stealth6
insert witty tagline here
This has been a dream for a long, long time, and many years in the making. I present to you my (finally completed!) ultimate touring bike.
Bit of background….I’m a lifelong cyclist, with long distance unsupported touring as my main passion. I do lots of other types of riding…road/mountain/gravel/commuting/etc. ……but if I had to choose just one, it would be loaded touring. Some of my longer tours have included 3 months all over New Zealand, up and down the Baja peninsula, Canada to Mexico along the Great Divide, etc. I tour on paved roads, gravel (or “metal” as they say in EnZed) roads, singletrack, and “other”. I’ve owned/ridden custom-built bikes in the past, but I’ve been dreaming of “the perfect bike” for a very long time…all along tweaking details in my mind, and honing in on exactly what I wanted. And for the past couple of years I’ve been actively working toward that goal. And now it’s “done”, the journey of building that bike has been completed, and I’m VERY much looking forward to doing some actual bike-tour journeys with it.
Note that in these modern days, “bikepacking” has become something of a thing. This bike is more along the lines of traditional “bike touring”, as opposed to “bikepacking”. My approach and style are something of a crossover of the two, but optimized more towards the touring side.
s6
Bit of background….I’m a lifelong cyclist, with long distance unsupported touring as my main passion. I do lots of other types of riding…road/mountain/gravel/commuting/etc. ……but if I had to choose just one, it would be loaded touring. Some of my longer tours have included 3 months all over New Zealand, up and down the Baja peninsula, Canada to Mexico along the Great Divide, etc. I tour on paved roads, gravel (or “metal” as they say in EnZed) roads, singletrack, and “other”. I’ve owned/ridden custom-built bikes in the past, but I’ve been dreaming of “the perfect bike” for a very long time…all along tweaking details in my mind, and honing in on exactly what I wanted. And for the past couple of years I’ve been actively working toward that goal. And now it’s “done”, the journey of building that bike has been completed, and I’m VERY much looking forward to doing some actual bike-tour journeys with it.
Note that in these modern days, “bikepacking” has become something of a thing. This bike is more along the lines of traditional “bike touring”, as opposed to “bikepacking”. My approach and style are something of a crossover of the two, but optimized more towards the touring side.
- It starts with the frame. I designed and commissioned a titanium frame with every tiny detail exactly what I wanted….geometry of course with an absolutely dialed in fit, but also tubing specs, strength/compliance considerations, cable routing, braze-ons and mounts, space/clearance for tires and gear, compatibility with other components, etc. A LOT of time and thought was put into the design of this. I was going to have a fork custom built as well, but I found that the Surly Bridge Club fork was pretty much exactly what I would have designed myself, they are well made, and relatively inexpensive (compared to custom-built) so I went with one of those.
- I’m using Redshift ShockStop suspension post and stem. Well made, clean design, and makes long days in the saddle (on sometimes very rough terrain) a lot more comfy. I’ve used both of these on my gravel bike and really like them.
- Bar and saddle….using my trusty Salsa Cowchipper bars, which I’m a huge fan of. Been riding one for many years already. I’ve been using Brooks saddles (Swift and B17) for decades and love them. For this bike I’m going with their C17 Cambium, which I’ve again been using on my gravel bike for a while and liking.
- Wheelset. I built up (yes, I hand build my own wheels) a truly bombproof wheelset. DT Swiss 540 tandem hubs, Alpine III spokes (36h), and Ryde Sputnik rims. They are heavy as all get-up, but as indestructible as can be, which is pretty much necessary for loaded touring (in sometimes rough conditions in very remote places). Paired with my favourite gravel/touring tire, Clement/Donnely’s X’Plor MSO in 50x700c. And yes I still use tubes (I kinda hate tubeless).
