OdieInAz

Thank you for real input instead of taking worthless jabs. I hate having more than I need. But in this situation maybe a modern road bike is what I need. You make a valid point. Thank you sir.

Leebo

One bike? I'm more of a right tool for the right job king of guy. 3-5 bikes should be everyone's answer.

Null66

I'm taking your "feel" as "is" for you.

The reason I'm wondering is I built up a DT as a direct replacement for a Fuji Tourer... The Tourer just fit, with just normal adjusting...

I went with the same size frame as, well, I'm not smart enough to do the geometry. I presumed it would be similar enough that I could make it feel about the same by experimenting with stems and such etc...

I was wrong! I should have gone with a 1 size smaller as the top tube "feels" long and I feel stretched out (which I like) but more stretched then I prefer...

I now have a tiny stem. It now fits marvelous, but it is the shortest stem I could find. It looks a bit funny... Actually rather funny. It also means 1 less place for mounting stuff.

So your observation, may shed light on how to get my bike to better fit me...

fietsbob

It's a choice ... I am living on a very popular Touring Route , Along the Pacific Coast.

a road Bike with a trailer behind it.. with all the gear in the trailer ,

as I notice , that kit is used by a number of people a year .. every year..


back to the shopping and test riding..

OdieInAz

My apologies sir. Its hard to tell who is sincere and who is critical. I digress in light of my original intentions of this post. My original point was suggesting that I learned where my cycling priorities are through an expensive lesson. But with the productive feedback of a select few has convinced me to not be hasty and give the ol' girl a chance. Even though it is against my nature to posses more than one bike, I think it's the more realistic approach. With that said I'm sure to have an odd looking bike in the end as well!

Brennan

Are you experimenting with stem rise as well as length? I've found that getting a higher/lower rise stem makes a big difference. Even if I keep the same stem and move it up and down the steer tube in just 5mm increments, there is a difference in how the bike feels/fits with every adjustment. If you already have a few stems on hand, get them together, put a mix of 5 & 10mm spacers in your headset stack, get your multi-hex tool, and take a few hours experimenting with each stem. Move it up/down the steer tube 10mm at a time. When you find what feels best, start fine tuning with the 5mm spacers. Try adjusting the saddle fore/aft through the process too. If you still can't get it quite right, move on to the next stem. It's time consuming, but once you have it nailed down, you are done for good (unless you start swapping bars or something).

Null66

Brennan brings up a good point. My shorter stem has near 0 rise as well, so it is closer and lower. The lower bar felt fine right off.

OdieInAz: do you have drop between seat and handlebars?

LeeG

That is what Doug64 identified. Your wants vastly exceed your needs leading to disappointment. Go back to the cross bike and learn to not exceed it's capabilities as a load carrier.

In my case I need a load carrier and I want a nice riding bike. So I have two, LHT and Cross-Check.

Spld cyclist

I love my Fantom CXX, but it's not what I would choose to tour on, mainly because the gearing isn't low enough for loaded touring IMO. (Maybe it would be ok in relatively flat terrain). I think you really should have gotten a 2nd bike instead, and it's a bummer that you lost the CXX in the process. Maybe you should take the suggestion to buy a dedicated sporty bike now and keep the LHT as well for the time being. My personal solution would be to buy a light CX bike and put slicks on it for exclusive road use. My current roadie bike is an aluminum Moto Fantom CX frame that I built up with other components.

OdieInAz

I was running a 90mm stem and decided to try an adjustable stem (seems to be 100mm plus), and put these Continental 26x1.9 tires. I must say the bike is truly more comfortable. And I think the 1.5 tires she came with gave me a false sense of speed. These fattys don't allow me to accelerate quickly like the 1.5 tires, but I still cruise about the same rate of speed. I also feel these 1.9 tires encourage me to stay in a better cadence, as the 1.5 tires seem to encourage me to try and go faster, which was probably frustrating me. I took her on a short 10 mile ride, as it is getting late, and I enjoyed the smooth, more upright ride. This makes me want to put some racks back on it, and feel it loaded down with these new tires. I was going to go with 26x1.75 but I'm glad I went wider. I was also surprised at how I enjoyed the more layed back ride, now that she is set up more appropriately.
Saturday I'll put her through a better trial. I'll take her out on a 30 mile in-and-out with an 1,100 foot elevation gain. The comfort seems to be there, but a longer ride, with a steady 15 mile climb, will give me a better assessment. I thank you, and the few others on this thread, that had some encouraging recommendations. All in all I tried to ride the LHT like a road bike to my demise. And now she is a beastly, gnarly, smooth riding machine she is meant to be.

