shimano HG 40
Front derailleur..Shimano Alivio
Gear lever........Shimano Alivio with built in brake handles
Crank set.........FSA/RPM AL-8 (44/34/28)
Brakes............Shimano M-422
Saddle............Selle Royal RVL Trekking Man
Seat post.........Promax aluminum 27.2
Handlebars........Extreme trekking (butterfly)
Rims..............Mavic A719 with DT Champ 2.0 spokes
Tires.............Maxxis Overdrive 622-42 (700c x 40)
Hub (front).......Shimano Deore/DH-3N30 dynohub 36h q/r
Hub (rear)........Shimano Deore LX 36h q/r
Pedals ...........Kona Jack*****s
Bottom Bracket....UN26B to be changed to UN55
Extras/accessory..SKS Chromoplastic fenders (front/rear)
..................SKS Chainboard (chain guard)
..................B&M CyoT IQ front light (on dynohub)
..................Spanninga rear light (on dynohub)
..................Blackburn Flea 2.0 front light
..................Planet Bike 0.5watt rear light
..................Air-zhound and pedestrian bell
..................M-Wave single pannier (around 20liters)
..................two water bottle holders on bike frame




I recently purchased and changed the stock wheels with the above wheels which where custom hand-built by Rose Gmbh and are considerably stiffer than the stock wheels which had Rigida X19 rims/DT Champ 2.0/zzyxz rear hub (US built?) and DH-3N20 front dyno hub.


What I wish to do
Tour of course! After reading this forum and crazyguyonabike journals, I've been bitten by the touring bug! Even the changes I've unconsciously done have made it more of a touring bike than a commuter!

Unfortunately due to time restrictions and since I was never an avid camper, my plans are to start touring from my home town of Athens to different parts of the country which will be within 100-300 miles total distance; staying at small hotels or rented rooms and covering roughly 30-50 miles per day on relatively flat paved country roads. If all goes well, I plan to start during spring, and will have hopefully lost another 20lbs and until then, and will try and raise my monthly mileage from 170 to 200 or more by doing additional weekend rides.

One thing that I can't do is spend a lot of money on hardware and/or accessories since the economy here is really bad and as of this last Friday, my salary took an additional 10% cut making it difficult to make ends-meet. Having said the above, I do plan to buy a set of good quality rear panniers, and if I can manage to find, a handlebar bag that fits my trekking/butterfly bars.

Now, what I wish to ask of you... having read all of the above, what further advice (other than that of the sticky threads) can you give me on hardware changes/upgrades and overweight rider and bike touring under these conditions?


Again, I appreciate you taking the time to read this and any help, hints and tips and advice will be greatly appreciated!


The bike as it is today.



The trekking/butterfly bars.


Three months and 10 lbs ago on a 40 mile bike ride across the island of Aegina.

fietsbob

There was a British Writer and TV presenter on the Tube , Tom Vernon ,
BBC replayed by PBS in the US.. in the past..

using the show series title of just that "fat man on a bike " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Vernon

Local festivals and food a common theme.. they were well produced shows.




I commented at seeing the shows 'It's amazing how lightly you can pack
when the Camera Crew carried all your gear.. '


Any how .. Your Bike is probably fine , get the inner most 3rd gear on the crankset
as small as will fit.
If the going gets too much, heart-rate uncomfortably high, I get off and walk the bike ..

cplager

Hi,

First, congratulations. It looks like you looked at your life, decided parts that weren't working for and changed it. You didn't ask about weight loss advice and I'm not going to give any except to say that it sounds like you are on the right track and worrying about what the scale says isn't useful.

Second, hills suck. Particularly for those of us who are not tiny. The good news is that when we add another 30 pounds of crap to the bike, it is a much smaller percentage change and will hurt our hill climbing less than if you added 30 lbs to somebody who weighted 140 lbs.

I highly recommend lower gearing. You said you have a 44/34/28. Swap the 28T out for a 22T. I run a 48/38/22 front crank and in my case, I need to shift the rear derailleur up a couple gears when dropping into the granny gear, but you may not even need to do that.

Third, it does make a lot of sense to start out with smaller over night tours and see how that goes.

Good luck and keep riding!

