Touring bike build

[LycraLout]

Hi there,

This is my first post, so please be gentle. I would like to build myself a cheap(ish) tourer. I have a Ridgeback Flight in my shed which I bought in 2008. It never gets used now as I have got the cycling bug and graduated on to nicer road bikes. My plan is to buy a Surly Long Haul Trucker frame and strip the parts off the Ridgeback and put them onto the Surly. I realise that I'll need the Surly frame designed for 700c wheels.

The Ridgeback has a Sora triple chainset and Sora sprockets, it also has flat bars with STI thumbshifters. I would want to change the bars to new drop bars with appropriate STI shifters, probably also Sora.

Question one is could I use these gears with drop handlebars and STI shifters? Instinct tells me that what method you use to tighten or slacken the cables and change gear shouldn't be a problem, but I'd be interested to know the definitive answer.

Question 2 relates to the bottom bracket. I have removed and serviced the external bearing BBs on my road bikes without any problem, but the Ridgeback BB is not of the same type and it looks like it needs a special type of tool for removal. Could anyone tell me what type of BB a Surly LHT frame would typically use?

Thanks in advance, and if this should more appropriately be in the "Know how" section then please accept my apologies.

Andy

 

[lulubel]

Question one is could I use these gears with drop handlebars and STI shifters? Instinct tells me that what method you use to tighten or slacken the cables and change gear shouldn't be a problem, but I'd be interested to know the definitive answer.

Yes, in this case you can, because Sora is part of Shimano's road range. As long as the shifters and derailleurs all come from the road range, they will be compatible (but not always if you mix road and MTB components due to different amounts of cable pull).

What brakes do you have on the Ridgeback, and are you planning to use them on the LHT? You will need to make sure the cable pull on the new STI brake levers is compatible with your brakes, or you could end up with brakes that either don't stop you, or throw you over the bars at the slightest touch!

Question 2 relates to the bottom bracket. I have removed and serviced the external bearing BBs on my road bikes without any problem, but the Ridgeback BB is not of the same type and it looks like it needs a special type of tool for removal. Could anyone tell me what type of BB a Surly LHT frame would typically use?

Surly specify a 68mm English threaded BB for the LHT. As far as I'm aware, this is a standard road size BB, and you have a lot of options that will fit that frame. You'll need to find out what type of BB your chainset needs, which is where it gets more specific. The surest way to find out is to remove the chainset or left crank arm and have a look, then compare what you've got to pictures online. If you're not sure, take a photo of what you've got and post it on here, and people will be able to advise you.

(There are plenty of people in this section of the forum who love talking about touring bike builds, so posting here is fine, but if you start getting into really technical questions about brake compatibility and BB specs, you will probably find more people will see them if you post in Know How.)

 

[oldfatfool]

Keep the brakes and shifters and get butterfly bars for touring

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

I don't think you can keep the brakes. Not because of cable pull difference since calipers and cantis are supposed to use the same levers, but because of reach. The LHT has significant tyre+mudguard clearance, so has bosses for cantis.

Another difference is rear hub. The LHT like most serious tourers are designed for mtb rear hubs of 135mm spacing. The Flight has Shimano R500 it seems, which has a 130mm road rear hub. Fortunately those hubs are standard Shimano threaded cup and cone, so a lazy kludge is just adding a 2.5mm M10 1mm thread nut/spacer on each side (violating frame to sprocket distance standards, but is probably ok). The perfectionist would get a 146mm axle, spacers and redish the wheel.

There is a potential issue with front mech cable pull. I hear it is supposed to be sora on the Flight, but I have a funny feeling flat bar front shifter with road cable pull did not exist in 2008, but I might be wrong. It is easy to check. If each click pulls around 13mm of cable rather than 19mm, then the mech is fine with sti.

There might be other issues, but the 2008 Flight is 8 speed? I think sora 8 speed sti have been obsolete for a while. If you want to stick with 8 speed, then Campag 10 speed sti pulls nearly exactly the same cable at the rear, but you might need to change the front shifter. Or go Shimano 2300.

The Flight bb is likely to be a standard Shimano UNxx cartridge bb, but whatever it is, it is likely it would go on the LHT. There might be minor design difference for chainline between the frames, but shouldn't bother you if you are able to bring across compatible front mech and chainset/bb. I suspect front mech clamp size (28.6mm), pull (bottom), and seat post/clamp diameters (27.2/30mm) are probably the same. You are likely to need a longer chain since the LHT probably has a longer wheelbase.

Component transfers are seldom entirely straightforward. It does make you wonder whether it is worth it sometimes.

 

[lulubel]

There might be other issues, but the 2008 Flight is 8 speed? I think sora 8 speed sti have been obsolete for a while. If you want to stick with 8 speed, then Campag 10 speed sti pulls nearly exactly the same cable at the rear, but you might need to change the front shifter. Or go Shimano 2300.

There are still several eBay sellers stocking 8-sp Sora STI levers.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

There are still several eBay sellers stocking 8-sp Sora STI levers.

I thought they might, so I checked, but couldn't find anybody locally or internationally selling a new pair on the bay. Some were selling the right one, some were selling 2300 as sora, someone abroad is selling a left one...

 

[Dave Davenport]

Bar end shifters are the way to go for drop bar tourers IMO.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Bar end shifters are the way to go for drop bar tourers IMO.

An excellent point that Dave, if the rider is not too wedded to brifters. It will also open up the interesting possibility of using V brakes on the canti bosses, since you can get drop bar brake levers for Vs.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Trekking bars are nice, I use them on a converted non-compact hybrid I use as my heavy tourer and winter bike.

That being said, my nicer Tourer has bar end shifters and drop bars, because I can cover longer distances on drop bars, easier on my back, others will disagree, and adopt the upright position for better traffic viewing and other reasons.

 

[lulubel]

I thought they might, so I checked, but couldn't find anybody locally or internationally selling a new pair on the bay. Some were selling the right one, some were selling 2300 as sora, someone abroad is selling a left one...

I guess I live "abroad" so I tend not to think about these things.