JOGLE Dec 2007

woodford2barbican

Thank you for all the advice so far in my other thread on this topic.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12539126

I am almost certainly going to commit to this - it will be cold and windy but what is life without a challenge?! :?

I am trying to decide which bike to use. I have three bikes, two road bikes with no option for racks or mudgaurds so they are out. The only candidate is a Revolution Courier http://tinyurl.com/yqfujv which I commute on.

On the minus side, it is relatively heavy and has disc brakes which I am not confident of maintaining whilst on the orad. It also only has flat bars and a single front chain ring.

On the plus side it has mudgaurds and a rack which my other two bikes do not and a low gear of 44 / 32.

I feel that the minus points of this bike, weight, the disc brakes, small 26" wheels, no drops, small range of gears outweigh its plus points and that I should have a bike for this with a triple chain set.

I will build it myself and have got my eye on a Tiagra triple groupset giving me a low gear of 30 / 25. In terms of touring frames what should I be looking for and will I get away with spending under £200?

I am a relatively large chap, 6"2 and 15 stone so will need something with comfort in mind.....!

Crapaud

woodford2barbican wrote:
I will build it myself and have got my eye on a Tiagra triple groupset giving me a low gear of 30 / 25.

I'd suggest a wide range cassette as well, maybe somthing like 12 - 34. My thinking is that, in winter, you're going to have to carry more clothes - base layers, etc. If you can't dry them out the water will add significantly to the weight. You might not need all the gears, but when you're sitting at the bottom of a big hill and don't have the gears it'll be too late.

Birdcp

woodford2barbican wrote:

I will build it myself and have got my eye on a Tiagra triple groupset giving me a low gear of 30 / 25. In terms of touring frames what should I be looking for and will I get away with spending under £200?

I am a relatively large chap, 6"2 and 15 stone so will need something with comfort in mind.....!

Something like this might suit you..

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dawes-Galaxy-Tour ... dZViewItem

woodford2barbican

Birdcp wrote:

woodford2barbican wrote:

I will build it myself and have got my eye on a Tiagra triple groupset giving me a low gear of 30 / 25. In terms of touring frames what should I be looking for and will I get away with spending under £200?

I am a relatively large chap, 6"2 and 15 stone so will need something with comfort in mind.....!

Something like this might suit you..

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dawes-Galaxy-Tour ... dZViewItem

That does look good - I will look for similar but am wary of ebay frames.

Someone at work just pointed out that it snows in Scotland in December........maybe I should do a JOGLE?

Being objective, I can think of a long list of reasons why I should not do this; the cold weather, the short days, the short amount of time I have (9/10 days), riding solo will be hard, It won't be sunny, do I really wnt to cycle through Wigan on a wet afternoon in December?

On the reasons to do it side, I have because I want to and because I have always wanted to.

I am not sure that cuts the mustard and perhaps I should wait until I get the chance to do this one summer. But then I may get hit by a bus next Spring and not be able to. I am a ditherer!