Bike recomendation please

godlykepower

Hi

I posted this in another section of the forum last week, but it might be more suitable here.

I have been out of the cycling game for some time now & have decided that 2011 is my year for doing something different - getting back into a sport I was successful & passionate about, losing weight etc.

After years of humming & ha-ing about doing it, I am going to do LEJOG. I have managed to talk the missus into joining me too.

I need a recomendation for something suitable for doing such a trip...however, I dont want a purely touring bike..I want something that I might be able to ride to & from work on as well. Something that I can also use on weekends for potters out & about.

I will ride on road 95% of the time, with only light, occasional forays off-road.

If I can condition myself to get back into it enough, I would eventually want a bike suitable enough for multi-week travels around Europe, so it must have the flexibility to accept panniers all round.

I also prefer the feel of 700 wheels as opposed to 26" too. If I am being very picky, then I prefer drops rathers than straights too.

Thorn is obviously a name that comes up time & again, but their website is not that clear really, but i will be calling them for a chat tomorrow. Being a traditionalist, I want to stick with rear mechs as opposed to a Rohloff.

The Genesis Croix De Fer has been recomended already. Thoughts on this?

I would really like to be able to buy a frame only & build up a bike to my own spec over a few months, but if there is a recomendation for an off the peg bike, i can put money aside for that too - I want to spend around the £1000 ish mark.

Any thoughts gratefully received.

Martin

Mayhemwmb

Having just visited SPA cycles in Harrogate I would recommend a chat to them - they seem really knowledgeable and genuinely interested in helping you

andymiller

I'd second the recommendation for Spa but I don't know whether they sell frames on their own. Definitely worth considering getting some wheels from them.

If you're looking for a frame only then other possibilities you might want to consider are Surly Long Haul Trucker, Condor (can't remember the name of their touring model), maybe Planet-X Kaffenback, Cotic RoadRat. Paul Hewitt seems to be well regarded as well.

Underscore

No experience but I'm looking for something similar to you - commuting and the odd 1 or 2 night mini-tours but planning to do London-Paris-Rome on it in 2013. Where I might differ is that I've decided that I want Avid BB7 discs rather than canti's, which does restrict things a bit.
Off the peg, there is the Kona Sutra (£1000 but 12% off at Wiggle if you join the CTC) but I'm a little concerned that it may be a bit too solid for unloaded riding to be much fun. So, I am considering a self-build around the Salsa Vaya frameset, which is supposed to be a lot of fun while still being capable of fully loaded touring. The downside is price - a quick spreadsheet and 10 minutes getting prices from Chain Reaction and SPA cycles (including wheels from the latter) suggests that you're looking at ~£1350, though that includes guards and Tubus racks.

HTH,

_

Hoopdriver

I've used a Thorn eXp for many years and on many long trips and short tours - mine was bought late in 1999 and now has about 70,000 miles on it - and I have found it to be very, very good. Utterly reliable, and very stable under load - and yet rides well unloaded and as a winter bike.

andymiller

Underscore wrote:

The downside is price - a quick spreadsheet and 10 minutes getting prices from Chain Reaction and SPA cycles (including wheels from the latter) suggests that you're looking at ~£1350, though that includes guards and Tubus racks.

Buying bit-by-bit is unfortunately usually more expensive than buying a complete bike. It makes most sense if you have lots of bits you can reuse or if you have particular requirements that can't be met off-the-peg.

Underscore

andymiller wrote:

Underscore wrote:

The downside is price - a quick spreadsheet and 10 minutes getting prices from Chain Reaction and SPA cycles (including wheels from the latter) suggests that you're looking at ~£1350, though that includes guards and Tubus racks.

Buying bit-by-bit is unfortunately usually more expensive than buying a complete bike. It makes most sense if you have lots of bits you can reuse or if you have particular requirements that can't be met off-the-peg.

True. However, the off-the-peg Vaya comes in at around this price but doesn't include guards or racks... Go figure!

_

godlykepower

Well, I have given SPA Cycles & Thorn a ring today.

The guy at SPA was a bit rude & kept interupting me & he recommended everything from a Ti frameset to an Audax Dawes to a full tourer & everything in between.

Don't feel I got anywhere with them, so i'll be giving that company a miss.

Thorn on the other hand were awesome, and after asking about my cycling history & intended use of a new bike, recommended their Thorn Club Tour model. Looks like a good piece of kit, but a bit pricey. £449 frame only, soon going up to £499 or £1699 complete.

I have looked at the brands recommended already (many thanks for that!) but none of them really blow my hair back. I cant really trust a bike frame that costs £99 (Planet X) or am I just being a snob? And the others, especially the Salsa Vaya, just look wrong...weird angles.

I really like the look of the Genesis Croix De Fer, but the use of discs all round with racks (at times) worries me, and those straight forks look uncomfortable.

