The Bike

The bike I used was the Thorn Raven Tour with the infamous Rohloff hub. There’s plenty of written material on the web about RT’s and Rohloffs, so I won’t bore you with repeating the same old blurb. Let just say that I picked it because it required minimal maintenance, has a wide range of evenly spaced gears, can be coated in mud, and because I knew Thorn had a reputation for producing sturdy touring bikes that handle well – even fully loaded with everything except the kitchen sink.

In the beginning, I was tempted to ship it back to Somerset, but after approximately 800Km I grew fond of it. Suddenly the Rohloff hub felt smooth (up to this point it made the bike feel as though I was experiencing brake-rub or riding with the dynamo switched on). Two-thousand Kilometers later I changed the oil and, well… everything felt much smoother and closer to the old Shimano XT hub I ran on the Nomad.

The Thorn Raven Tour is a great all round bike. I mainly use it to cycle around London, but often find myself cycling through muddy bridleways in the Surrey Hills.

Some people consider it to be over-built for this trip, but at least I had peace of mind when I the going gets tough, and besides, it’s not a race… the relaxed upright riding position will allow me to admire the view!

Specification:
Brakes/levers: Shimano Deore M530 V Brake.
Brake pads: Kool Stop Standard Compound
Rims: Sun Ringle CR18.
Spokes: Sapim Double butted.
Tires: Schwalbe Marathons 26×1.75″(*)
Tubes: Continental.
Saddle: Brooks Conquest(*)
Front Rack: Thorn Mid-loader made from Reynolds 531.
Rear Rack: Thorn Standard made from Reynolds 531.
Front Hub: Shimano XT HB-M760
Chain: KMC X8-99
Handlebars: Thorn MK2 Comfort Handlebars
Headset: FSA Orbit XL II
Seatpost: ?
Chainset: Thorn with reversible 7075T6/38T chainring.
Pedals: Shimano PD-M520
Mudguards: SKS
2 Specialized bottle cages

(*)Extra notes:
I have been using a Brooks Conquest saddle since 2003 and so it has seen many thousands of miles. It’s a bit like Marmite (as we’d say in the UK): “you either love it, or hate it.” At the moment it is perfect. The leather hide stops you from being sweaty and the springs give added comfort. The only negative points that I can think of is that it is very heavy, requires extra care, and (if you refrain from DIY with a hammer) the copper rivets can stick into your derrière!

The Schwalbe Marathon tires have proven to be hard wearing and fairly puncture resistant in past tours, so I stuck with them for this trip (even though they have seen the JOGLE, a tour of Spain, Scotland and France!). At the beginning I switched them round and towards the end a bulge and bald patch appeared on one of them, but I managed to get to the end without purchasing a new set – not bad for a tire with nearly 20,000Km on them!

I packed the necessary spares, see The Equipment page for further details.

To view the first post, click here.