Charles

Jamesw2

I agree with all of that . . Also I have a plan to just use my home as a a base and leave and return to the house for a weeks worth of riding . . . I went to Ride With GPS and made routes . . . I have a tent so i will pack out every morning and return to set up camp in the front yard . . . It will give me a test of all the equipment and packing procedures . . without the expense of camping or motels. . I am at 260 lbs and me, bike and gear is at about 350 lbs I have a 28/34 that is good for a short distance of 6%grade

I suggest to get as low a gear as the derailleur will handle and good choice on the wheels

Ekdog

Hello from Spain, another economic disaster area.

I like that mirror. What kind is it?

Telly

Hello to everyone and thanks for the posts!

I'm at work and can't really answer properly, but I will get back to everyone in the evening (GMT+2).
@Ekdog, it's a Blackburn road mirror, but since the picture, I've made some changes to it's mounting hardware; i'll take a picture of it and post it later on in the evening.

Jonathandavid

Since the bike already has "1:1" gearing, putting on a lighter gear is not absolutely essential, but a good idea nonetheless. However, you might also consider changing the cassette to someting like 12-34, rather than replacing a front chainring. This tends to be cheaper. In addition, I find riding a larger gear at the front to be somewhat more comfortable and have heard the same from other cyclists.

Telly

For my daily commute, I find the bike's gearing to be extremely low, and tend to use the middle+ range of the 34 and the 44 almost all of the time. To be honest, I very rarely use the small chainring, and only when it's a steep hill (which i avoid like the plague of course!)

cplager

Changing the cassette is probably more expensive than changing a single chain ring (Here's the 22T chainring I bought for $9 shipped), particularly since you are more likely to have to change the rear derailleur as well.

The other advantage of just changing the small chain ring is that you don't make the steps wider between gears. Some people don't mind large spacing; I wish my spacing were smaller.

When touring, you're much more likely to end up somewhere where you can't avoid the hill and you'll likely be carrying extra gear. That being said, just get out there with the gearing you've got and see what you think. If you don't need to go lower, then don't do it.

If you want higher gearing, we can do that for you too You could swap the 44T for a 48T (as I said before, I run a 48/38/22 crankset).

Cheers,
Charles

p.s. Hills suck. A lot. Go climb them. It's good for you.

"Don't buy upgrades. Go up grades." - Eddy Merckx.

FrenchFit 

Your set up is not that different than my Trek 7000 "world traveller" build.

I put one of those cheap front racks fastened to the brake bosses & one racket going back to the fork drill hole, now I carry a bag up front, but low, away from the bars. https://www.ebay.com/itm/2012-Cycling...item3ccb05f2d8 Note: This bike has a rigid cro-mo front fork, (Nashbar).

Your rear rack looks a little short, with big panniers you may get some heel stike. I use a long rack, (Jandd XL), and everything sits pretty far back.

A really odd ball mod that actual works great is ergo bar ends on the inside of the trekking bars. Nice to be able to sit up very straight and stretch the back from time to time, though it looks a little frightening. Fun for riding through crowds in a tourist area. (You rest you palms on the end tops, choose wisely.)

I've done 10-12 hr days on the bike, as long as you don't get frustrated with the cruising speed topping out in the mid-teens it's a fine ride. The stock MTB gearing is fine. Enjoy your ride.

shipwreck

Nothing really to add here other than my awed support. Life changes are easy to make, few of us actualy continue to make them after we start.

And that is a nice bike, I would tour on it without hesitation, especialy since it sounds like you have upgraded the wheels, one of the most important parts of a touring rig. Make sure that the bags you get clear the heels of your feet.

On hills, there is no shame in getting off and walking if you need to. A lower gear would be nice, cause it can happen that you encounter the worst hill at the end of the day when you are tired. If your derailer can handle a bigger cassette then it would be easyer than changing the front 28 to a 26 or 22. But if you start with some test tours then that is what will truly inform you of what you need for the next trip.

Finaly, you will be taking some jaunts through country that I would love to ride in. Have fun and good luck!

cplager

I don't have any objections of somebody wants to change the cassette instead of a chain ring, but I am quite confused as to why it would be easier?

To change a chain ring, you need a crank puller an screw driver. To change a cassette, you need a locking tool and a whip. And since he'd be changing to a larger cassetted, he'd most likely need a new chain so probably a chain breaker (masterlinks in chains are a wonderful thing, but may not be there).

Going from a double crankset to triple took a bit since I needed to figure out that I needed to change the bottom bracket as well. Changing to the smaller chain ring took me 10 minutes and it took that long because I stopped to take pictures as I was doing it).

