The Bike

March 27, 2024

ALERT: Technical stuff & Jargon

Skip this page if you aren’t interested in bike trivia including numerous indecipherable abbreviations and meaningless numbers.

I bought this bike specifically for loaded cycle touring. It was designed and assembled by St John St Cyclery in Bridgwater Somerset England with parts from a few different countries.

The heart of the bike, the steel frame is Taiwanese.

I bought the bike home to Australia as hand luggage from England in 2009, and have since used it for a few longish tours including Canberra to Perth; Canberra to Sydney; Canberra to Adelaide; Canberra to Melbourne; The Gibb River Rd in The Kimberley and a few local tours.
So far so good.
The Thorn Sherpa has been pretty much faultless. And it’s a joy to ride loaded.

The specs:

THORN SHERPA

Frame: Thorn 969, heat-treated, Cro-Mo double butted seamless cold-drawn conical tubes, frame-size 560S

Fork: Reynolds 531ST threadless

Saddle: Brooks B17

Racks: Tubus frontloader; Tubus Ti Airey rear

Pedals: Shimano single sided SPDs

Wheels: 26" Swiss DT 32 hole rims

Derailleurs: Deore XT

Hubs: Rear Hope Front Durace

Brakes: Shimano XTR M970 V-brakes Swiss-stop black pads Cane Creek V-brake levers

Shifters: Dura Ace SL-BS77 bar-end

Crankset: Shimano Deore XT FC-M770 Hollowtech triple chainset 175mm

Tyres: Marathon Supreme 1.6" tyres

Gearing: Front 22/32/44 rear 11-34 Shimano HG80 9 speed cassette.

Chain: Shimano Deore HG93 114 links 9-speed.

Bars: Shimano PRO drops;

Stem: Shimano PRO LT 1-11/8 reversible 110m

Weights:

Unladen the bike is 12.9kg including accessories and various attachments e.g. racks, lights, bottles (empty) before the loaded panniers and bags are attached.

Bike plus Me = 111 kg

Bike loaded but without food & water = 30.4 kg

Bike loaded with food & water & miscellaneous extra stuff at departure = 34.5 kg.

Naked bike = 12.9 kg

So there’s approximately 18 kg of stuff loaded on the bike, excluding water & food.

30.4 kg without food & water. 34.5 kg with some food & water at departure.

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