Ok, my second post and my 'main' bike, a 2010 Thorn Raven Sport Tour.I have arrived at this bike via a circuitous route that began with an Orbea road bike (which I then sold), then I moved the componentry off that and on to a Thorn Audax Mk 3 (which, again, I then sold!), and in the summer, I purchased a used Thorn RST in red. To cut a long story short, after much pleasure riding the Raven, I decided to go one size up on the frame and have arrived at what I consider the perfect bike.
The Thorn has an 853 steel frame, lighter than a traditional touring bike, but still strong enough to carry some weight if necessary. I'm running it with a Rohloff 14 speed hub gearbox, XTR V-Brakes, Mavic 317 rim and Shimano DH72 dynamo hub on the front, and Mavic 717 on the back. These are shod with Schwalbe Marathon Pluses. It is lit up by B&M IQ Cyo and Toplight XS lights.
The qualities of the frame are becoming apparent. This is a bike that can be happily ridden all day with no major issues - I find it the most comfortable bike by far that I have ever had the pleasure of riding - and I thought the Audax was unbeatable! It isn't the lightest bike in the world, but that said it is not so heavy as to cause me problems. The rohloff hub is the single heaviest part.
Gearing is interesting, because you have to select your chain ring size carefully with a Rohloff hub. Thorn owners will know this already, but think of the rohloff as 14 gears, one of which (gear 11) is in effect direct drive - that is, the bike behaves like a single speed in that gear. Everything BELOW 11 you are losing pedal revolutions, everything ABOVE 11 and you are gaining pedal revolutions, relative to the rear wheel. Therefore, by having a smaller or larger chain ring, you are able to determine the gearing that will exist in your personal gear 11. Most Rohloffs have a 16 tooth rear sprocket, and I started off with a 42 tooth front - which came with the bike secondhand. This was way too low a gear, so I moved up to a 46, ran that for a while, then bought a used 48 tooth ring for £10 on the Thorn forum. Some people may think of this as a massive gear (top gear is about 109 inches!!!) but after getting used to it it suits my terrain well (East Anglia).
The gears will give you roughly the spread of ratios you would get on a 21 speed mountain bike, but as I have said, this is almost infinitely adjustable based on sprocket/chainring combinations. The real beauty though is that the twist grip shifter allows you to simply change with one action to any gear, (even while the bike is stationary! A huge advantage!) and all the mech is sealed away inside the hub. No abrasive winter grime, no knocks to put the gears out of line, no fiddling with two levers to change gears. Just an oil change once a year.
Being German, Rohloff are famous for the almost absurd over-engineering of their gear boxes - they claim that none have ever reached the end of their service lives, despite being the choice for such abuse as James Bowthorpe's round the world ride.
So far I have done roughly 80 - 100 miles a week and a mini tour of the Pennines, when the rohloff's gearing came under sharp focus. The range of gears is simply phenomenal - gear 1 (if you can stop the bike wheelieing) will get you up the side of a tall building!
I also love the 'stealth' black paint job - there are no logos, and now I have applied reflective tape to various prominent bits, even the head tube Thorn logo has disappeared! When it's parked up, almost nobody knows what it is!!!
