Gear Review Number One..... Bicycles!

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!

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.

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.

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.  

Mavic XM719

 At this stage our rear wheels were fine. Until Sudan that is.  Mark, who was running v brakes, noticed that the brake blocks were pushed apart at certain points on the rim when he braked.  He thought it was a slight buckling so he got out the spoke spanner but it did not improve.  Having read about cracks between the eyelets on other cyclist’s sites I took my rear wheel off in Khartoum and removed the rim tape.  What I saw made my blood boil.  There were cracks between each of the eyelets below the rim tape.  Mark checked his and found the same.  Our front wheels were fine probably because all our luggage was carried above the rear wheel (a mistake in hindsight) and we had 3-4kg at most on the front.  After the rage had settled we considered our options.  26”, 36 hole rims and decent spokes are not exactly freely available in Sudan so we would have to order them from overseas.  This would take a while with customs and courier times and we did not have unlimited time on our Sudanese visa.  

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.  

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.

  

Shimano Deore XT rear derailer

Mid-range drive chain components last a really long time and in most cases it is actually cheaper to replace the middle chain ring, chain and cassette in one go rather than replacing chains and cassettes every 1000km.  This reasoning changes when you use high end components like XTR and SRAM X0 and using multiple chains becomes worthwhile to prolong the life of your £100 cassette.  But if you use these components you are either sponsored or a banker and would not really worry about the cost of replacement anyway. 

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.  

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.

Racing Cube saddle. Skinny, narrow and hard.

More gear reviews to follow including camping gear, clothing and panniers.