Bicycles
Seeing that we were going to cycling for most of Big Ride |
Africa we thought it would be worthwhile to put in a bit of effort in
researching and choosing the right bicycles... In the end I think we put more
effort in researching bike components and other gear that we did the actual
frames! We both wanted to get the dream
expedition bike, the Thorn Raven, a steel (chromoly) framed beast of a bike made
by boutique bike company Thorn Cycles in the UK, but at more than £3000
(although that does include racks) we decided that the cash would be better used for daily living expenses and the odd
beer.
So we started looking at other
options. Most touring cyclists say you
have to have a steel framed bicycle, the reasoning being that if you do break
it, it can be welded; although that assumes that the welder concerned is a bit
more skilled than your average guy who welds burglar bars and truck
chassis’s. The problem is that decent
steel frames, that don’t cost a fortune, are hard to come by as most frames are
aluminium. We scoured ebay but only came
across crusty, rusty and overpriced steel frames that had probably been
recovered from the sea. Being mountain
bikers who were used to riding aluminium frames we decided that for a trip of
this length aluminium would be fine (aluminium suffers from fatigue over time)
and in a worst case we could import a frame or get a local steel framed
bike. Decision made. We both bought aluminium mountain bikes off
ebay. I went for a German made Cube Ltd Race, a racy cross country hard tail, and Mark went for the British made
Ridgeback Cyclone, a bit more upright hardtail.
Not being very creative we called the bikes the ‘Cube’ and the
‘Ridgeback’. Most days the banter went
something like this: “Hey Mark what is that crack in the Ridgeback?” “Funny
guy, is it normal for the Cube to be bent behind the stem?” Winding each up
aside, we secretly we hoped nothing went wrong and nothing did. The frames are still rock solid although they
are missing some paint and are a bit sun bleached. If you
are looking at a bicycle for your tour, aluminium will be fine for a short trip
(say less than 20 000km), if you are planning on cycling the world for a few
years, go for a steel (chromoly) frame (see Thorn, Surly, etc). If you tough like Heinz Stucke you can go for a Brompton!
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| Heinz's Brompton folding bike in Kigali. It has 25 000km on it. |
Ridgeback Cyclone frame:
Mark: Great bike. I did not choose this frame for any other reason than it
being the only second hand MTB frame with rigid forks and rack mounts which I
could find at a reasonable price and which had good reviews. It worked out cheaper for me to buy a complete
second hand bike and then strip it down and re-kit it with my own components,
rather than buy a new frame and fork and do the same. It was rock solid throughout the trip and was
generally a comfortable ride too. It’s
not the ideal geometry for a touring frame, which meant possibly not sitting
upright enough, and I think this is why my Brookes saddle didn't work for me as
well as I hoped it would. I also ended
up getting a bit of carpal tunnel syndrome (pins and needles in the fingers)
from too much pressure on my palms from leaning over the bars. In summary for a 6 month trip it was perfect -
cheap, strong and comfortable. For a
longer trip I would have splashed out for a touring specific frame.
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| The Ridgeback fully laden in Sudan |
Cube Ltd Race:
James: I bought this bike pretty much brand knew off Ebay
for £550 (retail is £1000). The previous
owner had hardly used it and the bike got rave reviews on Bikeradar.com. Good deal I thought and Cube has a reputation
for building strong frames which is great when you are planning on carrying
some serious weight on African roads.
Some plus points about the bike were that it had mounting points for a
racks on the rear triangle, was matt black in colour (when most Cubes have
‘loud’ paint schemes) and came with
decent components (Shimano SLX and XT).
Some negatives were the race orientated set up, ie hunched feel, a more
upright feel is preferred for touring; air front suspension, always a risk of
failure on a long trip; and the wheel set.
I replaced the original Sun Ringle cross country wheel set (see wheels) but stuck with the Rock Shox Reba
SL suspension. If you have a suspension
fork on your touring bike it’s best to go for a coil sprung fork (if you can
find one) because when, not if, it fails it usually seizes and you can still
ride on it. If an air fork fails it
usually collapses so you lose +-100mm of height on the front and it’s
particularly lethal to ride on with reduced control. A big risk but I felt that on bad roads the Reba
would be a bonus. To limit the chance of
failure, I pumped the forks up pretty hard, rode them locked out most of the
time and made sure they were kept clean.
