The Mad and the Bad

 

My bike is a 2005 Roberts Roughstuff, only bought recently and not yet toured on by me, though it did 5000 miles around New Zealand with the original owner. I was never that comfortable on my last bike, a Thorn Raven Tour and found it to be heavy and a bit slow. And the Rohloff gears, well, they just weren’t for me. Fine around the city, not so great for long tours, I felt. I knew I’d take a killing by selling that bike, but I was lucky enough to find the Roughstuff on CTC’s website here: http://forum.ctc.org.uk/ and to sell my Thorn on the same website. It’s way better than eBay in my opinion, as the buyers and sellers are far more informed about the bikes and there’s less rubbish posted. eBay has a lot of chancers on it in comparison.

 

I thought I would be lucky to find a decent old mountain bike and convert that, but it was hard to find one as the good oldies are rarely sold by owners who know what they’ve got and they seem to be used for commuting until they fall to bits. So my eyes popped out when I saw this bike on CTC’s For Sale board, the long head tube showing it clearly to be a large size, and coming fully equipped for expedition-type touring. The frame is hand-built from triple-butted Columbus Nivacrom (Cromoly) and Reynolds 725 for the stays. The welds are fillet-brazed: drop-dead gorgeous and strong too. Rear derailleur and cassette are Shimano XT with Stronglight chainrings and a Campy front derailleur and Campy shifters. It is a bit strange going back to having four controls to change gears when the Rohloff only needed one, but they are solid stuff and work very well with the Shimano derailleur thanks to some small Schnick-schnack (cover-all term borrowed from a German biker) on the end to help it shift gears. The bike has a Chris King headset. Friends tell me it’s the dog’s. I wouldn’t know! The bike, as shown in this photo, weighs 15kg.

 

It’s so complete I haven’t changed a thing except to add some pedals. A friend suggested some old Campagnolo bear-trap pedals he had last seen in the 1990s, and directed me to this website, http://www.campyoldy.co.uk/ which sells vintage but unused Campy stock. I paid a whacking great £60 for these works of art but they are drop-dead gorgeous (OK, I realise they are only pedals, but as pedals go…), look to be incredibly strong and they’re large size, which feel comfortable underneath my hiking boots when I choose to cycle in those. And they came with those nice screw-on plastic plates in case I tire of scraping my shins or want to ride in dress shoes.

 

I couldn’t have chosen much better than what’s already on the bike – Tubus racks fitted and painted by Roberts to match the frame. SKS mudguards I shall probably keep on the bike while on the road (most riders would use them for UK riding but not for dry countries; I may yet change my mind). A Brooks Champion Flyer saddle, which is supremely comfortable and first choice among many great Brooks saddles. The wheels are Mavic 618s, I know little about them but they seem fine and I shall wear them out before thinking of new rims, though I don’t think I’ll choose Mavic next time – I’ve read too many accounts of rim cracks on Mavics and have experienced them myself in the past on Mavs, though they are by far the most common rim out there. The bike rides on Conti Travel Contacts at the moment, they’re somewhere in mid-life. Since I’m starting my ride in Istanbul, I think a new pair of Schwalbe Marathon XRs will last the whole ride, so I’m inclined to buy a new pair and start with them plus one spare.

I shall keep those dropped handlebars for now – they are so comfortable and in the perfect position. After riding straight bars, drops don’t feel as stable or secure, especially as the brakes are further away and harder to pull. But these bars are incredibly comfortable, and for road riding, which is most of the riding any tourer will do, they are better. The dropped position is great for riding into the wind. But after this trip, I may change them to straights, and if I were building this bike again, I’m not sure I’d put drops on it.

What have I added to give my bike some extra character? Well almost nothing, it’s so nice as it is. But I wanted a powerful back light that would not come off easily and found this German B&M light just the job, and glued on this marvellous mud flap from India that a friend, Paul Woloshansky, sent me. I’d better not add too much or it will end up looking like a Christmas tree.