Curious minds would like to know the spoke count they decided on!

I went from riding stock wheels and breaking spokes on almost a daily basis, to overbuilding and buying a tandem wheel set (48 spokes) for my bent. Those wheels were almost as heavy as some bikes! I settled in the middle, with 36 spokes. That seems to be a happy spot for me.

I like your brake choice.

Noted that you went with the bottle opener. We will have to have a photo of you giving it a try!

Have they given you a delivery date?

I'm something of a believer in overbuilding. You may already have noticed. 😁

R+E hand builds their wheels and guarantees them for three years. They have my weight and my typical gear weight already, so I'm going to leave it to their experience to choose the spoke count.

Hi Keith
That is a nice looking bike.
If you specify a frame that accepts 622 wheels and fit 559 there will not be a problem if the supply of quality 559 tyres runs out in the future.
You could add six 559 tyres to your order now!
Number of spokes - our Thorn tandem with Rohloff runs 32 fore and aft.
We would be about 145 kg for credit card touring.
Your decision should be influenced by your own weight and whether you are going credit card or fully loaded for camping.

Cheers

Mike

Thanks Steve. I still miss Scout.

Thanks Mike.

I enjoyed reading these histories!

Wheels and tyres 101

406 sold as 20 inch
559 sold as 26 inch
584 sold as 650B or 27.5 inch
622 sold as 700C or 28 inch or 29.5 inch

However 406mm actually converts to just under 16 inches.
The metric measurement is the diameter of the rim measured from the base of the rim well while the 20 inches are the diameter of the wheel and tyre combined.

The 559 lost favour when the marketing people wanted to increase mountain bike sales so they convinced the MTB riders that the larger wheels were better than the 559 26 inch.
As Kelly has pointed out quality 559 rims and tyres are becoming more difficult to obtain in first world countries although Rodrigues advises that this size is still used in the third world but the quality may not be what you wanted.
559 was said to build a stronger wheel than 622.

584 – 650B seems to be the new alternative for smaller wheels wheels for touring but you are unlikely to find this size in the third world.

622 700C is the same diameter rim used for touring/road bikes and in a slightly wider format for the MTB twenty niner.

Tyres and tubes are usually designated as XX being the width in millimetres X the diameter as stated above eg 36 X 406, 50 X 559etc.

So knowing the correct designation of your tyre/tube will save you a lot of trouble when reordering.

Ah. I thought Kelly had said it was a Rohloff but I may have been mistaken.

I do know Leo had to abort a long tour when his Rohloff failed. But he got it fixed and as far as I recall has had no further problems with it.

"I would not tour on a derailleur bike."

And that's the beauty of it: you don't have to. I don't have to either, but I am likely to deliberately choose to.

Hi Keith

Jacinto had a lot of trouble with a Shimano IGH which he binned and got a Rohloff. I was not aware that he has had trouble with it.

OTOH Jean-Marc and Leigh Strydom have ridden thousands of miles on their Rohloffs.
I would not tour on a derailleur bike.

"You like lugs, Rivendell certainly does lugs!"

Yes they do! And really pretty ones at that.

You like lugs, Rivendell certainly does lugs! I've lusted after their lugs for years. Alas, no recumbent I know of has lugs. My butt says I must ride a recumbent . . .

the attraction to Habenero is titanium at a cheaper price. Jim outfitted the frames himself. I think that was a winter's entertainment, finding the parts and doing the work.

I had a Santana triplet, back when they were custom order. I rode it with the kids when they were small. It was a custom fade, wine, to pink, to silver. I have also fallen to the charms of a custom paint scheme.

Enjoy the process!

Hi Mike-

I'm hardly ever on the drops, but they're nice in a headwind, as you rightfully say. Even better they give me five separate and distinct places to put my hands (which I move about every ten to fifteen seconds, typically). Most often I'm on the bend (NOT the same thing as "being on a 'bender' ") or "around the corner" on the sides of the bars at the backs of the brake hoods.

Otherwise I'm on the tops of the brakes, the straight segments of the bars, or occasionally on the drops just for a bit of variety and to stretch my back (at the expense of my neck. Oh well nothing's perfect.)

Separating the shifters from the brake levers is, as I hope I made clear, about "separation of concerns" (a term borrowed from the software development industry) and simplification of the overall mechanism. I do like the STI shifters on my sport bike, but wouldn't / done want them on a touring rig.

Hi Kelly-

No, neither Hanabero not veloOrange nor Rivendell have really been given a hard look. I cruised VeloOrange's website and also Rivendell's in very very cursory fashion, failed to see anything that looked like what I was after, and moved on. What's special about Hanabero other than being Ti at a relatively affordable price?

Without the impediment and burden of actual knowledge ;) I'd be afraid that they would want to sell me what they have, not what I want.

The color scheme I have in mind is a dark green to dark silver or metallic gray fade, front to back. I had my upright tandem repainted many years ago in a similar color scheme and was very pleased with the look, so I'd be trying to get close to the same result with Future Bike. Handsome, but definitely not flashy. Rather like me, now that I think of it...

More heresy - apart from when changing gear using the bar end shifters how often do you actually ride in the drops ?
It gives you a more aerodynamic position when fighting a headwind but do you frequently get down there or do you just stay on the hoods and suck it up?
Flat bar does not have to mean a "sit up and beg" position and with a suitable stem length you can achieve the same position as on the hoods.
Of course drops do make you look like a serious rider!

Hi Mike-

I contemplated Rohloff, briefly, and also the 18 speed internal gearbox bottom bracket / crank that Co-Motion offer. There's a certain appeal to maintenance free, and to no more greasy chain marks on my calf. In the end neither one made the cut because they each take me back into the "sole source proprietary manufacturer" space.

I know Leo Woodland, whose experience and knowledge vastly exceed anything I'll ever accomplish, has one and loves it. But, I believe he had some problem with it and had to send it back to Germany for repair. Similarly, Jacinto Iniguez (? Kelly's husband, not sure if they share a surname. My apologies if I have it wrong.) had a failure on his a while back.

There's a none chance of getting it fixed while you wait.

I mentioned it to my bike shop owner friend and his comment was "Sewing machines have simpler mechanisms."