I'm not saying changing a cassette is hard, because if you have the right tools and can watch youtube, it isn't. But, as far as I can tell, it is more involved than changing a chain ring.

Cheers,
Charles

p.s. If he adds a bigger chain ring, then he'll likely need a new chain too.

FrenchFit 

Oh, and pedals. On my bike I use big ol VP bear traps with the MTB plastic half toe clips. Very comfortable for a wide range of shoes, and you get good stability standing and cadence up to 90rpm. I couldn't do any long ride without some sort of pedal-foot retention, the plastic MTB clips are probably the most user friendly. On long rides I tend to move my feet around to change the hot spots and make it easier on my knees; I wouldn't use any clip-in pedal-shoe system for all day riding, but that's me.

shipwreck

A bike shop would consider it a faster job to pull the cassette. You pull the crank and its a little more involved, the shop charges more. And really, after fifty or so miles the crank should be checked for proper torque again, particularly with a heavier rider. The cassette would be a set and forget issue. Other than the very good point that a slightly longer chain might be needed, it is less involved.
Personaly doing all my own work, I own the tools to do either myself. I would consider a cassette change faster and easier.

To the OP. Its really simple. Don't read any of this debate on your thread. If you change one or the other, or both, thats going to depend on what recources you have available to you, what they have at any shop you might have your work done at. cplager does have a point that one smaller ring will cost less than a whole cassette, see what they will charge you to change it compared to the cassette and possibly a chain.


After you become a seasoned tourer, you will enter the next step of cycling, which is constantly disagreeing on the details of every aspect of the hobby, from equipment, clothing, hygene, food, and whether you should crack your soft boiled egg from the big end or the little end. Its just as fun as actual touring when your not actualy touring.

cplager

O.k. I can buy your explanation (although I'd still rather change a chain ring personally).

The only other thing as far as hardware goes that I'd like to remind the OP is that if you do change cassette but keep an 8 speed, you'll be making the jumps between the gears wider. Some people don't mind that at all. I find my 8 speed 11-32T too wide as it is.

+1 on ignoring all of this and getting out there and riding. After a few day trips, you'll see what you like, what you don't and then you'll have a better idea what to do next.

Telly

Wow, some good advice can be found here!

After reading all your posts, I would like to try out the current gearing setup first and see what needs to be changed after I have some touring mileage under my belt. I did take a different route on my way home from work today which involved a larger incline than usual, but again, I didn't feel the need for changing to the smaller chainring (I did however cross the chain a bit having it on the largest rear gear and the middle chain ring, something that I usually avoid doing, but the drivetrain was silent and smooth).

As for the rear rack, I haven't used large panniers on it, and will probably avoid doing so because I'm afraid the total weight at the rear will probably damage the bike. Since I'll be doing credit-card touring (at a snails pace which I thoroughly enjoy!), I figure I'll be using two small rear panniers (Ortlieb maybe?) and a front handlebar bag. If I need more storage space, I will probably add two small panniers in the front, although I'm not sure that's possible with my current front suspension.

@Ekdog, below you will find some pictures of the front mirror in the photo, and a different one I currently modified and installed.


Here's the mirror you saw in the picture which is made by Blackburn:





..and here's the current mirror I modified, again by Blackburn.


...after removing the base (two allen screws), I placed the mirror over the bars at the position which best suit me and for now have a tie-wrap holding it in place until I have the bars professionally wrapped this week. Once they're wrapped, I'll simple add a small bolt and a wing-nut underneath so I can easily loosen the base and twist or remove it if needed.

neil

I think the most important thing to keep in mind, if you want to avoid buying a lot of gear, is that your bike is probably already set to go, and you're mostly expending effort solving problems that you may or may not have.

There's always going to be ideas of what changes would make it a more ideal touring bike. But until you know what problems you're encountering, I wouldn't spend much time worrying about the problems that everyone else has solved.

Best of luck.

Ekdog

Thanks, Telly! I have a similar mirror, but it's smaller, and I've been looking for something a little bigger. I'll keep an eye out for one of those.

fietsbob

and if the big hill is in the middle of the route you want to go, just think about the downhill portion that awaits you..

Telly

Hmm overweight rider, overweight bike, momentum+gravity and a downhill... I figure the scene will be bone-breaking hilarious!

bradtx

Telly, The best advice so far is to just go out and short tour/day trip on what you're using now to evaluate what changes to the bike, if any, will benefit you.

Brad