Re: your worst touring bike

Miles W.'s final comment on his first tour... "Never looked back from there=
."

Your comment made me laugh out loud.

I guess I laughed out loud because I read it as "and that was the
first and last time they attempted to tour."

I assume since you're active on this list you do still tour, right? :)

Indeed I've heard stories of people's first and last tours that were
far more tame than then yours.

As per my own "worst bike"... I think every modern bike is my "worst
bike" for touring in one respect or another.

My new Salsa Fargo which is almost an ideal "ride around the world"
bicycle and I can't even ride for 30 days without needing to replace a
chain.

It has a frame that should never brake... it has disc brakes whose
pads and rotors can go for 5, 8, 10k miles.

It has beefy rims and can accommodate 2.4 / 2.5" tires that make it
bomb proof for the worst terrain in the world.

And yet, though I've had it less then a year I'm already on my second
cassette and have lost track of all the chains I've replaced.

I sometimes dream of taking off my 9-speed XT derailleur, cassette and
chain and putting back on an old seven speed freewheel because the new
crap just wears out so damn quickly.

Modern cassettes and chains are just crap. Ridiculous crap.

In my garage I have boxes of worn out cassettes and chains.

I even have a box of worn out chainrings! Overpriced garbage aluminum
crap which as they wear just increase the speed at which the chains
where.

With the wear patterns on cassettes, chains and chainrings it's
basically a game of shimano wack-a-mole.

I smoked a chain in about 1000 miles on my tour of the parkway this
january and I was "taking it easy".

I can't even get a thousand miles out of a darn chain.

To put that in real world terms I'd have to replace my chain 18 times
on a trip around the world.

Probably 10-15 chains or so on a round trip of Tiego del fuego.

Or three chains for a simple trip across the US.

That's crap.

What's more are the amount of cassettes I'd have to change with those chain=
s.

What's more that's on road touring.

If I ever do something like the 2700 mile tour divide I can only
imagine how many chains and cassettes i'd go through.

I wonder... maybe 600 or 800 off road miles in mud and dirt?

Makes me mad.

But you can't ride the chain until it breaks because then you'd have
to replace the cassette... AND then you'd get into replacing
chainrings faster as well.

I feel like starting a product review site just for drivetrain
components. I go through so many drive train components it would looks
something like this

Shimano 9-speed chains... suck & expensive
Shimano 9spd cassettes... suck and expensive
Sram 9-speed chains... suck, but aren't as expensive as shimano
KMC 9spd chains... suck a little more but are the cheapest
SRAM 9-speed cassettes... suck but cheaper then shimano
Shimano 9-speed chains... still suck
Shimano 9spd cassettes... still suck
Sram 9-speed chains... still suck
KMC 9spd chains... still suck
SRAM 9-speed cassettes... still suck
continue ad nausea


Just add a new review on how sucky compoents are every time I replace
a drive train components.

Call it the ModernBicycleComponentsSuck.blogspot.com

Eventually it'd grow to a massive size.... and epic ode to the
suckiness of all shimano's components.

And the amount of money I spend on this crap.

Eventually they'd have to take notice... or perhaps someone would.

There is not enough compeition in the Shimano monopolized world of componen=
ts.

If I'd started it a few years ago I'd about 30 posts on just how
crappy chains and cassettes are. Every component would recieve zero
stars.

It wouldn't even matter if it's out of a scale of 10 or scale of 4
because zero is zero.

What's more it's only going to get worse and worse as Shimano goes
10-speed on everything.

What we need is touring specific components.

Perhaps we can find influence with velo orange, Surly, or rivendale or
someone who could revers engineer some chains and cassettes from
shimano so we can go back to more practical seven speed or 8 speed
cassettes and chains.

If one could make these components reverse compatible with some of the
more common chains found around the world... perhaps even single speed
chains then tourers could find compatible components wherever they
tour.

I want big beefy chain and cassette, and I don't care if it's only
about seven speeds. I want to be able to get AT LEAST 5000 miles on
it.