Also I had a brace-type concept in my head that could be employed with the
help of a welder to lock the forks out completely in the event of failure. They had never been serviced and after riding
some single track in the forest the other day they are still smooth. Probably against manufactures instructions
but if they are locked out most of the time, wear is minimal and less servicing
is required.
The Cube also came with
Formula Oro hydraulic disc brakes from Italy.
Five years ago this would be a big risk but disc brakes today are unlikely
to fail unless you rip a hose off. I
bled the brakes before we left and they are still good today. I did take a few spares and bleeding kit just
in case. If you look at other bike
touring sites you may come across the Chris King headset. CK make the best headsets and if you are planning
on going touring for a few years they are worth the investment (£100+). I stuck with the headset that came with the
Cube. It’s a bit worn now but still in
working order.
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| The Cube also in Sudan |
Wheel sets:
We did a lot of research in this area but unfortunately we
consulted the wrong sources. We both
decided to replace our existing wheels knowing full well that standard mountain
bike rims are not designed to carry large amounts of weight for long distances. Wheel failure is an all too common problem
for touring cyclist so we wanted to get the strongest wheels but also with
consideration of the weight. Heavy
wheels makes for more huffing and puffing.
For the hubs we decided to go with Shimano XT (the loose ball bearing
type). Easily serviceable and very
tough, these are the standard for any touring bike. I went for the 36 spoke version and Mark went
for the 32. The more spokes you have,
the stronger the wheels and seeing that I am slightly heavier than Mark I
thought 4 extra spokes would be worthwhile.
The hubs lasted for the whole trip without any problems and are still
smooth. The freewheels are still
clicking along. I serviced my rear hub
once because it was a bit loose but Mark hardly looked at his. We used DT swiss
2mm spokes (not butted). Heavy but
strong. We never broke a spoke.
And then we come to the rims... a nightmare of
sorts. A few sources, including the
touring cyclist bible, recommended Mavic rims particularly the XM719. They also
suggested a few other brands which we had never heard of. Having used Mavic before we decided to go
with the XM719. We should have googled
“Mavic XM719 failure”.... The first failure was my front rim while we were
cycling up and over the Swiss alps. High
tyre pressure due to an increase in altitude and what I think was a manufacturing
defect pealed a 15cm sliver of aluminium off my outer rim. Luckily there are buses in Switzerland and we
managed to get a lift and find a bike shop over the pass in Italy. Marco, a local bike mechanic, had never seen a
failure like this before and agreed that it was probably a defect in the rim.
Which was even weirder was that the front wheel only had a handlebar bag up
front and not panniers, so was hardly weighted.
Marco was quite limited in rims and did not have a 36 hole version to
match my XT hub so he built me a new 32 spoke wheel with another Mavic rim,
this time the 317 a cheaper version of the XM719, laced onto a Novatec
cartridge bearing Taiwanese hub. I was
sceptical but running pressures of 3 bar and with little weight over the front wheel,
the wheel is still fine. I contacted
Mavic and was told that the tyres were too strong for the wheels and they were
not designed for long distances... Great.
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| Mavic XM719 |
On the recommendation of Simon,
the British cyclist we met in Egypt, we ordered Rigida Andra rims and spokes
(correct spoke lengths were a big worry) from SJS Cycles in the UK together
with a few other spares. We had heard
about these rims and not knowing much about them other than they were heavy and
more expensive had decided against them while researching wheels before our
trip. A big mistake. Not wanting to sit
around in Khartoum waiting for them, we arranged delivery via DHL to Bahir Dar,
Ethiopia and continued our journey on cracked rims with lowered tyre pressures
(2 bar). 1000 km later we luckily got to Bahir Dar with a few more cracks
but feeling somewhat relieved we had made it. The parcel, however, was still stuck in
customs. We managed to get it out after
paying 50% import duty and set about building our wheels. Neither Mark nor I had built wheels before so
it took a while.
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| Wheel building in Ethiopia. Note beers on table. |
In the end our hand
built rims lasted all the way to Cape Town without any further failure or
buckling on the worst roads you can imagine.
A weight saving of a few grams and an additional cost of £10 per wheel for this saving had
ended up costing us £250 each not to mention the stress of getting wheels sent
out to Ethiopia. Don’t muck around with
wheels. Normal wheel sets will not last
on long trips. Our tough Mavics did not
even last 6000 km. Even guys who have spread their luggage around and had
front panniers have had wheel failures.