OdieInAz

I did have a slight drop. Now... not so much. I think 90mm was a tad short. My aft on my seat is perfect, and I couldn't cheat any more aft if I had tried. It seems I went the oppsite direction than you have. To each monkey thier own tree!

Null66

Your ride is quite the looker!

I went from a 110 mm at about 10 degree to a flat 80. This went from seat to top flat to a maybe 25mm drop.
When I first set it up I went looking for a high offset seat post, to shift it back. But now after losing 15-20lb I'm glad I didn't spend the cash...

I have the same toppeak rack and maybe case. Does yours have the drop down saddle bags and extendo-top? I've had a ton of weight in mine and it was stable! Once when Borders was closing I had in excess of 50lbs of books in it! But that was pre- DT on my Fuji Tourer...

I'm running 700c with 38's Marathons, plus on the rear, 420 on the front. Choose obviously not for speed, but for reliability. I'm about to acquire 32 Gatorskins for my "fast" event tires. I'm taking up 200k brevets...

Your choices of equipment all point to a live-ability vs weight bent in your choices. I think once you get used to the feel of the bike, you'll find it's the bike you use most... The 30 miler you have planned will go a long ways towards that!

We're about to get a 4 day break in the weather and I took some time off and am hoping for 20-50 each day if my SO/riding partner is up for back to backs...

I have my old Trek 1220 sport tourer upstairs that I get the itch to refit for a fast mount now and then. And yeah it will be done some day... Instead of dropping the cash on it, I bought Kurt Kinetic and have been doing indoor intervals as a way of upgrading the motor...

OdieInAz

Yes, it is a toppeak with the drop down saddlebags. It's my daytripper bag. To heavy of a bag for a fully loaded tour if you're trying to watch every pound. But it is a cool bag that clips into the rack.

I heard the Fuji Touring Bike is nice. I know a guy that has been self supported touring for a few years, and that's his choice of bike. I have not heard from him in over a year but he did stop in Tucson for a few months, waiting out the hotter months, and working odd jobs for funds. As far as I know he's still peddling down the road.

lhendrick

Very enjoyable thread, hope you find what you are looking for. I hope I do not because I so enjoy the search. Go figure.

LeeG

Odie, I noticed you have some tires that are good for thorny areas. If you don't need that kind of durability check out Panaracer T-Serv in 1.75. They weigh half as much as those Contis and may provide a slightly smoother ride when your bike isn't loaded down.

OdieInAz

It's a thorn haven over here in Southern Arizona. Everything here is covered in some kind of thorns or spikes. I know what you mean by heavy. They are smooth but they do feel a bit sluggish. The wind here is blowing like a dirty wench, and I noticed the resistance in the tires more than I liked while pedaling into these spirit breaking, unrelenting head winds. That's what sucks about living in a valley. Some of the cross winds were so strong I thought it going to knock me over. And if I had stopped pedaling into the head winds it would have put my bike in reverse.
I will look up the Panaracer T-Serv though for curiosity's sake.

LeeG

I thought there might be a reason, those tires look tailor made for thorns.

OdieInAz

They are very tough tires but they are sluggish. Some of the places I ride would flatten most tires. I did like my 1.75 Conti Travel Contacts I had on another bike. I never got a flat with them but I was wanting to try a wider tire. I do like the smooth rolling the 1.9 Conti Country Plus gives. I'm going to give these 1.9 Conti's a week or two more and see how I adapt to them. It's not the width so much, but more the weight of these tires. I felt the weight mostly in the head winds.