new touring bike advice please

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Petrichorwheels

Senior Member
Perhaps a livelier frame that is more responsive/satisfying unloaded in a quality (531-ish) touring bike would defy the laws of physics and is fundamentally unattainable. If so, I might be wasting my time building up the Hewitt Cheviot frame that I own.
I have a Hewitt Cheviot (if that's the one with silvered drop=outs) and find it really nice as a responsive day bike. I bought it to use as a long distance heavily loaded tourer. Have never actually got round to using it for that but I now suspect that it wouldn't actually be as good for that as some of my self-builds from old cheap frames. (well cheap second-hand - old 90s steel)
 

Petrichorwheels

Senior Member
I've also converted a canti bike to V brakes.

Just a reminder that you will either need mini Vs or new brake levers.

good advice though there is a shimano lever that will work with both with just a switch adjustment. I forget its spec/model name. Reason I know this is Mr Hewitt - with foresight perhaps - fitted these on my Hewitt.
 

T4tomo

Guru
can you or @brian_k tell me more?
I have a Hewitt with cantis - if I'd known what I know now I would have specified Vs (along with square taper for that matter) when I bought it new from Hewitts. I get terrible judder on the front when flying down the likes of Pendle and am trying to isolate the reason.
I know some folks say that issues with Cantis are just due to ignorance and poor set-up but I have had this issue, plus poor braking in extremis, since buying the bike from Hewitt. And the guidance/remedies for folks on cantis always drag back unfortunate memories of winter afternoon O level physics and maths/trig lessons - Vs just work.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?mode=search

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one of these - you might need a longer non recessed bolt depending on your fork drillings, mine was on a alu framed cyclocross bike and the rear drilling wasn't wide enough for the nut, but that was easily fixed with longer nut and bolt off ebay once I'd measured up.

I was starting from scratch as someone had fitted flat bars and mini V's to it, so I bought some decent modern Shimano CX50 Canti's as V brakes dont work with drop bar brake levers. You can just about get mini V's to work but the tolerances are very tight.

Simply replace the headseat hanger with this and your judders go away. I (or my OH as its her bike) finds the braking on the canti's better than V brakes.

It sounds like you have decent / new canti brake calipers so I think this should be a very simple fix for you. some old cantis weren't great or were a pain to set up properly. Maybe swap out the basic blocks for some koolstops though.

Sheldon brown has a good set up guide if struggling to get the properly balanced.
 
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brian_k

Regular
Road brifters and cantis on two of my bikes, plenty power. Even with the frowned-upon Oryx. I came back off a tour with BB7 disc brakes disappointed with braking partially caused by using standard brake outer cable, then I jumped onto a Dawes Galaxy with Oryx cantis and they were so much better, I'm sure that I could go over the top with those if I really tried but still with feel and modulation.
In other words, discs aren't the only option by any means.
 
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Sallar55

Veteran
A gravel or mtb with rigid forks, just for the fatter tyres. If my Cannondale touring bike ( 26 version) dies first choice would be a Santos tourer. Traditional touring bikes are not very good if travelling over mixed surfaces. Another option is picking up a nice 650b french touring bike, they were the original gravel bikes. If you are lucky it will have custom steel tube racks.
 

brian_k

Regular
A gravel or mtb with rigid forks, just for the fatter tyres. If my Cannondale touring bike ( 26 version) dies first choice would be a Santos tourer. Traditional touring bikes are not very good if travelling over mixed surfaces. Another option is picking up a nice 650b french touring bike, they were the original gravel bikes. If you are lucky it will have custom steel tube racks.

Do you have a brand/model for such a French 650b bike? I'd like to check that out.
 

Sallar55

Veteran
https://www.lafraisecycles.com/cdm2021bikepacking
You could try EBay fr for 650b 2nd hand randonneur bikes, link is for custom builds. This is just one example, 650b is old hat in France. Everything goes round in circles in the cycling world, just like the compact chainset. TA, you can have any size of chainring to suit touring or racing. Today it's buy a chainset with few choices of rings.
 
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