Get yourself some 36 hole Rigida Andra or Sputnik Rims laced onto
Shimano XT hubs with 2mm spokes. The Andras will work with both disc and rim
brakes and are so tough Rigida decided to do away with spoke eyelets. Sun Ringle Rhyno Lites are also good rims. You won’t have any issues. Don’t buy downhill rims. They may look strong but they are designed
for running large volume tyres at low pressure, not skinny tyres at 3-4
bar. Seeing that we carried hardly any
weight on the front wheel, the front Mavic rims lasted but if we had had front
panniers I think we would have had problems.
Always take note of the recommended tyre pressures on your rims.
Group sets and drive chains:
I had a 27 speed Shimano SLX crank with a steel Shimano
Deore middle chain ring (lasts longer than the SLX ones) meshed with a SRAM P970
cassette and SRAM P971 chain. Derailers
were Shimano Deore XT and shifters were rapid fire Shimano SLX. Mark had a Deore crank, SRAM grip shifters,
SRAM X7 and X8 derailers and Shimano cassette and chain. We both started off with new drive chains
(middle chain rings, cassette and chain).
I replaced mine at 10500km mainly because I was sick of carrying spares.
Mark changed his at 13000km. Remember this when your local bike shop says
you need a new chain and cassette after only 1000km. We kept the chain and cassette clean when we
could and used Squirt lube to reduce wear.
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| Shimano Deore XT rear derailer |
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| Shimano Deore middle chain ring after 10500 km |
One key component of your groupset that most people tend to
forget about is the bottom bracket. We
went with an external cup version. I
used Shimano XT while Mark used Shimano Deore.
He had to replace his after 10500km. Mine is still smooth and trouble
free.
We used Shimano XT cables and housings and have not had to
change them yet.
Stick with mid range stuff, don’t be fancy but if you want
to be fancy get a Rohloff hub.
Tyres:
If you are planning a bike tour through Africa there is only
one tyre you should be looking at, the Schwalbe Marathon XR. It is super tough and mine have lasted
16000km now (including a few kilometres before we set off) and still have tread
on them. The problem is they are hard to
get hold of. Schwalbe decided to
redesign them a few years ago and came up with the Dureme and the Extreme. Cyclists have reported these tyres lasting no
more than 5000km. Schwalbe saw the error
in their ways and have brought back the Marathon XR which is now called the Marathon Mondial, “the ultimate touring tyre”. It
is relatively new and has not been proven yet but it looks like it will be a
decent tyre.
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| Schwalbe Marathon XR on the Makalagadi Pans, Botswana |
We took a spare Continental
Travel Contact tyre each. This tyre is
good but more suited to decent roads. If
you are going offroad or if the tar is patchy, go with the Marathon XR. You will not find decent tyres in Africa
(other than in SA or Namibia). You will,
however, find cheap Chinese ones that don’t last long, which is why the locals
could not believe we had only used on set of tyres and had had less than ten
punctures each. If you can find the
Marathon XR (if they are folding ones even better) stockpile a few. You will not regret it. Also worthwhile are the Marathon Plus tyres
if you will be spending more time on tar than dirt.
Tubes:
Don’t go tubeless.
The sealant won’t last and you won’t be able to carry enough of it. Get yourself some decent tubes, like those
from Continental, and take a couple spares.
We did not touch our spare tubes but it’s nice to know they were
there. Schrader valves are preferred
because you can always pump up your tyres at a petrol station. We went with presta with a schrader
attachment. I only used the attachment
once because I was feeling lazy and there was a compressor nearby. Other times a Topeak hand pump worked just
fine.
Brooks B-17 saddle:
Mark: Not what I expected. Being the de facto saddle of
choice for cycle tourists, I thought if I splash out a bit and get this I would
have no problems on my trip. Not the case. I suffered! In fact at one point
after about 14000km I ended up having to stand and cycle for 3 consecutive
days. I literally could not even bear to touch the saddle lightly. This happened despite following the care
instructions (I carried a tin of Brooks Proofide which I applied regularly as
well as tensioning the saddle). I had
saddle sores all over the place but I found the back "ridge" or rim
of the saddle was a particular source of problems. I'm not saying that this is not a good saddle.
The quality is fantastic, and obviously a lot of people find it fantastic. It
did not work for me though. James used
his skinny racing saddle (Cube Ready for
Race) and had far less bum issues.
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| Racing Cube saddle. Skinny, narrow and hard. |
More gear reviews to follow including camping gear, clothing and panniers.