Have I walked into a minefield??!!

Hoopdriver

I have also found Spa to be abrupt and unhelpful and I use them only if I am buying something I definitely have in mind and where they are cheapest. I don't bother with chatting to them; very unhelpful.

I have always had excellent service with Thorn, they know their stuff and my old Thorn tourer has served me really well over the years. I recommend them.

Mayhemwmb

godlykepower wrote:

I have looked at the brands recommended already (many thanks for that!) but none of them really blow my hair back. I cant really trust a bike frame that costs £99 (Planet X) or am I just being a snob? And the others, especially the Salsa Vaya, just look wrong...weird angles.

I really like the look of the Genesis Croix De Fer, but the use of discs all round with racks (at times) worries me, and those straight forks look uncomfortable.

Have I walked into a minefield??!!

I'm currently riding a Planet X Kaffenback with rack and panniers, I'm 18stone and the bike's fine - good solid reliable ride, I am mechanically sympathetic ie, I don't crash up and down kerbs etc. I'm running with 28x700c Schwalbe Marathon +. there's clearance with guards on but the guards need very careful setup.
Mine's a flat bar with bar ends and road r500 shifters and a triple on the front - big ring is 53t so I can fairly shift, good bike would recommend

niblue

My tourer/light commuter is a Cotic Roadrat with disk brakes and front and rear-racks, and I've had no issue with that so far. Mine is an Alfine geared one with flat bars (which means I can use hydro brakes) however it could just as easily have been built with conventional gears and either canti's or cable disks. It was bought on bike-to-work and cost £1000. The Genesis Croix De Fer does look a nice bike, and their Day One Alfine could also be worth a look.

One the Planet-X question - I've not had one of their cheap road frames but I've had several On-One mountain bike frames and while a little weighty they're amazing value, handle well and very strong. My previous commuter/tourer was a 26" wheeled, rigid forked Inbred and that was a nice bike, although a fair bit slower in practice than the Roadrat.

harpo

If you intend to stick to light touring (just smaller bags on the rear and maybe a bar bag)then I'd go for a cyclocross bike and stick a pannier rack on it. The cantilever brakes will take bigger tyres and the gearing will be smaller than a normal road triple which will suit for all but the hilliest of touring. If you can find one with a steel frame rather than alu I'd go for that for rigidity.

A full blown tourer will be too sluggish for your non touring rides. And I'd build it up yourself as much as you can. I think the quality of wheels and racks that come as standard are normally very basic and lacking, worth the extra cash in the key areas.

andymiller

godlykepower wrote:

I cant really trust a bike frame that costs £99 (Planet X) or am I just being a snob?

Quite possibly.But their framesets aren't normally £99, if that helps to reassure you - last time I looked a Kaffenback was something like £225.

I have four bikes all with Planet X or On-one frames. All are reliable and sturdy (I don't weigh 18 stone though).

Remember what the marketing men did with Stella Artois: took a cheap Belgian beer, marketed it in the UK at a premium price - 'reassuringly expensive'. More expensive doesn't always mean better.

allezcourage

In a similar vein to the suggestions above, have you considered Surly's Cross Check or Long Haul Trucker? I have the Cross Check and have found it spectacularly good for a variety of uses including loaded touring. Really fun, versatile and tough frame. I built mine up to my own spec but Surly do good value builds. Well worth a look.

godlykepower

I have considered all the replies so far, put my thinking head on, flexed my interweb research muscles, sworn a lot and drank 283.02 litres of coffee...

...and I am going to take the plunge and go with a Kaffenback.

I can't really find anything negative reported about them, so I have placed my order for the frame & fork, FSA headset & a snazzy stem from another supplier.

Cant wait to start building that bad-boy!

To those already using Kaff's, are you on road or MTB drivetrain? Am I limited to Canti brakes (as per the blurb on their website) or can I go with some good V's and still use road levers?

Thanks so much for the help!

Martin

harpo

You need to use canti brakes with road sti levers. You can use v brakes but you will need an adapter in the brake line. Search the forum for more details.

Mayhemwmb

Good choice sir!!!!
Ok so the spec of my bike, I think mine is a parts bin special from Planet X and cost about £500 from them in a sale, there were one or two problems which I have overcome (don't worry I will explain)
Original spec was 23c tyres with LX cassette, long cage LX rear mech and the integrated brake/ gear shifter setup. The front mech was also LX.
This all worked fine except I wanted larger tyres and changed to 28c schwalbe marathon +. This became a problem as the tyres now caught on the LX front mech. I changed this to a road front mech and now found that the gear levers pulled the wrong amount of cable, I swapped the shifters and found a pair avid brake levers. Mine runs with LX V brakes and stops fine.
The long cage rear mech and wide spread mountain bike type cassette give a good spread of gears.