- Phil Wood bottom bracket, and Cook Brothers E-cranks. Pretty old-school, but exactly what I want. The Phil bb allows me to dial in a perfect chainline (which is important if you are running an equally old-school triple chainring, which I am). Been riding and abusing Cooks cranks for well over 30 years, and they’ve never let me down….so sticking with it. Oh, and these are all (again, old-school) square taper. Also using Syncros Crank-O-Matics for easy servicing in the field and remote places
- Drivetrain…..yeah this is where things get real interesting, and probably downright weird to some folks, ‘specially the young-uns. First off, I’m going with 9-speed…..reliable, versatile, simple, and just plain works…especially for my needs. Second, I’m going with a triple chainring, for much the same reasons. Third I’m going with thumbshifters. WHAT?, you say? On drop bars? Here’s the thing…I LOVE thumbshifters, and have never abandoned them through all the years, since before indexed shifting even became a thing. They are super reliable, work great, are simple and easy to use and take care of, and ergonomically for me they just make sense. AND they can be easily switched to friction mode in the case of damage or problems in the field (remember, a lot of the time I’m not just on a day ride and can just take my bike to the shop before my next ride). In fact the front is always in friction mode (which means that I can micro-trim the position at any moment due to chain rub….which is super annoying that you can’t do with indexed front shifters). Thankfully (for me!) in this modern age, MicroShift actually makes thumbshifters patterned after my old favourite Suntour XCPros in 9 speed!. (they actually make 10/11/12 speed too). The only real problem is that you can’t really use them (as is) on drop bars……..so I custom made my own (hinged clamp) mounts. Yes, I know that Paul Eng. makes ones that could work, and I’ve used them on other bikes, but I like the Suntour-style ones so much better ergonomically.
Lastly, my gearing range is huge. Super low gears (for climbing steep/rough terrain on a fully loaded bike), and plenty big enough gears for cruising on smooth flats, with plenty of useful steps in between. For you bike nerds out there, the numbers look like this……my low (using 20 x 36) is 16.32 gear inches, and my high (using 42 x 11) is 104.16. That’s a 612% spread…..try that with your 1x mullet rigs, kiddos.
- Brakes…..mechanical discs. Don’t ever want to deal with hydraulics (maintenance, repairs, etc.) when I’m “out there”, and mech. discs work fantastically well, are very reliable, and simple to maintain.
- Cages…..again with the old school. I’ve been using the same old WTB “bomber” cages since the early nineties. These allow me to use pretty much any 1.5 litre water bottle available at any convenience store…..which are great bottles, cheap, and nice and big.
- Racks and bags……can’t go wrong with my trusty (and again, very old-school) Tubus racks and Ortlieb bags. Simply the best, most reliable, most versatile touring racks/bags available, as they have been for decades. My racks are also multi-position, allowing me to put the bags where they make the most sense for the conditions (low for cruising paved roads, higher up for clearance on tight singletrack, etc.)
- Pedals….this is something of a new departure for me. I’ve always used clipless pedals on all my bikes, including touring. But for touring they present a bit of an issue. See, proper shoes for clipless pedals need to have pretty stiff soles. Which makes them awful to walk/hike in. And when I tour I also do a fair bit of walking/hiking (town days, days off the bike, side excursions, etc.). There ARE lots of “bike touring” and/or “dual purpose” bike shoes made out there that in theory are good for cycling and walking……the problem is that they just aren’t. They all, in fact, suck. It’s one of the those “best of both worlds” situations that are in reality the worst of both worlds…..they aren’t good for cycling OR walking. In the past I’ve done some custom tweaking to try and make something that was good for both, but pretty much failed every time. And so I’ve mostly ended up bringing two pair of shoes…one for on the bike, and one for off. But I hate doing that and never was happy with that either.
So this time I’m going with a new plan. I’m going to use my regular hiking/trekking/everyday shoes, but I’m pairing them with these new Catalyst pedals from Pedaling Innovations. The main thing about them is that the platform is huge….kinda ridiculously so. But the idea is that they pretty much support the whole shoe, so flexibility in the (hiking) shoe is not a problem. I’ve been experimenting with them on my gravel bike, and so far I kinda like them.
- Flickstand. Been out of production for decades, but have been a “must have’ item for all my tours over the years. If you don’t know them, they are a little down-tube mounted bracket that has a wire bail that you can flick down and “lock” against your front tire. This keeps the wheel from rolling AND the fork from turning………which makes your bike a rigid structure that you can easily and safely lean against pretty much anything, without it wanting to twist, roll, and fall over. WAY better than any sort of kickstand, leaning pole, wheel/brake strap, or any other such solution, AND it’s small, light, quick, and easy.
The problem is that they have been, as mentioned, out of production and unavailable for many years, and they were never really made to fit the tubing size I have on this bike. So, I needed to be do fair amount of tweaking, fabrication, and customization to make it work. But very much worth it for me (like I said, it’s a “must have”).
s6
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