Visiting Thorn - Thinking of a New Raven - Any tips

[GarminDave]

What a fantastic day we had at Woodrup and as for Vernon he's a star. Waiting with welcoming pies from Vernon the day just kept getting better. Weather perfect, nice canal side ride, drink in a great British boozer and excellent cycles. It is still too early to say if Bill has decided but at least, I think, he has decided on which rim tape to use! Big thanks to Woodrup and Vernon for an excellent Yorkshire welcome,

Later

Dave

 

[Iainj837]

I visited Thorn a @ the start of this week and I was amazed buy the size of the shop, the staff were very helpful.
If I had enough money I would certainly buy one of the bikes.
I was shown a Sherpa but was still over my £1000 limit.
The range was awesome

 

[jags]

i ride the sherpa its a great all round bike just couldn't fault it. but if i had the money after seeing my friends bike i would buy the raven sports tour stunner.

 

[Skipper9999]

Three weeks have passed since my visit to Thorn and many late night thoughts followed . Then a visit to Woodrup to finally try and sort out my dilemma .

I could not fault my visit to Thorn very friendly excellent advise , a great test ride. The bike (New Thorn Raven ) behaves well, comfortable absolutely no complaints. I thought the setup at Thorn was fantastic and felt comfortable if I had purchased the bike .

The only fault was me , I felt at 6'1" the bike looked small or was it the wheels ?? The choice of the frames is more limited .

Anyway I ended up at Leeds and a visit to Woodrup's a smaller setup and hand built frames made to order to exact size required , the test ride was helped by Vernon being on hand with his bike (and pies) which was a better fit for me and which he kindly let me use.

In the end I was happy with both shops , Woodrup's won the day on total personal build and my decision to go belt drive and 700c wheels .

I thank everyone who posted comments to my threads all helpful and set up a debate at times .

My Decisions that took the longest to sort in order :
Wheel size(700)
Belt/chain (belt)
Dynamo(yes)
Rear light (yes I think)
Tube 725 or 853 (725 yes for now , how would I know)
Tyres supreme/dureme (schwalbe supreme 35mm )

Some choices are easily changed later others not ....

Have I picked the right Frame size ? That was suddenly a difficult decision when you have a choice .

Oh and dear me I still have the colour to pick!?!?!? It was Orange up till 6pm and then I still like Vernons bike .

Now the bad bit .......the wait for delivery , I just hope Kevin ( frame builder) gets a few half shifts and the odd weekend in over the next couple of months :-)

I'm one of those people that take weeks to make up my mind then wants delivery the next day .. I'm not alone? Am I ??

 

[MacB]

Far from alone I took over 12 months for my first decision and the other choices, as you say are alterable. Belt can go to chain, tyres can be switched, dynamos can be swapped out. Even the rear light, a choice I made but possibly wouldn't bother with again, can be altered easily. I put two inline connectors on my rear light cable so I can disconnect near the front light and remove the front light and dynamo wheel to use on another bike. Also another connector where the cable meets the rack so that I can remove the rear rack and light without disturbing the cable setup on the frame.

I think you've made a fine choice and you can rehash your colours many times between now and paint time

 

[vernon]

Oh and dear me I still have the colour to pick!?!?!? It was Orange up till 6pm and then I still like Vernons bike .

I think you've made a fine choice and you can rehash your colours many times between now and paint time

I have both colours and my orange Dave Yates will become a green Dave Yates when I have the frame resprayed next year.

 

[P.H]

Congratulations on the choice, I think it's always worth the time and effort to get what you want rather than what anyone else thinks you should have.

Tube 725 or 853 (725 yes for now , how would I know)

That's one choice I would leave to the framebuilder, if you don't trust them to know the best material to build what you're asking for, then I wouldn't trust them to build it.
And a frame is for life, the colour isn't. My oldest frame is about to get it's third one, as soon as I can decide, though it won't be green.

 

[willem]

Reynolds 853 has a higher tensile strength, so can be used with thinner walls for greater comfort and a more lively feel. But it is also more expensive. I think 35 mm tyres are (too) narrow for a loaded tourer. So I would make sure that you have clearance for at least 42 mm tyres.
Willem

 

[e-rider]

Reynolds 853 has a higher tensile strength, so can be used with thinner walls for greater comfort and a more lively feel. But it is also more expensive. I think 35 mm tyres are (too) narrow for a loaded tourer. So I would make sure that you have clearance for at least 42 mm tyres.
Willem

that depends how loaded - a world tour, perhaps - LEJOG no way!

 

[MacB]

that depends how loaded - a world tour, perhaps - LEJOG no way!

I think Willem was as much referring to having the capacity as whether you use it or not. Get a 700c frame with clearances up to 700x42-45, the same as offerings from Surly/Salsa, and you will have more versatility just in case. I suppose it depends on whether the aesthetics of narrower tyres and bigger clearances bother you or not.

I toyed with the idea of giving my tourer clearances up to 700x60 but didn't like the appearance when I fitted 700x32s to my 29er as a test. It leaves some big gaps and makes mudguards trickier and, IMO, only really works if you're always going to run 50mm+ tyres.

I ended up designing the tourer up to a 700x42 but 700x40 comfortably with guards and designing in rack and touring potential for my 29er frame. So if I want to tour really rough then it would be the 29er and some rigid forks with lowrider mounts. It helps that geometry wise the tourer and 29er are extremely close.

 

[willem]

It was indeed about being able to fit wider tyres. However, for a tourer loaded with even a modest 15 kg of camping gear I do think 35 is too narrow for anything other than smooth tarmac. I have 700 c bikes with 32 mm OPasela's (my old commuter, and also an older road bike), 35 mm Pasela's (my cyclocross bike used as a fast tourer) and a 26 inch loaded tourer with the 42 mm 26x1.75 Pasela's and the related Compass 26x1.75. For the latter bike I also have 50 mm Marathon Extremes for off/gravel road tours. For my extended tours I really like the radically better comfort of the widest tyres. Moreover, if they are good quality like particularly the Compass 26x1.75, they can be very fast as well. So why not fit wider tyres for Lejog? On a lightly loaded 700 c bike I would fit the 37 mm Pasela without the Kevlar puncture protection. That tyre is a real 37 mm, and I would want to have the clearance.
Willem

 

[MacB]

Another consideration is that you can design around more than one set of forks. You still need to make sure that you have clearance on the frame itself but you could comfortably accommodate a 1 degree swing, for example:-

using 72/72 angles with a Surly Disc Trucker fork and axle to crown of 390mm and as high a BB as you're comfortable with

then you could switch to roadier tighter clearance forks with an axle to crown of 370mm which would change the angles to 73/73 and drop the BB lower

Hey presto sporty setup with one lot of forks and relaxed tourer with the other.

 

[Skipper9999]

I just thought I would post the dimensions of the new build to get some comments ....

60cm centre to top of seat lug
59.5cm top tube [virtual]
Head tube set at 21.5cm
280mm bracket height based on 700x35

I am 6'1" and have a long leg (36" the way Thorn measures you pelvic bone to floor. Or a 34" trouser .)

 

[willem]

How about crank length?

 

[Skipper9999]

175mm