So... you ask me what bicycle I've ridden that's most ill suited to
touring... I say EVERY modern bicycle.

Bicycles are not f***ing razors or ink jet printers and I'm suck of
overpriced shimano garbage designed to fail quickly so shimano can
sell more of them.

It's a horrible and *ssinine business model.

Indeed as a mechanic I really feel bad for bicycle commuters whom are
constantly replacing cassettes and freewheels.

Brakes and tires yes... but having to replace a chain three or four
times in a year... that's crap.

Cars have become lower maintence then bicycles... tires last for
years, the miles between and oil changes have gone up and up... so why
the hell should a bicycle be higher maintence then a car?

I realize most people don't ride as hard or as long as you and I,
perhaps shimano is pandering to people who by $10k road or mountain
bikes and take them out riding every couple weeks.

Or perhaps shimano is pandering to racing types who replace their
chain after every race.

But this is where it cuts... shimano is no longer servicing
randoneering, endurance and touring folks... it's time to go in a
different direction.

And I'm not talking belt drives and rolhoff hubs.

I'm all ears on alternative suggestions.

How much mileage are you getting out of your drivetrain components?

-Mike


On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 12:39 PM, Miles Whelen <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hello Scott,
>
> As I recall Lloyd Sumner did his first round the world trip starting out
> with the best bike in the world he thought; a Schwinn Varsity. =A0He rode=
 it
> from Charlottesville, VA to Greensboro NC and figured he needed a much
> better bike. =A0And what is much better than the 38 Lb Varsity; well a 36=
 LB
> Schwinn Continental of course!
>
> My first bike was a Xmas gift when I was 13 or so in 1971; A Jacques Peny=
ay
> 10 speed with a 26x1-3/8 inch steel bolton wheels with a trendy lugless
> (butt welded) orange steel frame.
>
> I did a Club Century where I rode to the start and got lost during the ri=
de
> in company finishing with a very long 130 mile day. First ride over 35
> miles. With this confidence I mapped a route to my family farm 130 miles
> away.
>
> I had 12 DOT county maps for reference 36 x48 inch rolled into a three fo=
ot
> long tube strapped next to a floor pump strapped on my fabulous Pletcher
> rear rack. =A0I had almost no money for equipment and started on nearly w=
orn
> out tires and had lots of flats; patching the patches after I ran out of
> tubes. =A0Finally with the tube exposed through a worn tire section I loo=
sened
> the brakes and tied several rags I brought along to clean the motor oil f=
rom
> my hands that was liberally applied to protect "rustless" chain. It clear=
ed
> the frame, made the rear brake unusable and bucked like a bronco but it g=
ot
> me there.
>
> I started at 6:00 AM on a late December morning and arrived somewhat tired
> around a very dark 8:00 PM. =A0Never looked back from there.
>
> <<Message: 4
> Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 10:48:13 -0500
> From: Scott Loveless <[email protected]>
> Subject: your worst touring bike
>
> Hi Phreds!
>
> Just for the sake of conversation, what's the most ill-suited bike
> you've ever taken on a tour?
>
> Every once in a while I'll gaze upon my old Schwinn Continental (now
> my fixed gear machine) and think that I could easily turn it into a
> racked and bagged touring bike with just the parts I have laying
> around. =A0It's all just a mental exercise, since it hangs on a hook
> next to the LHT. =A0There are, of course, stories about folks riding the
> bikecentennial on a stock Varsity with a Pletscher rack, or men riding
> around the world on pennyfarthings or Raleigh DL-1 roadsters, etc. =A0So
> I was simply curious - what's the heaviest, clunkiest, non-touringest
> bike you've taken touring?
>
> --
> Scott Loveless
> http://www.twosixteen.com/fivetoedsloth/>>
>
> Yours in Cycling,
>
> Gilbert Anderson
>
> North Road Bicycle Imports
> PO Box 840
> 166 Court Square
> Yanceyville, NC 27379
> USA
>
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>
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>
>
>
>
>
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