# LHT: Post-Tour Build Review



## Matt1986 (Mar 19, 2010)

Greetings all,

In April this year I set out from my hometown of Sydney, Australia to spend 3 months doing some self-supported cycle touring around Europe. I had never toured before, but had spent at least a year planning my bike build; starting with a bare LHT frameset I collected a combination of vintage and modern parts to piece together a bike that I considered both practical and aesthetically pleasing. Having successfully completed my trip some time ago now, this thread is intended to reflect on the build, offer advice for those with similar projects, and showcase the revised build of the bike.

*Initial Build:*










Looks might seem a rather unnecessary consideration when touring, but emulating the classic look of my father's early '80s Dawes Galaxy was a prominent design consideration. In a way, I wanted to cycle around the European countryside on a bike that would allow me to occasionally forget that it was 2012. 

The first step was to strip off the garish Surly decals, save the tubing sticker, which alone gives a nod to the frame's maker. This was easily done, as the decals are on top of the clearcoat and could be easily chipped away. After giving the frame's internals a generous coating of fish oil for rust prevention I then proceeded to build it up with my selection of components. 

In keeping with the vintage look (and my budget) I decided to use a lot of Velo Orange parts, including the headset, stem, post, cranks, bottom bracket, pedals, rear hub and brakes. This allowed me to use sealed bearings on every rotating part and keep a high-polish look throughout the bike. The rear hub had the additional practical benefit of tool-free disassembly. Additionally, the leather toe-straps on the VO pedals blended in well with the Brooks honey saddle and bar tape I was using. A Nitto Noodle completed the cockpit, and I de-anodised some old Shimano 600 brake levers to keep the silver theme consistent among the componentry. Some simplex retro-friction shifters handled the gears, whilst an odd-ball Suntour XC three-pulley derailleur (bought with a matching FD for all of $10) accommodated the 24x32 safety gear I would be running. Tubus stainless steel racks were used front and back, as were SKS chromoplastic fenders. Ortlieb panniers carried my gear. 

I splurged on a SON dynamo for the front hub (it and the rear were built onto 700c Mavic A719s with DT Swiss Alpine 3 spokes) - with the help of my electronically-handy father this was channelled into a box that amplified the voltage and stored the charge in a set of laptop batteries linked to a USB socket. This enabled me to charge my phone, which served as my navigation unit, while riding. 

*The Trip*

The trip itself was an experience that I won't be able to summarise in such a short space. I flew 24+ hours to Madrid airport in early April, assembled the bike in the airport and proceeded to pedal in a jet-lagged haze towards the city centre where my hostel was. The following week entailed some very cold temperatures, cramps, hills, rain and even snow. It was a bit of a rude start and had me questioning the sanity of my mode of holidaying, but shortly after I hit the Spanish coast and settled into a far more agreeable routine. My trip took me up and over the Pyrenees, along the Mediterranean and into France (including Mt Ventoux!) and then: Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and back down into France to finish up in Paris a few days before the tour rolled in. If you're interested in reading more about the trip, or the insights of a 25 year-old first-time tourer in foreign lands, I documented the whole experience on a TrackMyTour blog (although the site appears to be down at present): https://trackmytour.com/kZVgd

Gratuitous photos:

























Needless to say, the 6000km that I covered during this time gave some valuable feedback about the build.

I was very happy with the gears - the simplex shifters worked smoothly and were never a hassle to shift, even when under load on very steep hills. They needed tightening at a couple of points, but no more service than that. The ease of repairing them in the field was very reassuring.

The Suntour derailleurs handled the gearing fine, and the cranks themselves proved very reliable. I did have a couple of niggling drivetrain issues, however. Firstly, my BB spindle was a few mm short and resultantly did not allow a smooth shift into the small ring when riding under load, as even when set at the outer limit the FD did not carry quite far enough. I could engage the granny gear while on the flats, but it wasn't exactly ideal - a BB spacer has since corrected this issue. Secondly, while I found 8 gears ample for my needs, the ratio of the 11-32 cassette wasn't ideal. In particular, I noticed that I was rarely using the 11 or 12 sprockets, as I tended to coast whenever the opportunity presented itself. I have since broken apart two cassettes and customised a 13,14,15,17,19,21,25,28 cassette, which gives me a more useful range and will hopefully allow me to use my large-ring more often too. 

