My goal is to keep riding to work, even though I’m moving to a house twice as far from work. Expected commute time now 70 minutes rather than 45 minutes… less hills. Still, that will be 60 km per day.
and finish some restoration projects: such as a 1980 Raleigh Team for which i have a frame and fork only so far. Some serious chrome issues on that, unfortunately. Potentially a trip to Taiwan to get that re-plated?
I never really set any goals last year as I’m not too competitive. I did the Sun Moon Lake Tour de France event in November more out of curiosity than to race. But when I saw my Strava year-end summary – all 4 categories (number of days, total distance, total elevation gain and total hours of riding) were on the up (from 27% to 64% from previous year) – my goal now is to keep those categories in the positive territory in 2025.
I did 441km last year. Maybe again this year, but I gotta get back in shape a bit. Had a lazy Oct-Dec last year.
I’m liking the Enve Melee. However, tough convincing myself in getting rid of any one of my steeds at the moment. They’re great bikes, but the house doesn’t have room for n+1 right now…
Nearly bought a trucker last year for touring but went with a fairlight faran in the end. I do like a surly though, I’ll never sell my pacer, been all over the world with it.
Not on the outside… I think it may be all chrome, as that’s easier, and then painted on the outside, but has chrome exposed full fork (sloping crown), chain and seat stays about 60% exposed, and chrome head tube. Actually, I’m not sure about the headtube: it’s hanging in my spare room and I’m at work.
Also not sure about the year. Drilling around on Velospace and some other old Raleigh sites, it seems to be closer to a mid 80s Raleigh TI Team. that matches the decals (including the black/yellow Raleigh name on the seat tube, and the big yellow Raleigh with TEAM on the top tube), but not the chrome pattern. The Teams mostly were fully painted in red, but this one has a lot of chrome.
I was interested in the Surly Pacer rim brake because it was steel road bike. Smart to hold onto. What’s your lowest gear inch? E.G. my Volpe lowest gear inch is around 23”. Useful for hills. Do you know of any similar light touring bikes with cantilever brakes? Thanks in advance
The pacer has full blown race bike geometry, same as my caad10, so that was set up with a compact double. I never used if for proper touring, just used to stick it in my bike box to take on trips.
On my Faran touring bike I’m running 2x12 grx, so about 23 GI with 42 mm tyres. Not needed for commuting across London but will come in handy in Yorkshire this summer.
As for lightish steel, rim brake frames for touring. Off the top of my head, new, there stuff like the Velo Orange Rando, Brother Mr Wooden, Rivendell do some nice frames too. Second hand would give you lots more options though, I’d love a Raleigh Royale or Randonneur. Easy to find in the UK, but might be tricky in Taiwan.
If you’re in Taiwan it’ll likely be a challenge to locate a light steel bike w/cantis. I’ve seen a couple fuji touring, a khs touring, an old Giant touring, and Garneau LGS-CT pop up occasionally. These are older and not likely made with lightweight tubing.
If money is no object, I’d suggest a shop like Pinecone Works or Taipei Bike Works. Pinecone looks to have some Crust bikes rim-brake models in stock but frames are like 50,000twd and only in small size.