Touring Bikes?

[Kim]

Bar ends are pretty crap, bash on your knees if you don't shorten the bars, long cables in the way and make shifts worse

To be fair, these are a fault specific to drop handlebars, not the shifters.

[Oscar's dad]

Fred fully loaded up...

Amazing, how many long tours have you ridden with that set up OD?

Up North week long tour in 2016.

Another week long tour in up to Stone, Staffs in 2017.  Plus various weekends.

[Carlosfandango]

Fantastic, I thought you always drove there and caught the train home. You've gone up in my estimation.

Not so much for all the unnecessary stuff you take with you though.

[Lightning Phil]

I like bar ends, and they just work unlike STI levers.   My road bike has index 10 speed bar ends, the recumbent I have 9 speed bar ends on friction.  I sometimes swap the road bike 10 speed wheel onto the recumbent.  No fiddling with cable tension etc to get it to work. Just chuck the wheel in and go.

As for banging your knees on bar ends on drops. The solution is slightly flared drops. The problem goes away.

[Oscar's dad]

Fantastic, I thought you always drove there and caught the train home. You've gone up in my estimation.

Not so much for all the unnecessary stuff you take with you though.

 

Both tours featured 120 mile first days with 80ish mile second days.  Its all on Strava.

Re the amount of kit... the front Ortliebs aren't completely full neither is the Carradice on the back.  I tend to keep some free room in the Carradice for food.  I also have full cooking kit (Trangia) onboard, on the Stone and back tour I did a steak dinner with all trimmings on the final night.

[Carlosfandango]

What happened after the 2nd day though?

[Oscar's dad]

What happened after the 2nd day though?

On the Up North tour, as we were into the hills we were doing 30 to 40 miles a day.  On Stone and back I was doing about 60 a day.

[bobb]

Bar ends are pretty crap, bash on your knees if you don't shorten the bars, long cables in the way and make shifts worse, get scratched or change gear when you lean the bike against a wall.

Bobb's right, they look awful.

Downtube shifters the coolest and best.
 

The last time I had a bike with downtube shifters was in the 80s. The decade that taste forgot and unfortunately some still inhabit 

[perpetual dan]

I like my bar end shifters. No knee issues, and they’ve broken no more than STIs. The only annoyance I’ve had is that the cable run to the rear mech needs a “tandem” inner on my bike, which has pannier friendly seatstays.

[bobb]

People often seem to fret about Ergos and STDs breaking when on tour, hence their insistence on down pube or bell end shifters. The Ergos on my tourer are 17 years old and have been bashed and battered over many tens of thousands of miles. They've never broken. They did start to get a bit vague after about 10 years, but they still worked and I just got them rebuilt when I got around to it....

[Lightning Phil]

If was my experience of STIs breaking that made me shift to bar end shifters.

[bobb]

I guess that's Shimano for you... Ergos don't break 

[quixoticgeek]

One of the great joys of Di2, is multiple shifting locations. So if one of my shifters dies, I can just use one of the others. I can even remap them from my phone...

J

[TPMB12]

I've got bar ends on my recumbent,  they point up on the USS so pretty hard to bash your knees when cycling. Rear shifter is indexed front us traction. Works very well indeed. My road bike has downtube shifters. Much prefer my road bike with paddle shifters and indexed gears.

[cycleman]

I still hanker after a pair friction thumbshifters. Simple and effective 

[Carlosfandango]

I've had a few sti cable breaks, it's poor design in the brifter, the cable has a sharp 90 degree bend on to the ratchet. It can be awkward to retrieve the broken cable too. Shimano shifting accuracy seems to be sensitive to cable condition.

Might try Campagnolo next, what have you got on your Tripster bobb?

[Cudzoziemiec]

People often seem to fret about Ergos and STDs breaking when on tour, hence their insistence on down pube or bell end shifters. The Ergos on my tourer are 17 years old and have been bashed and battered over many tens of thousands of miles. They've never broken. They did start to get a bit vague after about 10 years, but they still worked and I just got them rebuilt when I got around to it....

Just wondering about this sequence of "apparent typos"...

[Carlosfandango]

Bar ends are pretty crap, bash on your knees if you don't shorten the bars, long cables in the way and make shifts worse, get scratched or change gear when you lean the bike against a wall.

Bobb's right, they look awful.

Downtube shifters the coolest and best.
 

The last time I had a bike with downtube shifters was in the 80s. The decade that taste forgot and unfortunately some still inhabit 

Your stuck in the 90s though bobb, hardly an improvement.

[Carlosfandango]

People often seem to fret about Ergos and STDs breaking when on tour, hence their insistence on down pube or bell end shifters. The Ergos on my tourer are 17 years old and have been bashed and battered over many tens of thousands of miles. They've never broken. They did start to get a bit vague after about 10 years, but they still worked and I just got them rebuilt when I got around to it....

Just wondering about this sequence of "apparent typos"...

It's a representation of your usual vocabulary bobb!

[Paul H]

My spares kit, when touring on a derailleur bike, includes a down tube friction shifter with a cable attached. It's the size of a matchbox, 70g, can be fitted front or back in less time than it takes to fix a puncture and leaves me free to use my shifters of choice (Ergo 9spd) without worrying about mishaps. 
I started carrying it after crash damaging an Ergo about 15 years ago, I haven't used it yet.

[LateStarter]

There is no UK distributor for these touring bikes (Vivente) but the web site is a treasure trove of touring info and 40 years of experience worldwide, well worth a browse, especially the "Guidance" sections for general advice applicable to any brand touring bike and the About>Test Trips sections for a life time of touring, just about everywhere

https://viventebikes.com/

Noel (the owner) insists on personally testing every component change on months long overseas tours, a really tough job but someone has to do it (he says) !

(disclosure, I have a 2013 model)

[Pickled Onion]

Och, just when ye think ye have the bike all sorted, up pops this wee beastie... Very braw indeed!

• https://www.stanforthbikes.co.uk/kibo-dirt-drop/li]
  

Tbh if you're thinking of heavily loaded touring potentially on dirt roads, I'd go discs.  Your rims are bound to take a beating and a buckled rim won't kill your braking on a disc bike.[/list]

I've never had a bike with disc brakes, so this may be a dumb question: how easy is it to pack up a bike in a soft bag for flying so that the discs don't get bent in transit?

[JonBuoy]

If I were setting up a bike for extended touring, I'd probably plump for either down tube or bar end shifters (that can be operated in friction mode). Easier to get replacement gear bits on the road if something like a cassette or derailleur breaks.

Why would parts be easier to get if you're using down tube or bar end shifters? And what relevance is that to broken cassettes* or mechs?

*Has anyone ever actually "broken" a cassette?!

I helped out a guy a few years ago on the Kidderminster Killer who had broken his cassette.  He didn't understand why his gears were playing up until I pointed out that a significant chunk of one of the larger cogs on his expensive-looking cassette was making a bid for freedom.  I fully removed the broken chunk and told him not to use what was left of that gear and to be really careful when he changed across the gap that was left.

[The Family Cyclist]

I've never had a bike with disc brakes, so this may be a dumb question: how easy is it to pack up a bike in a soft bag for flying so that the discs don't get bent in transit?

I'd you are running hydraulics then more of an issue is someone or something applying the brake levers and the pads coming out too far so having either a lock for the lever or something to stick in between the pads is worth doing.

[quixoticgeek]

I'd you are running hydraulics then more of an issue is someone or something applying the brake levers and the pads coming out too far so having either a lock for the lever or something to stick in between the pads is worth doing.

That's why you need to remember to put the little yellow plastic blocks into the caliper between the pads so that this doesn't happen.

J