While I was a fan of most of the VeloOrange componentry, I did not get on with the MKII Canti Brakes I was using. I felt their stopping power was mediocre and adjusting them was a right pain - no less than 4 allen sizes and ratcheting spanner were required. Given that pads wear out pretty quickly in the mountains, the constant fiddling was more than I wanted. I have since bought some Tektro R559 long reach calipers and installed them instead. I had to drill out the brake bridge and reverse-mount the rear caliper to avoid interference with the rack, but it works like a charm - better stopping power, less fiddling.

The 42 x 700 Schwable Marathon Plus ATB tyres proved to be a bit overkill. While they did help with traction on the odd occasion where my GPS inadvertently directed me off-road (think MTB trails in Barcelona) this wasn't often enough to justify the added rolling resistance and rotational weight. I wore the rear down pretty heavily during the trip, so I have now replaced the pair with some regular Schwable Marathons in 35 x 700. If I ever do expedition touring I'll buy specific tyres for that purpose.

I've also replaced the default Ortlieb handlebar bag attachment with a generic 'klickfix' one, as the original had a stupid wire mounting system that prevented easily removing or reinstalling the bracket when packing the bike for flight. A new Wipperman 8 speed chain has also been installed to replace the rather worn one used on the trip - the Connex link was invaluable for chain maintenance. 

*Current Build*

My current build, with a good post-tour clean, can be seen below:


















































With toe-clips, down tube shifters and 700c wheels it doesn't exactly typify conventional touring wisdom, but I've found the bike very reliable and feel that it meets my vision for a classic yet practical tourer. Next trip: Japan?


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## logbiter (Sep 14, 2005)

Nice, love the classic look and attention to details! Have you got a blog/travelogue?
oh yeah, there's something to be said about brake pads with inserts or at least canti's that you can change without 4 hands! (;


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## B2 (Mar 12, 2002)

Very smart looking build. What kind of handlebar tape did you use? Would you happen to know what the bike weighs as pictured?


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## Matt1986 (Mar 19, 2010)

Thanks guys!

My full blog from the trip can be found here: http://trackmytour.com/kZVgd

The tape is Brooks (to match the saddle) and the build weight came in at roughly 15kg with the old brakes and tyres, I'm guessing about 14.5kg (32 pounds) with recent changes.


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## burgrat (Nov 18, 2005)

Nice pictures and blog Matt. I should be working, but living vicariously through you is much more fun!


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## KenS (Jan 28, 2004)

Matt:

A classy build and quite an adventure. I like the idea of the reverse rear brake mount and wonder what are the downsides.


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## MTBMaven (Dec 17, 2005)

Great looking build with simple and sensible parts selection. 

I am very curious about your SON hub, battery charging system. If you get a chance I think posting a wiring diagram and detailed description of the set up would be a valuable contribution to the community. There is little out there on DIY SON charging set ups.


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## Matt1986 (Mar 19, 2010)

KenS said:


> Matt:
> 
> A classy build and quite an adventure. I like the idea of the reverse rear brake mount and wonder what are the downsides.


Yeah, I was quite pleased with how neatly it fit in the end! No downsides as far as I can tell, provided you switch the brake pads over so that they are correctly forwards-facing. I consulted with Sheldon Brown's website before drilling out the bridge, and he seems to give it the green light.



MTBMaven said:


> I am very curious about your SON hub, battery charging system. If you get a chance I think posting a wiring diagram and detailed description of the set up would be a valuable contribution to the community. There is little out there on DIY SON charging set ups.


I've actually been thinking a lot about the same thing and have encouraged my dad to write up and describe the system, as he understands it far better than I do. It's quite a sophisticated setup, optimised to amplify the dynamo at quite a typical touring speed (20kph) and cutting out altogether when riding at speeds less than 10kph, to minimise drag when climbing. He noted that some of the other literature/notes on wiring such a setup was quite incomplete, so I'll push him to get his system documented for the benefit of others.


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